Mirosław Szymkowiak

Mirosław Szymkowiak

Personal information
Full name	Mirosław Szymkowiak
Date of birth	12 November 1976
Place of birth	Poznań, Poland
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 ^1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Playmaker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1993–1994	Olimpia Poznań	44	(5)
1995–2000	Widzew Łódź	132	(11)
2001–2004	Wisła Kraków	91	(13)
2005–2006	Trabzonspor	55	(14)
National team
1997–2006	Poland	33	(3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Mirosław Szymkowiak (Polish pronunciation: [miˈrɔswaf ʂɨmˈkɔvʲak]) (born 12 November 1976 in Poznań, Poland) is a retired Polish footballer, who played last for Turkish club Trabzonspor. Szymkowiak is also a former member of the Poland national football team.

He first started playing at Olimpia Poznań, where he played from 1992 until 1994, when he joined Widzew Łódź. He remained there for five and a half years, when he left to join Wisła Kraków in the middle of the 2000–01 season. He helped them to win the championship in his first season, and to two further championships in 2003 and 2004. In January 2005, he joined the Turkish club Trabzonspor.

He has been extremely impressive in his time for Trabzonspor, displaying a level of passion that is not expected from new arrivals in a foreign country. In his first six months at Trabzonspor he scored nine goals in fifteen starts, and integrated himself into the team so well that by the end of the season he was already regarded as a successful signing.

His qualities lie in his wide ranging abilities that enable him to not only operate in a defensive capacity, but to run the play through midfield and to join in the attacking too. He displays an extremely capable passing game but has recently developed into an extremely efficient finisher too.

Szymkowiak finished his career due to health reasons. In an interview for a polish portal he said: "I'm just turning 31, and already I've gone through 8 surgeries! I've got 4 screws in both my knees, one in my ankle. They (doctors) removed one I had in the shoulder, but I also have two titanium nets in my groins. I feel older than my dad, and in a couple of years time I'd like to walk like a normal person."^[1] Later, in an interview for Polish newspaper "Super Express", he stated that his withdrawal was mainly attributed to his drug use: he used rofecoxib for his pain problems (related to his injuries), but it was found to cause serious blood and bone marrow problems, resulting in lowering his performance and stamina.

As well as playing for Trabzonspor, Szymkowiak has appeared 31 times and scored three goals for Poland. He was selected to the 23-men squad that competed at the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany. A lot of fans from different clubs likes him because he was not arrogant.

He has recently announced that he retired from football.^[2]

Szymkowiak is working now as a pitch reporter for Canal+ Poland. His debut as a reporter was an Ekstraklasa game between GKS Bełchatów and Zagłębie Lubin on 5 April 2007.^[3] He also owns two beauty salons in Kraków.

Goals for senior national team

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	2 April 2003	Miejski Stadion Sportowy "KSZO", Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Poland	San Marino	1–0	5–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
2.	6 September 2003	Skonto Stadium, Riga, Latvia	Latvia	0–1	0–2	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
3.	17 August 2005	Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine	Israel	1–0	3–2	International Friendly

References

1. "Szymkowiak: Czuję się inwalidą" (in Polish). sport.pl. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927213630/http://www.ntvspor.net/pages/6456.asp. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. "Szymkowiak zadebiutował w nowej roli" (in Polish). sport.interia.pl. Retrieved 18 May 2013.