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Polish players

Davy

get off yer bum an sing radge
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A workmates of the same country asked me iff Hibs had ever signed any player from Poland. I cant think of any, so have we?
 
Aye. Was zibbi not polish?
 
Zibi, Szamatolski, Dabrowski.... all goalkeepers for some reason.
 
Zibi, Szamatolski, Dabrowski.... all goalkeepers for some reason.
well apart from the first one
 
Pole Hanlon.
 
Zibi, Szamatolski, Dabrowski.... all goalkeepers for some reason.
I liked Szamatolski, the mad monk as the Dundee United fans called him. Solid keeper.
 
I liked Szamatolski, the mad monk as the Dundee United fans called him. Solid keeper.

I did too. He reminded me of Jim Leighton, great shot stopper but every kick went for a throw in.
 
Was Robert Lewendowskis grandad not our chairman?
 
I did too. He reminded me of Jim Leighton, great shot stopper but every kick went for a throw in.
Yeah I think he'd been playing through injury. I'm sure Rob Jones was taking his goal kicks at one point. Would like to have seen him stay longer.
 
There was a Polish internationalist who played during the war years around 1943 presumably as he was stationed in Edinburgh.

I once heard the story from an old school teacher who was stationed here and stayed on afterwards.

A bit of research indicates the players name was Jan Wasiewich and he was a midfielder, highly decorated, won around 10 Polish caps and died in Buenos Aries, Argentina.

So there you go. Interesting man.✅
 
There was a Polish internationalist who played during the war years around 1943 presumably as he was stationed in Edinburgh.

I once heard the story from an old school teacher who was stationed here and stayed on afterwards.

A bit of research indicates the players name was Jan Wasiewich and he was a midfielder, highly decorated, won around 10 Polish caps and died in Buenos Aries, Argentina.

So there you go. Interesting man.✅
I’ve researched the war years and never came across that name. It’s possible he played under an assumed name.

fascinating if true
 
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He crops up on a few other web sites as well though never with any details.

The old Polish teacher I mentioned had said it was one of his army mates and a whole group of them had went down to Easter Road to watch him play.

He was a bit of a slaverer and used to come out with some real crackers mostly about hating Russians and Commies so who knows if that bit is true.?

The guy seemingly was in the World Cup squad of 1938 but doesn't seem to have played any games.✅??

That's quite interesting in itself as I know WW2 football isnt usually included in stats but if they were would this not make him the first ever Hibs (ex) player to be part of a World Cup Squad.?
 
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Well Sam's story put the sheen back on this thread.
 

He would have been stationed in or around Edinburgh when he played for us. My mates dad would have been his commanding officer. Would he have played with Matt Busby I wonder.
 

He would have been stationed in or around Edinburgh when he played for us. My mates dad would have been his commanding officer. Would he have played with Matt Busby I wonder.

That would be a pretty good story if so.
 
That would be a pretty good story if so.

The reason I remember the conversation with the teacher is that the guy was a bit mental (obviously war related) and would just rant and rave about the evils of Communism with the Russians almost off the scale which was of course very understandable if your were Polish post 1945.

O-level Modern Studies just became a ranting mess when this teacher took the class but then around 1974 he suddenly decided the class were going to do a project on the 1974 World Cup in Germany as it was very topical and you had the West Germany v East Germany cold war 'fixed' match in the group stages.

Scotland ??????? had just qualified for the first time in 16 years and Poland ?? had a quite brilliant team who had knocked out England ??????? and were eventually to beat Brazil to finish 3rd. ✅

Suddenly the class was energized and we began to look at this teacher in a very different light and he no longer looked at us as a bunch of wee radges.?

I would imagine the jist of the story is true and that a quality Polish player (hopefully this one) may well have guested for Hibs in a few bounce games or possibly the odd organized fixture as that was so common in these war years.✅
 
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He wanted tae sign for the gunts, but couldnae as they didnae have a team then, as they were too busy for fitba because they routing jerry at the time. Lest we forget.
 
The reason I remember the conversation with the teacher is that the guy was a bit mental (obviously war related) and would just rant and rave about the evils of Communism with the Russians almost off the scale which was of course very understandable in your were Polish post 1945.

O-level Modern Studies just became a ranting mess when this teacher took the class but then around 1974 he suddenly decided the class were going to do a project on the 1974 World Cup in Germany as it was very topical and you had the West Germany v East Germany cold war 'fixed' match in the group stages.

Scotland ??????? had just qualified for the first time in 16 years and Poland ?? had a quite brilliant team who had knocked out England ??????? and were eventually to beat Brazil to finish 3rd. ✅

Suddenly the class was energized and we began to look at this teacher in a very different light and he no longer looked at us as a bunch of wee radges.?

I would imagine the jist of the story is true and that a quality Polish player (hopefully this one) may well have guested for Hibs in a few bounce games or possibly the odd organized fixture as that was so common in these war years.✅

I like the sound of your teacher. Good c***.
 
The reason I remember the conversation with the teacher is that the guy was a bit mental (obviously war related) and would just rant and rave about the evils of Communism with the Russians almost off the scale which was of course very understandable if your were Polish post 1945.

I can relate to it, my Uncle was Ukranian, and fought for the Axis, he despised the Russians.
 
This is a bit of a mystery.

Team lines for all competitive games are in ihibs right through the war. There were a few trialists who played a single game so he is maybe in amongst that. I researched that period myself as there was generally no prior interest in doing it apart from Brian Marks who did summary information. I took the view that as football continued as normal, the football was as relevant despite being "unofficial". I wonder if anything is mentioned in Lugton 3, that reminds me I've a wish list project to scan all my hibs books for easy access.

There is no record of him being registered to any team in Scotland during the war as a signed player or with consent as a guest from his parent club.
 
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There is another site that extends on his career just a little bit though not likely to be of much help.

I have no idea who maintains these sites and their sources but suspect they all just copy from one another.

My guess is that some very decent Polish player played in an unrecognised bounce game at Easter Road as my old teacher thought and him and his mates did indeed go to watch.✅

Whether it was a reasonably well known Polish Internationalist who had went to the 1938 World Cup is a whole different matter as you would have thought that would be very well documented though it doesn't explain why his name crops up on various sites.??

Another theory would be that the story grew arms and legs as the Polish internationalist didn't actually play FOR Hibs but AGAINST Hibs as there is many documented and undocumented games between Hibs and Army select teams all throughout the war and well into the 1950's.

Sad that this generation has mostly passed as it would have been a mystery all so easily solved over a conversation.?
 
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I can relate to it, my Uncle was Ukranian, and fought for the Axis, he despised the Russians.

thread hijack

As was my grandad... after escaping the russians (who were carting him off to fight for the motherland), he was captured by jerry (who carted him off to the Fatherland :gigglle:) where he was used for slave labour till the yanks finally got off their fat arse and liberated him... where he joined the thousands of ukrainians in the north of italy (who couldnt go home as Papa Joe had a bullet ready for everyone of them).. The vast majority of them managed to get to Canada or south america, but he couldnae get on them boats, and ended up in a POW camp.... in Dalkeith :gigglle::sm003:

(by the way, there is very big potential that your Unc was a radge during the war M... have you researched Ukrainians who fought with Uncle Adolph?...ooft)
 
There is no record of him being registered to any team in Scotland during the war as a signed player or with consent as a guest from his parent club.
To be fair if his parent club was behind enemy lines getting consent might be an issue! ?
 
As was my grandad... after escaping the russians (who were carting him off to fight for the motherland), he was captured by jerry (who carted him off to the Fatherland :gigglle:) where he was used for slave labour till the yanks finally got off their fat arse and liberated him... where he joined the thousands of ukrainians in the north of italy (who couldnt go home as Papa Joe had a bullet ready for everyone of them).. The vast majority of them managed to get to Canada or south america, but he couldnae get on them boats, and ended up in a POW camp.... in Dalkeith :gigglle::sm003:

(by the way, there is very big potential that your Unc was a radge during the war M... have you researched Ukrainians who fought with Uncle Adolph?...ooft)

Your grandads story is very much like my great uncles, although he went from Northern Italy to Tranent! The quietest, hard working, religious man you could ever meet. He was no Nazi but hated the Russians as he came from near Lviv in Catholic Western Ukrania.
 
Your grandads story is very much like my great uncles, although he went from Northern Italy to Tranent! The quietest, hard working, religious man you could ever meet. He was no Nazi but hated the Russians as he came from near Lviv in Catholic Western Ukrania.

My grandad was from that region of Ukraine as well, ended up in Mayfield! Similar story or being caught up with both sides, don’t think he cared for either, but think he was in France until the war ended.
 
(by the way, there is very big potential that your Unc was a radge during the war M... have you researched Ukrainians who fought with Uncle Adolph?...ooft)

Ive read a lot on it. As a Kresy Polak its not comfortable reading.
 
Well Sam's story put the sheen back on this thread.
You had to (mr) muscle that in
 
Ive read a lot on it. As a Kresy Polak its not comfortable reading.
Aye, no the best... i only researched by accident.... my relative was a farmer all his life ands was a slave in germany, family still got his stamped id card from them... but my family had a pic of him in a uniform.. so i researched the ensignia, no unlike our lion rampant... which led me doen the rabbit hole of ukrainians who fought with the nazis. Didnae like it and then had tae dig deeper as to why there was a photo of this uniform.
Turn out my relative borrowed the uniform so he could get false id that he was in the army and therefore could get to rimini with the vast majority of displaced ukrainians... kinda radge that 1875 and Zab have relatives who made the same journey; all survived Stalin, then Hitler, then ended up in dalkeith n tranent :gigglle:... and generational hibbies were born. We are a broad church us Hibernians
 
I can relate to it, my Uncle was Ukranian, and fought for the Axis, he despised the Russians.

The Axis was anti Allied forces, pro Nazi collaborators . The Nazi Ukranian and Croatian collaborators got their due deserts. In many cases they were worse than the Nazis if you can possibly imagine that. Bastards.

BIG G
 
The Axis was anti Allied forces, pro Nazi collaborators . The Nazi Ukranian and Croatian collaborators got their due deserts. In many cases they were worse than the Nazis if you can possibly imagine that. Bastards.

BIG G

I agree. Of course many more were terrified young men with no political agendas.
 
The Axis was anti Allied forces, pro Nazi collaborators . The Nazi Ukranian and Croatian collaborators got their due deserts. In many cases they were worse than the Nazis if you can possibly imagine that. Bastards.

BIG G
Tae be fair a lot of ordinary east Europeans ( Ukranians ,Romanians etc.) had a stark choice, madman Hitler or madman Stalin. Who would you have chosen. It's also true that some of them became worse than their masters which a lot of them had to do to keep their families alive. Some of of course were just horrible human beings and Naziism or Communism didnt matter to them as long long as they could practice their trade.
 
I agree. Of course many more were terrified young men with no political agendas.
Not forgetting of course that Hitler and Stalin were Allies for 1/3 of the War.
Tae be fair a lot of ordinary east Europeans ( Ukranians ,Romanians etc.) had a stark choice, madman Hitler or madman Stalin. Who would you have chosen. It's also true that some of them became worse than their masters which a lot of them had to do to keep their families alive. Some of of course were just horrible human beings and Naziism or Communism didnt matter to them as long long as they could practice their trade.
Only one country choose neither. Can't blame some Ukrainans for siding with Hilter, after what Stalin did in the 30's.
 
So, this player that played during the war? Any shots on target? :lookaround:
 

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