Adam Nawałka

Adam Nawałka

Nawałka as Poland manager in 2013
Personal information
Date of birth	(1957-10-23) 23 October 1957
Place of birth	Kraków, Poland
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1970–1975	Wisła Kraków
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1975–1985	Wisła Kraków	190	(9)
1985–1988	Polish-American Eagles
International career
1977–1980	Poland	34	(1)
Managerial career
1996–1998	Świt Krzeszowice
2000	Wisła Kraków
2001	Wisła Kraków
2002	Zagłębie Lubin
2003–2004	Sandecja Nowy Sącz
2004–2006	Jagiellonia Białystok
2006–2007	Wisła Kraków
2007–2008	Poland (assistant)
2008–2009	GKS Katowice
2010–2013	Górnik Zabrze
2013–2018	Poland
2018–2019	Lech Poznań
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Adam Nawałka ([ˈadam naˈvawka] ^ⓘ; born 23 October 1957) is a Polish professional football manager and former player. From 2013 to 2018, he was the head coach of the Poland national team.

Player career

Club

Nawałka comes from a footballing family. His father, Adam, played for the local team Orlęta Rudawa. Nawałka began his career in 1969 with Wisła Kraków, and made his top-tier debut on 21 May 1975. He played 190 matches in the highest class of Polish association football, scoring 9 goals. He played most of his career for The White Star. He started having recurrent injuries in the fall of 1978, and despite repeated surgeries, he had to retire from professional soccer in 1984. In 1985, he emigrated to the United States where he played semi-professional soccer with Polish-American Eagles, alongside performing manual labor jobs (like trimming trees around high-voltage power lines). In 1990, he returned to Poland and started selling Trabant cars with Volkswagen engines until he received his coaching qualifications in 1995.

National team

He played for the Poland national team (34 matches) and was a participant at the 1978 FIFA World Cup. At the age of 19, he played 90 minutes of every game (except one) that the Polish team played. In the fall of 1978, Nawalka started having recurrent injuries that shortly eliminated him from the national team and shortened his playing career.

Managerial career

Adam Nawałka during a press conference in 2013

After receiving his coaching qualifications he coached the Polish third-tier team Świt Krzeszowice, after which he held numerous positions at his home club of Wisła Kraków, including head of scouting and sporting director, as well as being interim head coach a few times. He went on to manage GKS Katowice and later Górnik Zabrze. He was an assistant coach of the Poland national team and the understudy to Leo Beenhakker in 2007 and 2008.

On 26 October 2013, the Polish FA president Zbigniew Boniek, announced that Nawałka would replace Waldemar Fornalik as the new manager of the Poland national team. At the time of the appointment, his side Górnik Zabrze was leading the league table. He remained in Zabrze until 1 November, and focused on the national team after the game against Cracovia. On 11 October 2014, he recorded an upset by defeating Germany 2–0 in their home Euro 2016 qualifier. He became the first Polish manager to successfully guide Poland into the UEFA European Championship, and also took Poland to their first Euro quarterfinals, which contributed to Poland's historic success in their football history since the fall of communist rule.

During the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, Poland performed extremely well, winning eight, drawing one and losing only one match, helping the Poles top the group and qualify automatically for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. However, much like in the 2002 and 2006 editions of the World Cup, Nawałka's Poland finished bottom of Group H after losing consecutive games against Senegal and Colombia. With their exit from the tournament sealed after the opening two games, Poland rounded off the group with a 1–0 victory over Japan, thus leaving the tournament with just one win. Shortly after the tournament, Nawałka resigned from his role.

Managerial statistics

As of 31 March 2019

Team	From	To	Record
			M	W	D	L	Win %
Poland	1 November 2013	30 July 2018	50	26	15	9	052.00
Lech Poznań	25 November 2018	31 March 2019	11	5	1	5	045.45
Total			61	31	16	14	050.82

Honours

Player

Wisła Kraków

• Ekstraklasa: 1977–78

Manager

Wisła Kraków

• Ekstraklasa: 2000–01
• Polish League Cup: 2000–01

External links

• Adam Nawałka at 90minut.pl (in Polish)
• Adam Nawałka at National-Football-Teams.com
• Adam Nawałka at EU-Football.info