Born on October 23, 1947, in the northern Polish town of Starogard Gdański, Deyna cut his footballing teeth with his local club before being lured to ŁKS Łódź in 1966. There, he would not last long.
With his talent already beeping loudly on the radar, Legia Warszawa flexed their muscle as Poland’s ‘army club’ and stepped in to prise him away after he had played just once in the colors of ŁKS. This was to prove a masterstroke.
To call the transfer a success would be a gentle understatement. Over the next twelve seasons, Deyna bagged 93 goals in just over 300 league appearances, securing two league titles and a similar number of cup wins in the process.
As modest as this haul sounds compared to the trophy cabinets of football’s modern-day heroes, it is also indicative of the more competitive nature of bygone times. And if the silverware was lacking, the entertainment was not.
Known for his ability to glide past players and single-handedly transform matches, Deyna lit up stadiums wherever he played – famously, he once even scored directly from a corner.
“Every player wanted to reach the peaks that he did,” recalls ex-Celtic and Bristol City legend Dariusz Dziekanowski. “He was met with a standing ovation everywhere he went.”
This applied as much to the international arena as it did to the home front – it is no coincidence that Deyna’s finest period coincided with the national team’s meteoric rise.
Capped 97 times for his country, he finished the 1972 Olympics as top scorer. His finest hour, however, was yet to come.
Famously qualifying for the 1974 World Cup at England’s expense, Poland arrived in West Germany having only appeared once before at the tournament in 1938. Regarded as dark horses, Poland did the unthinkable and unleashed a footballing earthquake.
In the group stage, a seismic 3-2 win over Argentina was followed by a marauding 7-0 thumping of Haiti. Then, it was the turn of Italy. Turning on the style, Deyna sealed victory with a thunderous shot curled in from outside of the box; such was the ferocity of his goal, the Pole is said to have needed a new boot after hitting the net.
Playing the hosts in the semi-final, a summer monsoon rendered the pitch an impassable swamp. Dubbed ‘the water battle of Frankfurt’, Poland lost narrowly to West Germany, prompting Franz Beckenbauer to later admit: “If the game had been played in normal conditions, we might not have stood a chance.”
Finishing on a high, Poland beat Brazil to finish third. So pivotal had Deyna been in the tournament, he was voted the third-best player of the competition behind Johann Cruyff and Beckenbauer himself. It was a fine end to a classic World Cup.
Enshrined as a national hero, Deyna enjoyed the fruits of success. Back in Warsaw, he became a familiar sight in the Hotel Europejski’s bar and similarly on-trend haunts. Often spotted wearing flamboyant furs, the lavishly side-burned playmaker exuded class.
Europe’s top clubs naturally came knocking. Coveting his genius, Real Madrid are reported to have sent him a club shirt with No. 14 stitched on the back. AC Milan and Bayern Munich also courted him, as did AS Monaco – apparently on the urging of Prince Rainier himself.
Sadly, these moves did not come to pass. “He wasn’t just a hero of the PRL era, but a martyr to it as well,” says Stefan Szczepłek, the author of Deyna’s biography. Under communism, players were blocked from moving abroad until they hit 30, a rule that denied Western leagues the chance to see the virtuoso at the peak of his powers.
When a move did come, it was to Manchester City. Signing in 1978, the 100,000-pound switch is said to have been ushered through after Legia asked City to deliver crates of photocopiers, printers, fridges, and Adidas equipment.
In many respects, Deyna – or Kazik as he was known – was a pioneer, playing in England at a time when foreigners were a rare, exotic sight. Although hampered by injuries and a drinking habit, he became a hero on the terraces, scoring seven goals in the final eight games to save City from relegation.
In later years he became a fringe figure at Maine Road, but the pulling power he continued to command saw him cast to appear in the 1981 movie Escape to Victory alongside the biggest names in football: Pele, Ossie Ardiles, and Bobby Moore.
Seeing out his career in the U.S. with the San Diego Sockers, the winter of Deyna’s glorious career saw him net 49 goals in just four seasons in the NASL.
Unfortunately, beyond the pitch, all was not well. An ongoing alcohol problem had been compounded by financial woes stemming from the alleged avarice of his closest advisors. Still residing in the States, on September 1, 1989, he collided with a parked truck while driving under the influence.
Although already retired, his premature death robbed the sports world of one of its greatest entertainers. In Poland, a nation mourned. Playing in an era of mavericks, Deyna had proved he belonged with the best.
