Jacek Gmoch, Polish footballer and coach
Jacek Wojciech Gmoch (born 13 January 1939 in Pruszków) is a former Polish footballer, who later became a trainer and manager of the Polish National Team.
While having a successful football career he graduated in communication from the Warsaw University of Technology. Gmoch begun playing for Znicz Pruszków, later moving on for a successful career at Legia Warsaw. With Legia, he won the Polish Cup twice (in 1964 and 1966) and contributed to the beginning of the successful 1968–69 season. He also became a player for the national Team of Poland (29 caps).Following a major injury in a friendly match, Gmoch began a coaching career, starting in Legia Warsaw in 1969–71. Having been offered the Poland National Team assistant's job by Kazimierz Górski, he lasted from 1971–74. Together they achieved an Olympic Gold medal in Munich 1972, as well as 3rd Place in the 1974 World Cup. He moved to the U.S. to follow his scientific career at the University of Pennsylvania (1975–6). He returned to International football in 1976 to qualify the National Team of Poland to the 1978 Mundial in Argentina (fifth place). He later moved to Norway in 1979 and Greece until 2003 where he became one of the most successful and recognised coaches.
In Norway, he became Skeid Fotball manager and then he went to Greece and worked first as a manager of PAS Giannina, Apollon Athens, Larisa,. In 1983, he did his big step as a manager and became trainer of Panathinaikos. In his first season as Panathinaikos manager, his team won the Double and the following season, his team for second time in their history, reached the Semi finals of European Champions Cup, where they were eliminated by Liverpool. For the 1985–86 season, he became coach of another great Greek club, AEK and the following season he became again trainer of Larisa and in 1988, his team historically won their first and only Greek Championship. After Larisa, he worked as a manager for Olympiacos and Aris Thessaloniki, in 1991 he went to Cyprus to become APOEL trainer, where his team won the championship and cup. He remained there until the middle of the season 1992–93. Later, he worked for Athinaikos (1994–95), Ethnikos Piraeus (1995–96), Ionikos (1997–98), Kalamata (1998–99), Panionios (1999), and again for Ionikos in 2002–03.
He acted as a member of the Polish Olympic representation team in Athens 2004 Summer Olympics and later became a minor shareholder and President of Legia Warsaw, as well as following up a career in television commentating for several networks. He notably commentated Champions League matches for the Greek Television ERT, as well as International Tournaments in Poland for channels Polsat and TVP.
On 15 November 2010, Gmoch took over as the caretaker manager of Panathinaikos, following Nikos Nioplias, who resigned after a string of mediocre results in the first part of the 2010–11 season. As caretaker manager he successfully won against Iraklis in his only final match before being succeeded by the new manager of the team. The score was 4–2 and everybody in the stadium goodbyed him again as a winner.