Chances are the average football fan won’t have heard of Ernest Wilimowski, but he was one hell of a goal scorer with one hell of a life story, as Retro Football Blog explains.
Here’s a man who put four past Brazil in Poland's first round defeat at the 1938 World Cup and finished with a total of 21 in 22 games for the White Eagles, while at club level he scored 112 times in 86 games for Ruch Chorzow. Oh, and he also had six toes on his right foot which he believed brought him luck.
But you’ll struggle to find any grand tributes or monuments to Wilimowski, who was eventually shunned by his compatriots as a result of his actions during World War II.
Born Ernst Otto Pradella in June 1916 to German parents in Katowice, a town in Upper Silesia which at the time belonged to the German Empire, he became a Polish citizen once WWI ended and the region became part of Poland. He also took his stepfather's name of Wilimowski; his real dad having died fighting for Germany.
As a footballer goals came easy to him and personal honours and trophies quickly followed once he moved from FC Katowice - the 'German team' - to Ruch Chorzow, the dominating 'Polish' side. By the time he left in 1939 he had won the title four times, top scored in two of those seasons, while at the age of 17 he was playing for his country, with those four goals in a famous 6-5 defeat to Brazil affording him legendary status.
He wasn't the complete golden boy, mind. He served a one-year international ban in 1935 because he turned up to a league game drunk and consequently missed the Olympics.
In his final game for Poland on 27 August, 1939 and with another war looming, Wilimowski scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 win against World Cup finalists Hungary. It was the last bit of football many Poles ever saw because just four days later Nazi Germany invaded and millions of people would soon to lose their lives.
This is where Wilimowski was faced with an unimaginable choice. As a result of his parentage he was allowed German citizenship; he spoke German at home and not only did this mean he could continue doing what he loved, it saved his life. Refusing the Nazis was likely to get you killed.
But playing for Germany in those propaganda matches, changing his name from Ernest to Ernst Willimowski (an extra l) and wearing that swastika on his chest were all unforgivable acts in a lot of people's eyes.
He was still hugely prolific, though, and scored 13 goals in eight games in Germany colours. He also won the German Cup with 1860 Munich in 1942, scoring 14 goals along the way. In addition, his cooperation earned him a number of friends and admirers, which is said to have saved his mum’s life when she was sent to Auschwitz for having a relationship with a Russian Jew.
Sadly, the ill feeling in Poland remained when the War ended in 1945. This meant going home was just not possible and so he never returned, settling instead in Karlsruhe, Germany.
There is a story that he wanted to visit the Poland team when they appeared at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, but even then he was denied access and so Willimowski could only watch from a distance as the team finished third.
A player possessing his talent would have earned a fortune in any other era, but it seems people wanted to forget this once great footballer. However, someone with his class is never likely to be and never has been forgotten.
“He would score more goals than he had chances,” Fritz Hall, one of Germany’s finest players once said, adding that his ability stands him out as one of the game’s greatest goal scorers.
In August it will be 20 years since his death at the age of 81. Someone needs to make a film about this guy’s life.
This feature first appeared on retrofootballblog.com
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