Polski Sport

Poland recently sacked Waldemar Fornalik after their failure to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The team has increased in quality following the emergence of players like Robert Lewandowski, but they have been unable to translate the presence of such players into results. Fornalik paid a high price for failure with his job and the Polish football Federation have now appointed Adam Nawalka as his replacement. He will be given the objective to qualify for the Euro 2016, which will take place in France.

The 56-year-old will come into the national team role well experienced with the rigours of international football after he has played in 35 matches for the Poland national team. He enjoyed a 13 year playing career. Nawalka has been a manager at Polish Ekstraklasa side Gornik Zabrze for the last three years. As a player, he was well known for representing Wisla Krakow, while he also played in the United States for a brief period. As a result of their failure to do well in recent major tournaments and also failure to qualify for the World Cup, Poland are now ranked 69th in the world.

Poland qualified for the Euro 2012, but they failed to get past the group stages. They were in the same qualifying group containing the likes of England, Montenegro, and Ukraine for the World Cup 2014. They were at least expected to challenge for the second qualifying spot, but they finished a disappointing fourth. “The objective for the new coach is clear: to qualify for the Euro 2016 finals in France,” read a statement on the Polish Football Federation’s (PZPN) official site.

The team was recently involved in a 0-0 draw with the Republic of Ireland at home, which was not a great result for the team. The PZPN is expected to schedule a friendly match in March.