Legendary football coach Kazimierz Gorski receiving top FIFA award today

Kazimierz Gorski, the legendary football coach who led Poland to a third place in the 1974 World Cup and a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics, will receive today the Order of Merit - the highest award of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA). The award will be presented at a special ceremony in Zurich in the presence of such football greats as Michel Platini, Franz Beckenbauer and Sir Bobby Charlton. └Gorski is the most beloved Pole aside from the Pope,■ said Jerzy Piekarzewski, honorary president of football club Polonia Warszawa, who often accompanies Gorski on his trips around Poland. └Once we were in Zambrow and we drove into a crowd of people who were leaving some sort of a ceremony. When they saw [Gorski] in the back seat, they said, ▒Either he comes out to us, or we turn the car over,■ reminisced Piekarzewski. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.2) T.J.