Robert Warzycha
Personal information
Full name	Robert Warzycha
Date of birth	August 20, 1963 (1963-08-20) (age 46)
Place of birth	Siemkowice, Poland
Playing position	midfielder
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1985-1987 1987-1991 1991-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-2002	Górnik Wałbrzych Górnik Zabrze Everton Pecsi Mecsek FC Budapest Honved Columbus Crew	031 0(5) 091 (10) 072 0(6) 021 0(7) 021 0(6) 160 (19)
National team
1987-1993	Poland	47 (7)
Teams managed
2009-	Columbus Crew
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Robert Warzycha (Polish pronunciation: [ˈrɔbɛrt vaˈʐɨxa]; born August 20, 1963, in Siemkowice) is a former Polish soccer midfielder, who spent seven seasons with the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer.

Warzycha came to MLS in 1996 after a long career in Poland and England, where Everton ex-player Gordon Watson rated him as: "among the most talented wide-men to have played for us in the post-war years".^[1] He came to Everton for £500,000 in March 1991 from Polish club Górnik Zabrze. He spent four years (1991-94) with Everton and also played in his native Poland and Hungary. He was also one of only 12 foreign players to play on the opening weekend of the FA Premier League along with John Jensen, Anders Limpar, Peter Schmeichel, Andrei Kanchelskis, Craig Forrest, Eric Cantona, Ronnie Rosenthal, Michel Vonk, Gunnar Halle, Roland Nilsson and Hans Segers. After joining Columbus in the league's inaugural year, Warzycha became a staple in the lineup for five seasons, and then a bit player in his final two, as he battled injuries. He retired as the Crew's all-time assist leader with 61 and also scored 19 goals in MLS league play.

For Poland, Warzycha was capped 47 times, scoring seven goals between 1987 and 1993. After retiring as a player, he became an assistant coach with the Crew. After Greg Andrulis was fired in July 2005, Warzycha assumed interim head coaching duty. He went back to assisting after Sigi Schmid was hired for the full-time job.

During his playing days in Columbus, Warzycha was known as "The Polish Rifle," in part because of his accuracy from free kicks.

On March 25, 2000 Warzycha scored the first-ever regular-season "Golden Goal" in Major League Soccer history to defeat San Jose 2-1. ^[2]

On December 22, 2008, Warzycha was promoted to the head coach position for the 2009 MLS season.^[3]

Contents 1 Honors 1.1 Górnik Zabrze 1.2 Budapest Honvéd FC 1.3 Columbus Crew 1.4 International 1.4.1 Managerial Honors 1.5 Asst. Manager 2 References

[edit] Honors

[edit] Górnik Zabrze

• Ekstraklasa: 2

1987, 1988

• Polish SuperCup: 1

1988

[edit] Budapest Honvéd FC

• Hungarian Cup: 1

1996

[edit] Columbus Crew

• Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: 1

2002

[edit] International

[edit] Managerial Honors

[edit] Asst. Manager

• Columbus Crew:

MLS Cup 2008, MLS Supporters' Shield 2008

[edit] References

Preceded by Sigi Schmid

Columbus Crew Head Coach 2009-

Succeeded by Incumbent

v • d • e Columbus Crew – Managers Liekoski (1996) · Fitzgerald (1996–01) · Andrulis (2001–05) · Warzycha (2005) · Schmid (2006–08) Warzycha (2009-) ·