Grzegorz LATO | 1973-1974 | PES Stats Database (Golden Era Backup)

LATO PES STATS | 1973-1974

Oriello Name: Grzegorz Lato Grzegorz LATO | 1973-1974 Nicknames: Bolek (as in Lolek & Bolek) Club: Stal Mielec Number: 7 (Club), 16 (National team) Position: SS*, CF, WF Nationality: Polish Date of Birth: April 8, 1950 (age: 24) Era: 1974-1978 Foot: Right Side: Right Length: 175 cm Weight: 73 kg Attack: 90 Defence: 50 Balance: 82 Stamina: 87 Top Speed: 94 Acceleration: 94 Response: 94 Agility: 89 Dribble Accuracy: 85 Dribble Speed: 89 Short Pass Accuracy: 80 Short Pass Speed: 82 Long Pass Acc.: 81 Long Pass Speed: 79 Shot Accuracy: 87 Shot Power: 76 Shot Technique: 86 Free Kick Accuracy: 66 Curling: 79 Header: 86 Jump: 81 Technique: 84 Aggression: 89 Mentality: 82 Keeper Skills: 50 Team Work: 84 Injury Tolerance: A Condition/Fitness: 7 Weak Foot Accuracy: 6 Weak Foot frequency: 4 Consistency: 7 *Tactical dribble *Positioning *Scoring -- Recognizable due to his premature baldness and the multitude of celebratory kisses he was prone to give out after goals. For club was a lethal striker, yet for Poland was lined up on the right side as a player, but for a few years in the mid-seventies, managed to combine his predator personality with his role and was for a time Poland's most devastating outlet in attack. As a winger he operated in stark contrast to many of his contemporaries, while traditionally wingers would dazzle crowds with feints and sublime dribbling in an attempt to embarrass defenders before putting in a cross. Lato simply played for the benefit of the team, never squandering possession and was considered to be the complete team player. Though in his prime as a striker, had super finishing ability and startling aerial prowess, mostly due to his impeccably timed runs, also had a knack for anticipating defensive blunders and pouncing instantly. Began his life as a footballer when at 12 joined the junior team of Stal Mielec, a club located in a tiny town in the southwest of the country. Lato from an early age had two undeniable characteristics, the first was his speed, 'he had the look of him as a winger that was faster than the wind', who could outrun any opponent. The second was his nose for getting goals, a half a chance was usually enough for Lato to capitalize. But in his youth Lato admitted himself, as being a terrible technical player, and thus found his initial breakthrough into Poland's senior team extremely difficult due to his linear style, despite his prolific nature with the junior national team. Over his 8 years with Stal's youth team Lato claimed to have been blessed by the presence of excellent trainers, who taught him the ability 'to think on the pitch', which could be utilized in place of world class technique, Lato thus developed this to an advanced degree and was able to disseminate a situation instantly and instinctively choose the best course of action. While he would also improve his overall game in time, his intuitive team understanding became one of his greatest assets. Worked hard on ball control and transmission with the ball aspects of his game, that was often neglected in Poland where speed and strength training for youth was above technical proficiency. Upon Lato's rise to the senior team after Stal's promotion Górski in 1971 on closer inspection decided to debut Lato in the Polish senior squad stating, 'A bit of a windmill, but to me it seems that something will come of him.' Lato was the unquestionable star and driving force behind Stal's success, being a key figure in taking the club from obscurity to two titles in 1973 and 1976 while being the League top goal scorer in 1973 and 1975. Made 295 appearances, scoring 117 goals. Though Stal was an excellently run and organized club at the time, and the squad was filled only with youngsters, while Kasperczak, Domarski, and Kulka were the supporting pillars of the side, its assortment of talented youths allowed the formation of a very solid and competitive team, that managed to become shock champions twice, at the expense of larger clubs. Indeed Stal's appearance in Europe was a strange occurrence for the small town, staging matches against illustrious teams such as Hamburg and Real Madrid in their modest stadium that mysteriously managed to accommodate 40,000 spectators on those occasions, nearly the whole of the town's population. Lato in his 10 seasons with Stal was only once cautioned, the actual incident itself was a bit unusual. In a match against Lech Poznań, Jan Domarski had what seemed to have been a legitimate goal disallowed by referee Eksztajn, Lato having been very close to the action and witnessed the obvious error, immediately approached Eksztajn and politely described the entire situation and very calmly asked, 'Sir referee, on what basis have you whistled him as offside?'. Eksztajn rather curtly replied 'No discussion Lato, or you will get a yellow card'. Lato then with a smile on his lips said, 'No, no -- bravo, bravo sir referee', and began to clap sarcastically. Mr. Eksztajn kept his promise and cautioned Lato. The incident itself may not have been notable but what followed is, the PZPN in an attempt to punish Lato for his behaviour towards an official, imposed a one-match suspension just in time for an upcoming fixture against Legia Warszawa. Lato immediately appealed the injustice of being suspended for receiving a single yellow card, and was ultimately allowed to play, in a match in which he scored the lone winner, this in turn caused a storm of controversy in the capital, with newspapers thundering about the injustice of the situation. For Poland, Lato is the record cap holder with 104* appearances and 45* goals. He has won gold and silver in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics respectively and was top scorer in the 1974 World Cup with 7 goals in 7 matches, a feat that launched him to sixth place in that year's Ballon d'Or. He has also scored in three World Cups with a total of 10 goals and 7 assists in 20 games, despite being played progressively deeper with each consecutive tournament. An interesting side note, during the World Cup in Germany, before the game against Yugoslavia, Lato was approached by a soldier of the protection service claiming that his family had come to visit him, Lato aware of the improbability that his wife and son would have been allowed to leave the country on such short notice and that visits from relatives were not to be excepted at that stage, was sceptical. Yet Lato would meet members of his family that he never knew existed. Shocked by the confirmation of intimate details they knew and their fluency in Polish, and further surprised by their proposal for him to remain in West Germany after the tournament and change his citizenship (a simple matter considering Lato had been born in the former Prussian city of Malbork) and play in the Bundesliga for 1. FC Köln. The matter seemed to be panning out as Lato's wife was due to arrive on a visit after the game against Brazil, with the German relatives promising his son could be brought through by the Red Cross into West Germany within six months. Ultimately Lato decided against the course, feeling content with his circumstances in Poland. Lato later reminisced that though he may have been a richer man now had he moved to the West then, that he has no regrets with his choices. Before reaching the required age limit to play abroad Lato received several foreign offers, the most interesting proposal though was from the New York Cosmos (allegedly he received a personal invitation from Pelé himself), but unfortunately if Lato had elected to join Neeskens' star studded line up, it would have meant that he would also fall out of contact with Poland's national team setup, so as Lato put it he choose Poland over Pele. Thus he linked up with his compatriot Lubanski and joined Belgian club Lokeren for two seasons. Unfortunately Lato's international future was still cast into doubt by Ryszard Kulesza, the then current national coach. Who had an open policy of favouring players from Poland's domestic league as he was better able to evaluate a player's form. The matter was worsened since Lato arrived mid-season in Belgium and was assigned the only available number, 21. Though it is hard to believe, Kulesza did not know that there were clubs in the West with slightly different customs in marking players than in Poland, and believed Lato to have been a reserve player! Luckily television broadcasts of Lokeren's UEFA Cup matches brought some sanity to the matter. Finished off his career with Mexican club Atlante and a CONCACAF Champions Cup, but also at this time Lato sustained the first serious injury of his career after a brutal challenge had damaged a tendon, two operations later, being sidelined for eight months and being 34 Lato opted to retire from the professional level. Video Second goal against Wales in a quailifier for World Cup 1974 (1:05), also sets up the third (2:05) Goal against Brazil in the 1974 World Cup (1:00), also squandered two other 1-1's *FIFA for some strange reason recently subtracted the total caps from Polish players, as they appeared in Olympic games, which were in the 70's not considered full internationals, and the teams that were fielded were listed as not truly professional, despite them being the real first team of the country (Very much so that Communist nations fielded their strongest teams for the Olympics, while it was common for Western teams to only include a few regulars if any). Basically FIFA can suck my balls, if a player ran for 90 minutes in 9 matches then those are going to be included. Thus Lato is a century cap holder in my book. Shame on FIFA on attacking the careers of now elderly and retired players like that! Grzegorz LATO | 1973-1974 | PES Stats Database (Golden Era Backup)