After this drama, Boniek gave up huge amounts of money. “I Could Buy Half the Street”

Zbigniew Boniek celebrates his 70th birthday on March 3. Everyone knows that he is one of the best Polish footballers in history, but not everyone is aware that he is also on the list of the 100 best players in the history of football according to FIFA. He represented Zawisza Bydgoszcz, Widzew Łódź, Juventus and AS Roma. He made 80 appearances in the national team (he made his debut in the times of the legendary Kazimierz Górski, but was most successful in the times of Antoni Piechniczek), scoring 24 goals.

Boniek ended his sports career in 1988, at the age of only 32. He is a perfect example of how not to squander (and this happened to many former footballers) the money earned on the pitch, but to multiply it.

Zbigniew Boniek resigned from a huge salary

After ending his adventure with AS Roma, his last club, Boniek decided to stay in Italy. He invested the acquired cash by investing it, among others, in real estate.

– Throughout my career, I have had one rule: to save all my money in an account so that I have a lot of it. I said that when I finish playing, I will start a business and invest, because I never believed that by playing football and giving others to invest my money, something would come out of it. That’s why I sleep soundly to this day, because I’ve always managed my money myself. I have never been involved in nervous investments, investments at a high risk level. (…) I have never entrusted my money to other people – said Boniek in an interview for Biznes Misja.

“Zibi”, however, was able to share money. “Przegląd Sportowy” reminds us of the dramatic match between Juventus Turin and Liverpool, which was played on May 29, 1985 at Heysel. One of the greatest stadium tragedies in the history of football occurred. As a result of the clash between fans of both clubs, 39 people died, mainly Italians. Boniek then gave up the payment due to him for the match, a huge payment at that time.

– I once played the European Cup final, where some people died. As the only Pole. I played my last match for Juventus and gave up 100,000. dollars, or 100 million lire, or 200 million. I don’t know. I actually said – I don’t want money. Give the money to the fund, to foundations. I could then buy half a street in Łódź for this money. That was the value – Boniek recalled in a conversation with Roman Kołtoń on the “Prawda Futbolu” channel.

Not all investments turned out to be successful. The newspaper reminds that in 2006, at the instigation of Władysław Puchalski, Boniek founded the Bon Oil company together with General Consulting from Wrocław, which was to produce biocomponents for fuel. However, the project did not work out.

A decade later, he founded Bon Wid, a company that invests in wind farms in Poland. Boniek is also a shareholder in the construction company Sommo Mazowiecka 69 and the marketing agency Ganador Agency.

It is no secret that “Zibi” earned a lot of money on an advertising contract with the Expekt bookmaker, of which he was an ambassador, and his contact was said to be worth PLN 150,000. euro per year.

He didn’t earn money in PZPN?

This contract, as well as his participation in advertising the popular beer, was reproached to Boniek when he applied for the position of president of the Polish Football Association. He made his first attempt in 2008, but lost to his former teammate Grzegorz Lata. However, when four years later the famous “king of scorers” from the 1974 World Cup passed away in disgrace, the activists decided that the only salvation for the Polish Football Association was none other than Boniek. When taking over the presidency, he declared that he would not collect the remuneration due to the head of the union (his predecessor in this position collected PLN 50,000 a month). Years later, however, “Fakt” published new information proving that he was to accept a bonus of PLN 1.5 million during his second term.

A few years before his presidency, Boniek had an unsuccessful episode as the coach of the Polish national football team. He took over the team after Jerzy Engel’s players returned “on target” from the first World Cup in Korea and Japan after a 16-year break. He was Boniek’s coach for only five months, and what was particularly memorable for the fans was the defeat of our players in the match against Latvia, which – as further games showed – made it most difficult for us to qualify for Euro 2004. Boniek revealed that he earned PLN 30,000 while working with the national team. PLN gross, less than its predecessor.

Nearly two years ago, I asked Michał Listkiewicz about Boniek’s earnings at that time, who decided to choose him as coach. The head of the Polish Football Association in the years 1999-2008 was unable to recall the exact amounts, but noted that “Zbyszek never reached out for union money.”

– Money should not be in front of the player. Neither in front of the coach or the coach – emphasized Boniek himself in the book “Matches of my life” written in cooperation with Janusz Basałaj.