The Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk premieres tonight a play by Polish writer Radosław Paczocha entitled To be like Kazimierz Deyna about a Polish football legend who died tragically early.

The play is a story of a young Pole born on 29 October 1977, the day football star Deyna scored a goal (directly from a corner) in a match against Portugal, which gave the Poland national team a place in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.

Piotr Jędrzejas, the director of the production, describes the play as ‘a voice of a generation which remembers communism but matured in a democratic system’. He says that Deyna serves as a pretext for searching one’s identity in life. The memorable goal scored by Deyna is one of the formative events in the protagonist’s life.

“The sports context provokes questions about Polish unfulfilled dreams”, the director says.

Born in 1947, Kazimierz Deyna was one of the finest players in the history of Polish football. He had 102 national caps to his credit, scoring 45 goals. He played in the 1974 and 1978 World Cups. In 1978 he signed a contract with Manchester City. After three years in the U.K., he left for the United States, where he played for San Diego Sockers. He starred in the film Escape to Victory (dir. by John Huston), alongside Pele and Bobby Moore, and famous actors Max von Sydow, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.

Denya died in a car accident in San Diego in 1989, aged 41. (mk)