Quick Facts
Biography
Henryk Wojciech Kasperczak (born 10 July 1946 in Zabrze) is a Polish football manager and a former football player who currently manages the Tunisia national football team.
As a player, Kasperczak took part in two FIFA World Cups with Poland, achieving third place in 1974, as well as a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.
As a manager, Kasperczak enjoyed most success in the African Cup of Nations, securing second place with Tunisia in 1996, third with Côte d'Ivoire (1994) and fourth with Mali (2002). In September 2009, Kasperczak was briefly considered by PZPN for the open spot of manager of the Polish national team.
Club career
With Stal Mielec, Kasperczak won two Ekstraklasa Championships in his native Poland. He had also played for the reserve team of Legia Warsaw, before ending his career in FC Metz.
International career
He played for Poland at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, securing third place; at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where the team won the silver medal, and at the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
Overall, Kaspeczak was capped 61 times and scored 5 goals.
Coaching career
Kasperczak spent the first fifteen years (1978–1993) of his coaching career in France, managing FC Metz, AS Saint-Étienne, Racing Strasbourg, Racing Club de Paris, Montpellier HSC and Lille OSC. His biggest success was winning Coupe de France with FC Metz in 1984.
Next, Kaspeczak managed two African national teams: first, Côte d'Ivoire (1993–1994), achieving third place in the 1994 African Cup of Nations, and later Tunisia (1994–1998), which finished second in the 1996 Cup. Kasperczak also coached Tunisia at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.
During the tournament, Kasperczak was fired and replaced by Ali Selmi, after Tunisia lost the chance to pass the group stage, losing to England (0–2) and Colombia (0–1).
Later, Kasperczak managed SC Bastia (1998), Al Wasl FC (1999–2000), Morocco national team (2000), Shenyang Haishi (2000–2001) and Mali national team (2001–2002). Mali won the fourth place at the 2002 African Cup of Nations under his coaching.
In 2002, Kasperczak came back to his native Poland, and spend the next three years as head coach of Wisła Kraków. Wisła won three Polish Championship under his coaching.
In 2006, Kaspeczak began managing Senegal (2006–2008), however he quit his post during the 2008 African Cup of Nations following a poor run of results which saw them with 1-point in 2 games in a group they had been expected to win.
On 16 September 2008 he took over as manager of Górnik Zabrze. He then left Górnik Zabrze on 3 April 2009 when the club was officially relegated from Ekstraklasa to I Liga, Poland's 2nd division in professional soccer.
On 15 March 2010 Wisła Kraków reached an agreement with the manager, Kasperczak replaces Maciej Skorża as a coach.