Tomasz Frankowski is a retired Polish footballer. He scored 168 goals in 302 matches in Polish Ekstraklasa and has been the top league goalscorer four times. Frankowski achieved his greatest success at Wisła Kraków of Poland, where he helped fire them to a collection of domestic honours. He is well-travelled, having played for clubs in France, Japan, Spain, England, and USA. The striker has been capped 22 times for the Polish national team, scoring 10 goals, including one against England in the World Cup qualifying game at Old Trafford in October 2005.
Career
Club
As a native of Białystok he began his career with his home town team Jagiellonia Białystok in 1991, before heading for France to play for RC Strasbourg, followed by a brief stint at Nagoya Grampus Eight of Japan. Frankowski then returned to France to play for CFP Poitiers and FC Martigues, before returning to his home country to play for Wisła Kraków. His time at Wisla brought him his greatest successes, he helped the club win five Polish Championship titles, two Polish Cups, and a Polish SuperCup in 2001. He was also the league's top scorer three times: with Wisla in 1999, 2001, and 2005 and with Jagiellonia in 2011. He eventually left Wisla in September 2005 and had a short but successful spell in Spain with Elche CF of the Segunda División, scoring 8 times in just 13 appearances. This form caught the attention of Glenn Hoddle, manager of English Championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Frankowski soon joined them on 25 January 2006 for £1.4 million. His spell at Wolves did not go so well, with Frankowski failing to score a single goal. This earned him the unenviable nickname of "the Pole without a goal" and also meant he was omitted from the 2006 World Cup squad by coach Paweł Janas. Previously, he had scored 9 goals in 11 games in the qualifying rounds for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In August 2006, he was loaned to another Spanish Segunda División side, CD Tenerife, for the 2006–07 season, where he scored on his home debut. However, at the end of his season at CD Tenerife, Frankowski returned to Wolves after the Spanish club decided not to purchase the player. Upon returning to Molineux for training, he was challenged by manager Mick McCarthy to 'earn his transfer' to another club after no offers arrived for the striker with a year still remaining on his contract. However, he suffered a knee injury in pre-season training and was unable to attempt any action. By mutual consent, the club terminated his contract on 31 August 2007. After a period of inactivity, he headed to join up with the Chicago Fire, finally signing a deal on 19 February 2008. He scored his first – and only – two goals for the club on 3 April 2008 during their home opener against the New England Revolution. However, as the season continued, his playing time greatly diminished, and he was regularly not even listed in the team's bench lineup. A possible cause of this was his critique of Fire Head CoachDenis Hamlett and his coaching style. On 26 November 2008, Frankowski was released to help free up their salary cap after being one of the highest paid players on the team in the 2008 season. On 23 December 2008, Jagiellonia Białystok announced that Frankowski would rejoin his hometown team on a two-year contract. On 28 March 2010, Frankowski scored 2 goals in the 2–0 win over Arka Gdynia surpassing Friedrich Scherfke and becoming Ekstraklasa's 9th all-time top scorer with 132 goals, the most for any active player. On 1 August 2010, Frankowski has won his second Polish Supercup with Jagiellonia with 1–0 win against Lech Poznań, scoring the winning goal. In the 2010–11 season, Frankowski has won the Polish Topscorer Title, fourth in his career by scoring 14 goals for Jagiellonia Bialystok. On 30 March 2013, he scored his 167th goal in top Polish tier, following up with his 168th goal on 6 April in his 295th game, thereby becoming Ekstraklasa's third all-time scorer, exceeding 167 goals mark set in 1950s by Gerard Cieślik. He retired after the 2012–13 season.
International
Frankowski has scored 10 goals in 22 appearances for the Polish national team. He made his senior international debut on 28 April 1999 in a 2–1 win over the Czech Republic and netted his first international goal the following year, against Iceland. He was Poland's top scorer in their qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but his declining form immediately preceding the finals meant he was omitted from the tournament squad. He returned to the international fold after this, under new coach Leo Beenhakker, but won only two further caps.
