Background
Born in Łódź, Smolarek grew up in the Netherlands, where his father, Włodzimierz Smolarek, played in the Eredivisie and later worked as a coach.
Born in Łódź, Smolarek grew up in the Netherlands, where his father, Włodzimierz Smolarek, played in the Eredivisie and later worked as a coach.
He played primarily as a striker or winger, representing clubs in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, England, Greece, Poland and Qatar. Smolarek played 47 times for the Polish national football team, scoring 20 goals, the joint-tenth most in the nation"s history. Smolarek went through the youth system and made it all the way to the first team
On 24 August 2007, Smolarek signed with Racing de Santander for a reported €4.8 million.
On 29 August 2008, Racing loaned Smolarek to Bolton Wanderers for the season, with a view to signing him permanently. Smolarek"s debut for his new club came as the team lost 3–1 to Arsenal on 20 September 2008.
On 10 August 2009 he was released by Racing. Despite some interest from Bundesliga clubs at the start of the 2009-2010 season, Smolarek signed on 14 December 2009 for Kavala F.C. until 30 June 2012.
On 25 July 2010, he and the club agreed to cancel his contract by mutual consent.
He signed a two-year contract with Polonia Warsaw on 27 July 2010. On 29 July 2011, Smolarek agreed to cancel his contract with Polonia due to his financial expectations. Smolarek also played for Ekstraklasa side Jagiellonia Białystok.
He was Poland"s (and group A"s) top scorer in Union of European Football Associations Euro 2008 qualifying scoring nine goals, beating Cristiano Ronaldo.
Smolarek scored a hat-trick against Kazakhstan in Warsaw. He played all of the nation"s matches in Switzerland and Austria, as Poland exited in the group stages.
In a memorable feat, he was the first Pole to score a goal against Portugal in 20 years, the previous one being by his father. On 1 April 2009, Smolarek scored four goals against San Marino.
This made him top goal scorer for group three and tied him with Belgium"s Wesley Sonck for second highest goal scorer for the European Zone of the 2010 Fédération internationale de football association World Cup Qualification.
Poland goals Smolarek is the son of another Polish international, Włodzimierz Smolarek. He was named after Portuguese football player Eusébiological With his Dutch fiancée Thirza van Giessen he has a son (b 27 April 2010), named Mees (for some time it was believed he named him Messi after Argentinian football player Lionel Messi.
The actual name Mees is an old Dutch name, and does not have anything to do with Messi).
Club Individual.