Lato provides Polish inspiration

Grzegorz Lato can fairly be described as a Polish legend. Capped 95 times, he helped his country to third-place FIFA World Cup finishes in 1974 and 1982 and was top scorer in the first of those finals with seven goals. In addition, he won Olympic gold in 1972 and silver four years later. So there was no better man to help make the draw for the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, with Poland aiming to recapture the spirit of the Lato era and triumph on home soil after the senior team's disappointment in Germany last month.

'Interesting' event
Lato will be attending the finals over the next fortnight as a Polish Football Association observer, and is looking forward to the event. "I think this championship will be an interesting one," he told uefa.com. "It will start just after the World Cup and we will have the opportunity to draw some comparisons and see where this generation of young players is heading."

Developing talent
The 56-year-old is optimistic about Poland's chances, but hopes the talent they have will go further than the players who gave the nation victory in the 2001 European U18 Championship. "Currently we have a group of talented young players who can do well at the forthcoming European U19 Championship," Lato said. "The problem, however, is that we often have promising youngsters who, unfortunately, disappear somewhere later on and are not able to have successful careers as seniors. This means there is a problem which must be redressed."

U23 chance
Although Lato was starring on the world stage in his early 20s, he did not have an international career at junior level. "Unfortunately, I did not play for the youth teams of Poland and our region," he said. "Legendary coach Kazimierz Górski coached the Poland U23 side and I made my debut in this team at the age of 20. Playing for Poland U23s was extremely important to me."