Janusz Michallik (#3) before the International Friendly match against Chile on 30th April 1994 at the University of New Mexico Stadium, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States (Photo by Mike Powell/Allsport/Getty Images)
The unofficial curtain-raiser of the 2025 tennis season took place on Sunday in Sydney, Australia, as the United States faced off against Poland in the United Cup Final, a hard-court competition featuring mixed-gender teams from 18 countries. Coco Gauff breezed past the former women’s no.1 Iga Swiatek, whilst the American men’s #1 Taylor Fritz outlasted Hubert Hurkacz in a third-set tiebreak to edge last year’s finalists and seal the title for the USA.
Janusz Michallik would have been watching with bated breath and mixed emotions – had it not been for the fact that he was preparing to cover Liverpool’s upcoming Premier League match vs. Manchester United for ESPN. After all, Janusz was raised in Poland, but he made his name in the United States.
Growing up in Communist Poland
Born in Chorzów, Janusz is the son of Poland international defender Krystian. He grew up idolizing legendary defenders like Ruud Krol and Daniel Passarella and, just like his father, decided to ply his trade as a left back. His parents divorced at an early age, with Krystian heading across the pond in 1976 and joining North American Soccer League club Connecticut Bicentennials.
“I lived in Poland until I was almost 18,” said Michallik in an exclusive RG interview. “Poland molded me as a person and as a player. I definitely consider myself 50% Polish, and 50% American. I would never in a million years even say it was 51-49. I learned to be a man in Poland.”
Poland’s communist regime prohibited the league’s best players from leaving until they had surpassed the age of 30 – a rule that was only changed in 1982 to allow Zbigniew Boniek to join Juventus. Once Krystian finally reached the age requirement, he opted to head west and test his skills in the NASL, the country’s first major soccer league to enjoy popularity on a national scale. Whilst Krystian was going to be playing against global superstars like Pelé and George Best in the United States, Janusz was about to go through one of the toughest periods in Poland’s modern era.
Poland fell into a deep economic recession and was forced to ration essential goods, prompting the creation of the Solidarity Movement. The first anti-communist trade union in the Soviet Bloc utilized civil acts of disobedience strikes and demonstrations to protest against the country’s antidemocratic rule and put the country on track for bankruptcy. In response, the Polish military junta imposed martial law from December 1981 to July 1983, wiretapping phones, intensifying food shortages, and imprisoning thousands of opposition protesters without a trial. Michallik grew up “learning the wrong history” at school, and whilst his father’s glamorous soccer career helped protect him from the financial hardships of the era, it didn’t shield him from his nation’s predicament: he’d wake up to seeing military tanks in his backyard and wasn’t allowed to go out at night due to the nation’s strict curfews.
Making the Move to America
He earned his first professional contract at Gwardia Warsaw, where his father spent 12 years and wore the captain’s armband, making 10 appearances for the first team before eventually deciding to leave in 1984 on the cusp of his 18th birthday. Just as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was heating up, Janusz elected to leave the Iron Curtain behind, start a new life with his family in the USA, and join the Cleveland Force in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). There was no turning back: Janusz could no longer return to Poland, whether he wanted to or not.
“Moving to any country is always scary. I didn’t speak a word of English when I first came here, I missed Poland a lot when I first left…there was a period of 15 years when I didn’t visit Poland at all.
First, I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to. Then, after the Communist Party fell, there were opportunities to return, but I was living the life of a professional soccer player. With the distance between the US and Poland as well as the amount of matches we played to get ready for the World Cup, it was simply impossible to go back. Fortunately for me, I’ve been able to visit Poland a lot in the past few years thanks to my work with Polish TV. I’m making up for lost time.”
It’s been four decades since Michallik left Poland for the USA, but he hasn’t found it difficult at all to keep his Polish heritage alive. He has a bilingual household and has his Polish parents by his side in New England, and after 15 years of not going back, he’s visiting Poland on a regular basis thanks to his work with TVP Sport.
“I don’t go out of my way to stay in touch with my Polish roots, it’s simply a normal part of who I am. I eat a lot of pierogies and kapusta [chuckles]. We speak Polish in the household, my parents are here in Connecticut, and we have a massive Polish community here in New Britain, CT where you go out on the street and every single store is Polish. I mostly live an American life, but by virtue of working for the biggest Polish television network and flying there quite often, I don’t have to go out of my way to stay in touch with my roots.”
Eduardo Hurtado #29 of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Janusz Michallik #4 of the Columbus Crew fight for the ball during an MLS game played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Galaxy won the game, 3-2. (Photo by Stephen Dunn, Getty Images)
Playing in US Soccer’s ‘Wild West’ Era
Michallik’s playing days were spent during a confusing, muddled void in the history of American soccer. When he first made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean and moved to Ohio, the North American Soccer League (NASL) was suffering a terminal decline and getting ready to suspend operations. It took the nation 12 years to find a veritable successor – Major League Soccer (MLS) – by which time Michallik was entering the twilight of his career. In the decade in between, American soccer was in its Wild West era, an amalgam of different teams and leagues trying to stay afloat and churn out a profitable business.
“You’d play in a team for a year or two, and then the league or club would fold. It was all over the place…you didn’t know where the next check was coming from, or if it was coming at all. In those days, if you got a check from your team, you’d go straight to the bank and cash it…if you waited a few days, you might come up empty-handed. With the exception of MISL, there wasn’t a proper soccer league like MLS or NASL. You were bouncing around from one league to another. I played in a lot more leagues than I should’ve.”
It was far from a seamless transition to life on the other side. During one of his first training sessions in Cleveland, the then 17-year-old Michallik suffered a gruesome collision and was forced to undergo a total reconstruction of his knee. It could have been a career-ending injury, but instead, Michallik refused to give up and eventually returned after a year out, continuing to pursue his dream in his newly adopted country. He joined the Louisville Thunder in the American Indoor Soccer Association, a league that was entering just the third season of its existence.
Having lost in the final to Canton Invaders in each of the first two seasons, Michallik helped the Thunder avenge their previous defeats and beat their familiar foes in the 1986/87 finals, which, in contrast to the quarterfinals and semifinals, were held over five different legs as opposed to two. He basked in the limelight and celebrated with his teammates in an open-top bus in the annual Kentucky Derby Parade, which featured Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox, relishing the long-awaited triumph and soaking up the praise from the thousands of onlooking supporters. However, just two days after the cavalcade, the Louisville Thunder went into liquidation, and Michallik was forced to pack his bags once again, signing with Canton.
Only four teams returned from the previous year, making for a brief, 24-game regular season that ended in early February. The All-Star Game was scheduled to be played in Tampa Bay, but with the Rowdies deciding to leave to play outdoors in the American Soccer League, and with three other teams folding, the game was called off. Rather than hold a two-team battle for the championship, the league opted for a 12-match, round-robin tournament known as the Challenge Cup Series to determine the champion, and they invited the Jacksonville Generals and Dayton Dynamo (who were set to join as expansion teams the following season) to participate ahead of schedule. After a six-week-long tournament, the series came down to the final day between Canton and the Fort Wayne Flames, who both retained 8-3 records. It was the de facto championship game – whoever won the match would be crowned the victors of the season – and Canton prevailed with a 5-4 victory.
