Former Poland star Zbigniew Boniek was yesterday elected head of his country’s football association, PZPN, a month after his one-time international team-mate Grzegorz Lato pulled out of the race.

Boniek mustered 61 votes at the PZPN’s 118-member congress, beating off five lower-profile candidates.

“I want to thank everyone who voted for me. And to those who voted for someone else, I want you to know that Zbigniew Boniek is a president for all,” he said after the announcement.

Boniek, now 56, was a member of the Poland squads that shone on the global stage in the 1970s and early 1980s, just like Lato, who is six years’ older.