Zbigniew "Zibi" Maà Âkowski (born 19 January 1978) is a Polish professional football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeping coach for Legia Warsaw II.
'Zibi' first appeared for Hibernian as a trialist in a 5âÂÂ0 win over St Patrick's Athletic in the 2005âÂÂ06 pre-season tour of Ireland. He then made a second showing in the game 24 hours later against Shamrock Rovers. He impressed Tony Mowbray, and on returning to Edinburgh was signed on a two-year contract. After initially impressing during the first half of the 2005âÂÂ06 league season, he started to make errors around the turn of the year.
Maà Âkowski was notable for making a series of errors in derby matches against Hibs' rivals, Hearts. His first two mistakes in the 2006 Scottish Cup defeat, followed by an error leading to a Hearts equaliser in the next derby, which Hibs won 2âÂÂ1. Having kept his place under Tony Mowbray during the following season, he made two bad errors in the first derby after Mowbray's departure to West Brom. Maà Âkowski's errors resulted in a draw, in a game where they had been 2âÂÂ0 up after sixteen minutes. In what proved to be Malkowski's last game for the club, he made a serious error in the next derby match, when he dropped a tame free kick by Paul Hartley into the path of Edgaras Jankauskas, who scored into the unguarded net. This led to Maà Âkowski being dropped from the Hibernian squad entirely for the following match against Dunfermline, being replaced by Andrew McNeil.
Having completely fallen out of favour at Hibs, Maà Âkowski was loaned out to Scottish First Division leaders Gretna towards the end of the 2006âÂÂ07 season. He replaced Alan Main, who had signed a pre-contract agreement with their promotion rivals St Johnstone. Maà Âkowski made a positive impression at Gretna, keeping several clean sheets, including a penalty save against Dundee that preserved a 1âÂÂ0 win. Maà Âkowski's performances contributed towards Gretna's promotion to the Scottish Premier League.
Maà Âkowski returned to Hibs after completing his loan spell at Gretna. He was still completely out of favour at Hibs, who had signed Yves Ma-Kalambay to be their first choice goalkeeper. Maà Âkowski played as a trialist in a match for Falkirk, who subsequently signed Tim Krul on loan from Newcastle. On 31 August 2007, he joined Inverness on a season-long loan. Maà Âkowski made an error in his first match for Inverness against Aberdeen, which they lost 2âÂÂ1.
After completing loan spells at Gretna and Inverness, Maà Âkowski was released by Hibernian on 1 September 2008. He has since returned to Poland to continue playing his football at a lower level, with OKS 1945 Olsztyn, his first senior club.
Zagà ÂÃÂbie Lubin II