best performance: 3. place (1974, 1982)
played in 7 World Cup tournaments.

The tournament in France was Poland's first World Cup competition. The qualifiers were just a formality for the Polish eleven; the only opponent was an amateur team from Yugoslavia and the Poles beat them easily. In the finals they had to tackle a much tougher obstacle: in the first round they came up against a strong team from Brazil. The spectators (among 15,000 viewers there were many Polish emigrants) witnessed an amazing game. In the first 45 minutes "canarinhos" hit 3 goals and Poland managed just one. The Polish team was far from beaten, though. In the first quarter of the second half they turned the two-goal deficit into a draw. Before the end of the game both teams hit one goal each and made the score 4:4. In overtime the Brazilian team dominated and after a 120-minute battle they defeated Poland 6:5. "Whites & reds" didn't qualify to the next round and placed 11th.