The ashes of Polish football legend Kazimierz Deyna were laid to rest in his homeland Poland on Wednesday, in an emotional ceremony held just two days before Euro 2012 kicks off.

Participants in a funeral mass for Deyna - who died in a car crash in the United States in 1989 - underlined the significance of bringing home the man regarded as one of the nation’s finest-ever players as today’s squad brace for the tournament’s opening match.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. Kazimierz Deyna was a great Pole, a great footballer and a true hero,” Father Boguslaw Kowalski told a packed Warsaw church, where it was standing room only and the crowd spilled out onto the street.

“He didn’t live to see Poland qualify for a European championship, so it’s highly symbolic that he has returned home at this historic moment.”

Offensive midfielder Deyna captained Poland during their long-lost glory days of gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics, third place at the 1974 World Cup in Germany and silver at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Four years after Deyna’s international retirement, Poland earned a second World Cup third place in Spain in 1982, but then failed to reach the knock-out stage at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

They fell into a long tournament drought, apart from a silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Over the past decade, Poland have raised and wrecked fans’ hopes, with solid qualifying campaigns for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup, plus their debut European championship in 2008, turning into lacklustre finals performances.

That has cranked up the pressure on today’s young squad - average age 25 - who as co-hosts didn’t even have to qualify for Euro 2012.

A monument dedicated to Deyna was to be unveiled later Wednesday outside the stadium of Legia, where Deyna played from 1966 to 1978, winning back-to-back titles in 1969 and 1970.

Deyna transferred to Manchester City in 1978, before moving on in 1981 to the San Diego Sockers, where he played until 1987.