Pogoń Szczecin

(August 2023)">citation needed]

Pogoń Szczecin

Pogoń Szczecin Logo
Full name	Pogoń Szczecin Spółka Akcyjna
Nickname(s)	Portowcy (The Dockers) Duma Pomorza (Pride of Pomerania)
Founded	21 April 1948; 75 years ago (1948-04-21)
Ground	Stadion Miejski im. Floriana Krygiera
Capacity	21,163
Chairman	Jarosław Mroczek
Manager	Jens Gustafsson
League	Ekstraklasa
2022–23	Ekstraklasa, 4th of 18
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

The club was founded by Poles from Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), who had been transferred west after the Soviet annexation of Poland's eastern territories in 1945. The founders of Pogoń Szczecin had previously been supporters of Pogoń Lwów and the colors of their new club reflect their old club. Polonia Bytom and Odra Opole were likewise founded or revived by the former inhabitants of Lwów.

The most popular sports organization in Szczecin was founded on 21 April 1948 as Klub Sportowy Sztorm. Its first departments were football and boxing, and the football team began playing in the local C-Klasa. In March 1949, several sports clubs in Szczecin (KS Sztorm, KS Cukrownik, KS Drukarz, Pocztowy KS) were merged into a large organization called Klub Sportowy Zwiazkowiec. The team of Zwiazkowiec joined local A-Class league, replacing Pocztowy KS. In November 1950, Zwiazkowiec was dissolved, and a new organization, Klub Sportowy Kolejarz Szczecin was formed. Its football team, supported by the Port of Szczecin, in 1953 was promoted to the newly created Interregional League (Liga Międzywojewódzka), which covered the provinces of Szczecin, Zielona Góra and Poznań.

In autumn 1955, Kolejarz was renamed into Pogoń Szczecin. The name and the hues of the club are a continuation of Pogoń Lwów. In 1957, Pogoń was runner up of the Interregional League, qualifying to the second division playoffs. After beating Flota Gdynia, Kujawiak Włocławek and Warta Gorzów, Pogoń for the first time won promotion to the second level of Polish football system. In 1958, Pogoń was the winner of Group North of the Second Division (37 points, goals 54–22, not a single game lost), winning promotion to the Ekstraklasa.

In its top level debut, Pogoń lost at home to Gwardia Warszawa 0–1. In 1960, Pogoń was relegated from the Ekstraklasa, to return there in 1962.

For most of the 1960s and 1970s, Pogoń remained in the top Polish league, but remained an average team, without any successes. This changed in the early 1980s: in 1981, Pogoń advanced to the final of the Polish Cup, to lose 0–1 to Legia Warsaw. In 1982, Pogoń again made it to the Polish Cup final, to lose 0–1 to Lech Poznań.

In 1984 Pogoń, managed by Eugeniusz Ksol, for the first time in history was among top three teams in the Ekstraklasa, which meant that the team qualified for the UEFA Cup. In its European debut, Pogoń faced 1. FC Köln, with such stars as Harald Schumacher, Pierre Littbarski and Klaus Allofs. In the first leg (September 19, 1984 in Cologne), Pogoń lost 1–2. In the second leg (October 3), Polish team lost 0–1, after its players failed to score on two penalty kicks.

In 1987, Pogoń was Polish runner-up. Managed by Leszek Jezierski, the team played offensively, scoring plenty of goals. With such players as Mariusz Kuras, Marek Ostrowski and Marek Leśniak, Pogoń was only behind Górnik Zabrze. In the first round of UEFA Cup, Pogon faced Hellas Verona, with Thomas Berthold and Preben Elkjær. In the first leg (September 16, 1987), Pogoń tied at home 1–1. Two weeks later, Polish team lost in Italy 1–3.

 

Pogoń in 2002 was on the brink of bankruptcy. As a result, fans created a new team on the basis of the reserves in the fourth division. However owner of Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski Antoni Ptak decided to move the team and renamed the club MKS Pogoń Szczecin. The initial distrust was lost when the team performed well and used local players, however halfway through the 2005–06 season the team started underperforming and Ptak decided to replace almost the entire squad with only Brazilian nationals, making it the "most Brazilian team outside Brazil". Antoni Ptak also built a small training facility in Gutów Mały, meaning the home games were played almost 500 km (311 mi) away from Szczecin. The experiment failed and in 2007 Antoni Ptak moved away from football, leaving the club to be rebuilt on the basis of the 4th division counterpart set up originally by the fans, which acted as the reserve team in the meantime.

 

The club was promoted to the Zachodnia (Western) group of the new II Liga (formerly the Third League) for the 2007–08 season. The club earned promotion to the Polish First League after finishing 2nd in Western Group of Polish Second League in 2008–09 season. Despite playing on the second tier, Pogoń performed well in the 2009–10 Polish Cup, defeating top division teams Polonia Warsaw, Piast Gliwice and Ruch Chorzów to reach the final, to lose 0–1 to Jagiellonia Białystok. Finally Pogoń returned to the top division after finishing the First League as runner-up in the 2011–12 season.

Since then, Pogoń has promoted a number of players to the Poland national team and transferred several players to stronger leagues, including Sebastian Walukiewicz to Serie A side Cagliari Calcio and Kacper Kozłowski to Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. While still a Pogoń player, Kozłowski, aged 17 years and 246 days, became the youngest-ever player to play at the European Championship, when he capped for Poland against Spain in June 2021. From 2020, Pogoń re-established itself as one of the top teams in the country, finishing third in the league twice in a row (2020–21, 2021–22).

 

The club's colours are navy blue and maroon. Incorporated into the club's crest, they are derived from Pogoń Lwów, from which Pogoń Szczecin also took its name. The crowned griffin in the crest comes from the coat of arms of the city of Szczecin. Additionally, the crest contains the name "Pogoń" and the year of the club's foundation, i.e. 1948.

The club mascot Gryfus is a red crowned griffin, also derived from the coat of arms of Szczecin.

Domestic

• Ekstraklasa
  • Runners-up (2): 1986–87, 2000–01
  • Third place (3): 1983–84, 2020–21, 2021–22
• Polish Cup
  • Runners-up (3): 1980–81, 1981–82, 2009–10

International

• First Round of the 1984–85 UEFA Cup and the 1987–88 UEFA Cup
• Qualifying Round of the 2001–02 UEFA Cup
• Second Round of the 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup

Youth Team

• Polish U-19 Champion:

1986, 2021

• Polish U-19 Runner Up:

1965, 2016, 2017

• Polish U-19 Bronze Medal:

1960, 2008, 2012, 2014

• Polish U-17 Bronze Medal:

2002

Results

Season	Competition	Round		Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate
1965–66	Intertoto Cup	GR		Chemie Leipzig	1–3	0–1	4th
				Slovnaft Bratislava	2–3	0–4
				NK Zagreb	3–0	0–2
1976	Intertoto Cup	GR		Östers IF	0–1	0–1	3rd
				Belenenses	2–2	0–2
				Næstved	3–0	1–1
1977	Intertoto Cup	GR		Sturm Graz	1–0	0–0	1st
				KB	2–2	1–1
				Chênois	6–1	1–0
1982	Intertoto Cup	GR		Brage	1–0	0–2	2nd
				Sparta Prague	2–0	0–1
				Wiener Sport-Club	3–3	4–3
1983	Intertoto Cup	GR		Werder Bremen	2–1	0–4	1st
				Malmö FF	2–0	1–2
				St. Gallen	1–1	3–3
1984–85	UEFA Cup	1R		FC Köln	0–1	1–2	1–3
1987	Intertoto Cup	GR		Hammarby	3–0	3–2	1st
				La Chaux-de-Fonds	6–3	4–0
				Magdeburg	3–1	1–2
1987–88	UEFA Cup	1R		Hellas Verona	1–1	1–3	2–4
1988	Intertoto Cup	GR		Grasshopper Club	0–0	0–1	3rd
				Östers IF	2–0	0–0
				Pécsi MFC	0–0	1–3
1993	Intertoto Cup	GR		Lausanne-Sport	0–4		4th
				IFK Norrköping		1–4
				Copenhagen	4–1
				Austria Wien		0–2
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	GR		Cannes	1–2		5th
				Farul Constanța		1–2
				Dnepr Mogilev	3–3
				Bečej		1–2
2001–02	UEFA Cup	QR		Fylkir	1–1	1–2	2–3
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R		Tiligul Tiraspol	6–2	3–0	9–2
		2R		Sigma Olomouc	0–0	0–1	0–1
2021–22	UEFA Europa Conference League	2QR		Osijek	0–0	0–1	0–1
2022–23	UEFA Europa Conference League	1QR		KR	4–1	0–1	4–2
		2QR		Brøndby	1–1	0–4	1–5
2023–24	UEFA Europa Conference League	2QR		Linfield	3−2	5–2	8–4
		3QR		Gent	2–1	0–5	2–6

Current squad

As of 17 January 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 4 DF   BRA Léo Borges 7 MF   POL Rafał Kurzawa 8 MF   NOR Fredrik Ulvestad 9 FW   GRE Efthymis Koulouris 10 FW   SVN Luka Zahović 11 MF   POL Kamil Grosicki (captain) 15 MF   POL Marcel Wędrychowski 20 MF   AUT Alexander Gorgon 21 MF   POR João Gamboa 22 MF   ARM Vahan Bichakhchyan 23 DF   AUT Benedikt Zech 25 DF   POL Wojciech Lisowski

No. Pos. Nation Player 28 DF   SWE Linus Wahlqvist 32 DF   GRE Leonardo Koutris 33 DF   POL Mariusz Malec 61 MF   POL Kacper Smoliński 68 DF   CRO Danijel Lončar 71 MF   POL Olaf Korczakowski 73 MF   POL Adrian Przyborek 76 GK   POL Maciej Kowal 77 GK   ROU Valentin Cojocaru (on loan from OH Leuven) 81 GK   POL Bartosz Klebaniuk 83 GK   POL Axel Holewiński

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 FW   POL Kacper Kostorz (at Den Bosch until 30 June 2024) 70 MF   POL Stanisław Wawrzynowicz (at Kotwica Kołobrzeg until 30 June 2024) 72 MF   IRN Yadegar Rostami (at ŁKS Łódź until 30 June 2024) 74 DF   POL Dawid Rezaeian (at Stomil Olsztyn until 30 June 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF   POL Jakub Lis (at Motor Lublin until 30 June 2024) — MF   POL Kacper Łukasiak (at Górnik Łęczna until 30 June 2024) — FW   POL Aron Stasiak (at Kotwica Kołobrzeg until 30 June 2024) — GK   CRO Dante Stipica (at Ruch Chorzów until 30 June 2024)

• Football in Poland

Cited sources