Artur Łukasz Krysiak (; born 11 August 1989) is a Polish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for Start Brzeziny. He previously played in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

for Gretna and

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

and in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

and

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. He also played for the Poland national under-19 team.

Club career

Born in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

, Łódź Voivodeship, Krysiak trained at the academy of

UKS SMS Łódź Uczniowski Klub Sportowy Szkoła Mistrzostwa Sportowego Łódź (), commonly known as UKS SMS Łódź, is a Polish football club based in Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, currently playing in the regional league. The club is well known for work ...

from 2004 until 31 August 2006 when he joined English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

on a three-year contract for a fee of £60,000. After only two hours on trial at Birmingham, goalkeeping coach

Nigel Spink Nigel Philip Spink (born 8 August 1958) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. He played as a goalkeeper from 1976 until 2001. He made his name at Aston Villa and also made one appearance for England at international le ...

knew that "he was the real deal".

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

director

Terry Westley Terry Westley (born 18 September 1959) is an association football coach and manager. Until 2011 he was the Academy Director at Birmingham City and in July 2014 he was appointed to a similar role with West Ham United. He has had brief spells as ...

described him as "a strong character horeally stands out as a massive presence in goal" and believes that Krysiak can reach the top as "he has that Premiership mentality and quality". He spent the second half of the 2007–08 season on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

club Gretna. He made his debut on 16 February 2008 after

Greg Fleming Greg William Edward Fleming (born 27 September 1986) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Annan Athletic. He has previously played for Livingston, Gretna, Oldham Athletic, Dunfermline Athletic, Galway United, ...

was suspended. Due to the good form of Fleming, Krysiak started in only three matches; on his third appearance he was named in

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

' SPL Team of the Week. He made one further appearance, impressing after coming on as a substitute against Hearts on 13 May 2008. At the start of the 2008–09 season, Krysiak joined

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

of the

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profess ...

on loan for a month, as cover for injured goalkeeper Michael Ingham. He made his debut in a 1–0 victory against

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

and was substituted during his second appearance against

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

after suffering a dislocated finger, which resulted in him returning to Birmingham. After Birmingham's second-choice goalkeeper Colin Doyle underwent a knee operation, Krysiak replaced him on the substitutes' bench for the Championship match against

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

in September 2008. He joined fellow Championship team

on a three-month emergency loan on 23 September, and on the same day featured on the bench in a 1–0 victory over rivals

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He made his debut for Swansea in a 3–0 win over

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the Championship, in which he played the full 90 minutes. Krysiak was named in the Championship team of the week after making his debut for Swansea. He returned to Birmingham following the conclusion of this loan spell. On 2 January 2009 Krysiak joined Scottish Premier League club

on loan for the remainder of the 2008–09 season. He made one appearance at Motherwell, which came on the final day of the season, in a 2–1 defeat to

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

. In May 2009, Birmingham confirmed that Krysiak would be released when his contract expired at the end of the season. However, a few weeks later he signed a one-year contract with an option for a further year with the club. On 10 August 2009 Krysiak joined

, newly

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

, on loan for a month. He made his debut in a 5–2 victory over

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

on 15 August. After he produced "a string of impressive performances", the loan was first extended until 2 January 2010, and then for the rest of the season. In April, he injured his ankle, with recovery time expected to be from six to eight weeks. In April 2010, Burton offered Krysiak a permanent contract, while Birmingham announced that he would be released when his contract expired at the end of June 2010. Krysiak agreed to sign for

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

when his Birmingham contract expired on 1 July. Krysiak made his Exeter league debut against Brighton in November 2010. On 7 May 2014, Krysiak announced on Exeweb (fans forum) that he would be leaving the club. Krysiak joined newly relegated League One side

on a two-year contract on 30 June 2014. He was released by Yeovil at the end of the 2017–18 season. On 9 August 2018, Krysiak signed for Norwegian

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

side

FK Bodø/Glimt Fotballklubben Bodø/Glimt () is a Norwegian professional football club from the town of Bodø that currently plays in Eliteserien, the Norwegian top division. The club was founded in 1916 and is frequently referred to by its original club na ...

on a contract until 2019. On 22 January 2019, Krysiak returned to Poland to join

I liga I liga ( pl, Pierwsza liga, ), currently named Fortuna I liga due to its sponsorship by Fortuna, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga vi ...

side

Odra Opole Odra Opole () is a football club based in Opole, Poland, currently playing in the I liga. History Beginnings The history of Odra Opole began on 16 June 1945, when in the Opole Town Hall, a group of sports officials gathered to form a new ...

signing a contract until 30 June 2019.

International career

He played for the Poland national under-19 team in the 2008 European Championship elite qualification round.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Krysiak, Artur 1989 births Living people Footballers from Łódź Polish men's footballers Poland men's youth international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Birmingham City F.C. players Gretna F.C. players York City F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players FK Bodø/Glimt players Odra Opole players Scottish Premier League players National League (English football) players English Football League players I liga players Polish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Polish expatriate sportspeople in England Polish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Polish expatriate sportspeople in Norway