Dawid Igor Kownacki (; born 14 March 1997) 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 striker for club

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

and the Poland national team. Besides Poland, he has played in Italy and Germany.

Early career

Having started out at local side

GKP Gorzów Wielkopolski GKP may refer to: * German Kino Plus, an American German-language television channel * Gorakhpur Junction railway station * Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a British oil and gas exploration company operating in Iraqi Kurdistan * Guinea Kpelle language * ...

, Kownacki joined

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional association football, football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation' ...

in 2005, coming through the youth ranks and making it to the first team in December 2013. He scored his first

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 cl ...

goal in February 2014 in a 5–1 loss at

Pogoń Szczecin Pogoń Szczecin Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Pogoń Szczecin (), is a Polish professional football club, based in Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national football league s ...

, becoming one of only five players aged under 17 to have registered in Poland's top flight. He won his first league title the following season – "At 16, people were calling me 'the new

Lewandowski Lewandowski (; feminine Lewandowska, plural Lewandowscy) is a Polish-language surname. In other languages it may be transliterated as Lewandowsky, Levandovski, Levandovsky, Levandovskyy, Levandoski, Levandovskiy. It is the seventh most common su ...

', and that was tough to handle, but I changed my attitude, grew up and am now much better at not taking to heart what people say. Of course, I still have big dreams".

Club career

Sampdoria

On 11 July 2017, Kownacki signed a five-year contract with Italian side

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

. In November, he scored a brace and assisted another goal in Sampdoria's 4–1

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

win against

Delfino Pescara Delfino Pescara 1936, commonly referred to as Pescara, is a professional Italian football club based in Pescara, Abruzzo. The club was formed in 1936 and currently plays in Serie C. Pescara has competed in seven seasons in Serie A, 1977–78, ...

in the

fourth round Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

Fortuna Düsseldorf

On 31 January 2019, Kownacki joined to German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

on loan with an option to buy. On 30 June 2019, he rejoined Fortuna on another loan with an obligation to buy, which was fulfilled in January 2020.

Loan to Lech

On 2 February 2022, Kownacki returned to his maiden club

on a straight loan until the end of the season.

International career

Kownacki represented Poland at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 level, winning 46 caps and scoring 31 goals. He received his first call-up to the senior

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

squad for matches against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

in June 2015. In May 2018, he was named in Poland's preliminary 35-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

and subsequently final 23-man for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Career statistics

Club

¹ Including

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2021, the Polish Super Cup has been pl ...

International

International goals

:''As of match played on 12 June 2018. Scores and results list Poland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Lech Poznań *

: 2014–15, 2021–22 *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

* * 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Gorzów Wielkopolski Polish footballers Poland youth international footballers Poland under-21 international footballers Poland international footballers Association football forwards Lech Poznań II players Lech Poznań players U.C. Sampdoria players Fortuna Düsseldorf players III liga players Ekstraklasa players Serie A players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players Polish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Italy Polish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Polish expatriate sportspeople in Italy {{Poland-footy-bio-stub