Jerzy Józef Brzęczek (; born 18 March 1971) is a Polish professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former player. In a professional career which spanned nearly 20 years and brought 42

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

with the Poland national team, Brzęczek played for clubs in Poland,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. From 2018 to 2021, he was the head coach for the Poland national team.

Club career

During his career, Brzęczek played for

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of na ...

, Olimpia Poznań, Lech Poznań,

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning the second-most Po ...

(two spells),

GKS Katowice GKS Katowice (; GKS stands for , "Miners Sporting Club") is a Polish football club based in Katowice, Poland. The club currently plays in the I liga, after having won promotion in 2021. History In 1963 in Katowice a special organizational co ...

, Tirol Innsbruck (later Wacker Tirol),

LASK Linz Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as Linzer ASK () or simply LASK, is an Austrian professional football club, from the Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Footbal ...

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa ( he, מכבי חיפה) is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football ...

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austrian f ...

FC Kärnten FC Kärnten was an Austrian association football club based in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. It was founded in 1920 under the name of KSK Klagenfurt. History Austria Klagenfurt Austria Klagenfurt played successfully in the ''Kärntner Liga'' and in ...

and

Polonia Bytom Polonia Bytom () is a Polish football club based in Bytom, founded in 1920, two times Polish Champions. The team currently plays in the III liga (as of 2022–23). History Beginnings Polonia was founded on 4 January 1920 in the Upper Silesia ...

, retiring in 2009 at age 38. Brzęczek picked up championship medals in both

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 populou ...

(with Lech Poznań in 1993) and

(with Tirol Innsbruck in 2001 and 2002).

International career

With 42 caps for the Poland national team to his credit, Brzęczek also represented the national team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

, winning silver.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Poland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Brzęczek goal''.

Coaching career

Clubs

On 17 November 2014, he became the coach of Lechia Gdańsk, and he was sacked on 1 September 2015. Then, from the end of September 2015, he was a manager for

. On 20 May 2017, after losing a game against

MKS Kluczbork MKS Kluczbork is a football club based in Kluczbork, Opole Voivodeship, Poland. History The club was founded in 2003 as the merger of three local clubs: KKS Kluczbork (itself a result of merger in 1945 between ZKK Kluczbork and Cresovia Klucz ...

and losing the chances of promotion to the

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 ...

, he resigned. On 11 July 2017, he became the coach of

Wisła Płock Wisła Płock Spółka Akcyjna (''Wisła Płock S.A.''), commonly referred to as Wisła Płock (), is a Polish professional football club, based in Płock, Masovian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national fo ...

Poland

On 12 July 2018 he was announced as the new head coach of the Poland national team. His tenure didn't start off well, with Poland getting relegated from the

2018–19 UEFA Nations League A The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League A was the top division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA ...

, following two losses and two draws. Poland's

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europ ...

was more impressive, with the team managing to win four opening matches without conceding a goal. However, after a 2–0 away defeat to

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

and a home draw to

, Brzęczek faced heavy pressure from the fans calling for his dismissal. Despite this, he managed to keep the team on track with two final wins over Latvia and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

, eventually qualifying for the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

from the top spot in their group. Brzęczek was sacked on 18 January 2021, five months before Poland's first match at the UEFA Euro 2020 and succeeded by the Portugal's

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa, CavIH (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. Starting his career at Benfica, he also represented Sporting CP in his countr ...

Wisła Kraków

On 14 February 2022, Brzęczek was appointed head coach of

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. It currently competes in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system. ...

, replacing

Adrián Guľa Adrián Guľa (born 29 June 1975) is a Slovakian football coach and former player who lastly managed DAC Dunajská Streda. He formerly managed teams including AS Trenčín, Viktoria Plzeň, and Wisła Kraków. Managerial career MŠK Žilina h ...

. Achieving only one win in 13 league games, he was not able to save Wisła from relegation to

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 v ...

, their first since they returned to the top division in 1996. With five wins and two draws in 12 games at the start of Wisła's 2022–23 league campaign, Brzęczek left the club.

Personal life

Brzęczek's nephew is a footballer, winger

Jakub Błaszczykowski Jakub Błaszczykowski (; born 14 December 1985), also known as Kuba, is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Wisła Kraków, businessman and Wisła Kraków's part owner. He started his professional football at Wisła Krakó ...

, who has most notably represented

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

and

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

. His sister, Błaszczykowski's mother, was murdered by her husband which caused family separation.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Lech Poznań *

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Tirol Innsbruck * Austrian Bundesliga: 2000–01, 2001–02 Poland U23 * Summer Olympics: runner-up: 1992

Notes

References

External links

Maccabi Haifa profile and short bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brzeczek, Jerzy 1971 births Living people Polish footballers Polish football managers Association football midfielders Ekstraklasa players Lech Poznań players Górnik Zabrze players GKS Katowice players Austrian Football Bundesliga players FC Wacker Innsbruck players LASK players SK Sturm Graz players FC Kärnten players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Poland international footballers Olympic footballers of Poland Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Poland Polish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Israel Expatriate footballers in Austria Olympic medalists in football People from Kłobuck County Sportspeople from Silesian Voivodeship Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Raków Częstochowa players Olimpia Poznań players Polonia Bytom players Lechia Gdańsk managers GKS Katowice managers Raków Częstochowa managers Wisła Płock managers Wisła Kraków managers Ekstraklasa managers I liga managers Poland national football team managers