KTS Weszło

KTS Weszło, informally, due to the city of its headquarters, also called KTS Weszło Warszawa, is a Polish football club based in Warsaw, Masovian Voivodeship. It was founded by media and sports group Weszło and is run as a fan-owned initiative.

In the 2024–25 season, they compete in IV liga Masovia, having earned promotion from V liga in May 2023.

Financing and ownership

The club is owned by 11000 amateur investors, who bought shares in 2018, raising 20 million zł initially. It was the first such initiative in Poland.

In 2021 the club was crowdfunded under the initiative led by Krzysztof Stanowski. 3963 investors were found raising 4.5 million zł in 90 minutes for 25000 shares accounting for 20% of the total.

History

It was established on 17 January 2018. In the first season, its team included players with experience in the Polish national team, Ekstraklasa ( Wojciech Kowalczyk, Grzegorz Szamotulski, Dawid Janczyk, Daniel Kokosiński), foreign athletes ( Jonathan Simba Bwanga, Merveille Fundambu) and celebrities (Quebonafide). In the 2018–19 season, KTS was promoted to A-class.

On 5 January 2020, it won the Amber Cup Tournament in Gliwice, ahead of the Polska Stars and Kamil Wilczek Team. In the following season, suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland, the team placed third in its group, but retained its chances of promotion to the Warsaw regional league through play-offs. In them, the KTS team lost 1–3 to Orzeł Baniocha. In the 2020–21 season, KTS achieved promotion, winning 24 of its 26 matches, scoring 170 goals and losing 13.

On 9 July 2022, Piotr Kobierecki became the coach, replacing Piotr Dziewicki in this position. In August 2022, the club organized "Summer in the City" events for children in the Warsaw district of Białołęka, with guests including Poland's national team manager Czesław Michniewicz and footballers Jakub Kosecki and Grzegorz Szamotulski. At the inauguration of the 2022–23 season, Weszło defeated Drukarz Warsaw 6–0. On 2 March 2022, Krzysztof Stanowski became president of KTS.

On 19 October 2022, following a 9–1 semifinal win against Ożarowianka Ozarów Mazowiecki, the club advanced to the final of the Polish Cup at the regional level of the Warsaw MZPN for the second consecutive year, where it won 4–1 against Mszczonowianka Mszczonów. By winning the final, the club earned the right to participate in the Polish Cup of the Masovian level, in which it received a free draw in the 1/8 final, and lost 2–3 in the quarterfinals to third-league Pogoń Grodzisk Mazowiecki, dropping out of the competition.

On 1 May 2023, KTS won 5–1 against Wkra Żuromin, securing promotion to IV liga Mazovia. On 13 May 2023, they recorded its highest victory ever, thrashing Skra Drobin, last in the table, 15–0 at the Hutnik Warsaw Stadium. KTS finished the 2022–23 season with a set of victories, scoring 156 goals, losing 14.

In the 2023–24 season, KTS Weszło defended the Polish Cup at the level of the Warsaw MZPN, winning 4–2 against Polonia Warsaw II in the final on 8 November 2023. Kobierecki was dismissed on 6 April 2024, and replaced ten days later by Bartłomiej Grzelak and Marcin Burkhardt on an interim basis, with Maciej Tarnogrodzki scheduled to take over as manager at the start of the 2024–25 season.

Notable players

KTS players were, among others, Merveille Fundambu and Jonathan Simba Bwanga, which later joined the leading clubs of the Poland First League, Wojciech Kowalczyk, the 1992 Summer Olympics medalist and Grzegorz Szamotulski, the Polish national team representative. In July 2022, ex-Polish international Jakub Kosecki joined the club.

Statistics

References

{{Reflist

External links

- 90minut.pl profile

- Official Facebook page

Football clubs in Warsaw
Association football clubs established in 2018
2018 establishments in Poland