Krzysztof Popczyński (born 8 March 1969) is a Polish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player. As a player, he played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Playing career

Born in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Popczyński played for a number of Polish as well as international clubs during his active career. He had his most successful spells in hometown club

Hutnik Kraków Hutnik Kraków (Polish pronunciation: ) is a Polish football club based in Kraków, Poland. History The club was founded in 1950. Hutnik have played seven seasons in the Polish Ekstraklasa (Polish first division). The team's greatest success is ...

between 1990 and 1995, where he made 135 appearances and scored 19 goals, and between 1998 and 2001, where he, as a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

for Faroese club VB Vagúr managed to score 35 goals throughout three seasons. He furthermore had short spells at Greek club

Panionios Panionios G.S.S. Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan- Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis'') ...

and Danish club

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Foun ...

Coaching career

Popczyński had a notable run as a player-coach in Faroe Islands, where he besides VB Vagúr also managed GÍ Gøta,

HB Tórshavn HB or Hb may refer to: Academia * H-b index, an extension of the h-index used in determining academic impact * H-B Woodlawn, a secondary education program in Arlington, Virginia, US * Hathaway Brown School, an all-girls private school in Shaker H ...

and

TB Tvøroyri TB or Tb may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Terabyte (TB), a unit of information (often measuring storage capacity) * Terabit (Tb), a unit of information (often measuring data transfer) * Thunderbolt (interface) * Test bench Vehicle ...

. On 27 July 2008, Popczyński was appointed as the new head coach of Danish club

Aarhus Fremad Aarhus Fremad (, "Aarhus Forward") is an association football club located in Aarhus N, the northern part of Aarhus, Denmark. The team plays in the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier of the Danish football league system. Aarhus Fremad competed i ...

who had recently been relegated from the Danish second tier. He coached the club for five years, before being sacked in favour of Jesper Tollefsen in July 2013 after missing promotion play-offs. In November 2014, Popczyński signed a one-year contract to replace Jesper Borup as the head coach of

FC Djursland FC Djursland is an association football club based in the town of Grenaa, Denmark, that competes in the Denmark Series, the fifth tier of the Danish football league system. The club is a merger established in Djursland in 2009, originally betwe ...

who were at the bottom of the Danish fourth division. However, he was unable to keep the team up and the club was relegated to the Jutland Series, the fifth tier of

Danish football Association football is the most popular sport in Denmark, with 331,693 players and 1,647 clubs registered () under the Danish FA. The game was introduced into Denmark by British sailors. Kjøbenhavns Boldklub is the oldest club outside of the U ...

at the end of the season. Another horrific season followed, in which Djursland suffered relegation to the sixth tier, after a decisive 3–1 loss in the penultimate round of the season to

Fuglebakken KFUM Fuglebakken may refer to three locations, all in Denmark: * Fuglebakken, Frederiksberg, a neighborhood in Copenhagen * Fuglebakken station, a train station in Copenhagen * Fuglebakken, a neighborhood in Aarhus V Aarhus Vest (lit.: Aarhus West) or ...

. Popczyński announced his resignation as of 31 October 2015, a few games befores the second consecutive relegation became a fact. In October 2017, Popczyński was named the new manager of Horsens Freja competing in the Danish fifth tier. He signed a two-year contract, and would be coaching the first team while completing his Danish Football Union coaching degree. On 5 November 2018, however, he resigned from his position at Horsens Freja citing disagreements over personal ambitions regarding amount of training sessions with the first-team's lacking ambitions. A month later, on 12 December 2018, Popczyński was announced as the new head coach of Danish third tier club

Kjellerup IF Kjellerup Idrætsforening is a Danish football club currently playing in the Denmark Series, the fifth tier of the Danish football league system. They play at Bjerget Stadium in Kjellerup, Central Jutland. History The club was formed in summ ...

, who were bottom of the table. He was sacked by Kjellerup in November 2021. In July 2022 he was announced as the new manager of

Thisted FC Thisted Fodbold Club () is an association football club based in the town of Thisted, North Jutland, Denmark, that competes in the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier of the Danish football league system. Founded in 1989, it is shortly known as ...

in the Danish 2nd Division. He left the club on 7 November 2022.THISTED FC OG CHEFTRÆNER KRZYSZTOF POPCZYNSKI STOPPER SAMARBEJDET
thistedfc.dk, 7 November 2022

Honours

Manager

VB Vágur *

Faroe Islands Premier League The Faroe Islands Premier League (also known as ''Betri deildin menn'' for sponsorship reasons) is the top level of football in the Faroe Islands. It was founded in 1942 as Meistaradeildin, and it is played in current format since 2005, when Premi ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

GÍ Gøta * Faroe Islands Cup: 2005 HB Tórshavn *Faroe Islands Premier League:

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Career statistics

Manager

References

External links

Aarhus-Fremad.dk Playing Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popczynski, Krzysztof 1969 births Living people Footballers from Kraków Polish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Esbjerg fB players Panionios F.C. players Vágs Bóltfelag players Havnar Bóltfelag players Víkingur Gøta players Hutnik Kraków players Polish football managers Aarhus Fremad managers Kjellerup IF managers Polish expatriate sportspeople in the Faroe Islands Expatriate men's footballers in the Faroe Islands Polish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece