Tomasz Karol Kędziora ( ; born 11 June 1994) 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 ...

who plays as a defender for Super League Greece club PAOK, on loan from

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

, and the Poland national team.

Club career

Early career

At the age of four, Tomasz Karol Kędziora started attending the youth academy of the UKP Zielona Góra. He was being trained at the time by his father, Mirosław. In 2000 he officially started training with players his age. In July 2010, he took part as an UKP Zielona Góra player in the final tournament of the Polish Junior Championships. The team won the bronze medal, coached by Tomasz Kędziora's father.

Lech Poznań

Before the start of the 2010–11 season, Kędziora signed for reigning Polish champions Lech Poznań. Initially he was a player of the Junior Ekstraklasa Lech team, where in the 2010–11 season he played 20 matches and scored two goals. In the fall of the 2011–12 season, he was placed in the first team, but continued to perform only in the Junior Ekstraklasa, having 20 appearances and scoring seven goals (including five from penalties). On 20 September 2011, Kędziora was included in Lech's squad for the 1/16

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in football ( pl, Puchar Polski w piłce nożnej ) is an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs, held continuously from 1950, and is the second most important national title in Polish football after the Ekstraklasa title. ...

final against

Chrobry Głogów Chrobry Głogów is a Polish football club based in Głogów, Poland. It was founded in 1946. The team's official colors are orange and black. Chrobry currently competes in I liga, the second tier of Polish league football. The club's name comme ...

, but he did not play. On 21 June 2012, Kędziora signed a new three-year contract with the Poznań club, which went until 30 June 2015. Kędziora made his debut for the first team on 12 July 2012 in a 1–1 draw of the first qualifying round of the Europa League with Kazakhstan club

FC Zhetysu Jetisu Taldykorgan ( kk, Жетісу Талдықорған футбол клубы, ''Jetisý Taldyqorǵan Fýtbol Klýby'') is a Kazakh professional football club based at the Zhetysu stadium in Taldykorgan. They are founding members of the ...

, entering at the 90th minute for Bartosz Ślusarski. On 27 October 2012, Kędziora made his debut in 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 ...

in the 2–0 defeat against

Jagiellonia Białystok Jagiellonia Białystok () is a Polish football club based in Białystok that plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of Polish football. The club was founded in 1920 by soldiers in the Reserve Battalion in Białystok. Jagiellonia play their home g ...

in the 9th round, replacing Hubert Wołąkiewicz in the 62nd minute. On 20 September 2013, during the 8th round of the Ekstraklasa with

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 ...

, he suffered an injury to his thigh muscle and returned on 13 December for the 21st match against

Zawisza Bydgoszcz Zawisza Bydgoszcz () is a sports club from Bydgoszcz, Poland, founded in 1946. Its name commemorates a legendary Polish 15th-century knight, Zawisza Czarny (Zawisza the Black). The club holds many sections: football, track and field athletics, ...

. On 5 May 2014, he scored his first goal in the Polish top-flight in a 2–1 win in the 32nd round against Zawisza Bydgoszcz. Kędziora signed a new, three-year contract with the Poznań club on 1 November 2015, effective from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2018. In the 2014–15 season, he won the Polish title with the team, appearing in 35 matches, scoring three goals and having six assists.

Dynamo Kyiv

On 11 July 2017, Kędziora signed a 4-year contract with Ukrainian club

Return to Lech Poznań

On 7 March 2022, FIFA announced that, due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, all the contracts of foreign players in Ukraine are suspended until 30 June 2022 and they are allowed to sign with clubs outside Ukraine until 30 June 2022, and the transfer window is reopened for such players to sign and get registered for the new club until 7 April 2022. On 17 March 2022, Kędziora returned to Lech Poznań until the end of the season under that condition.

Loan to PAOK

On 29 January 2023, Kędziora joined with Greek club PAOK on loan from

International career

Kędziora got 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 populou ...

squad for friendlies 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 ...

in June 2015. But he made his debut against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

on 13 November 2017. In May 2018, he was named in Poland’s preliminary 35-man squad for the

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

in Russia. However, he did not make the final 23.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Lech Poznań *

: 2014–15, 2021–22 *

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 ...

: 2015,

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 of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

Dynamo Kyiv *

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League' ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

: 2019–20,

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football competition season in Ukra ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kedziora, Tomasz 1994 births Living people People from Sulechów Sportspeople from Lubusz Voivodeship Polish footballers Association football defenders Poland international footballers Poland youth international footballers Poland under-21 international footballers Ekstraklasa players Ukrainian Premier League players Super League Greece players UEFA Euro 2020 players Lech Poznań II players Lech Poznań players FC Dynamo Kyiv players PAOK FC players Polish expatriate footballers Polish expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece