Śląsk Wrocław

Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław, Śląsk Wrocław () or simply Śląsk, is a Polish football club based in Wrocław that plays in Ekstraklasa, the highest level of the Polish football league system. The club was founded in 1947 and has competed under many names since then; adopting the name Śląsk Wrocław ten years after their foundation. In 1977, Śląsk Wrocław won the Polish league championship for the first time. The club has also won the Polish Cup twice, the Polish SuperCup twice and the Ekstraklasa Cup once. The club's home is Stadion Wrocław, a 45,105 capacity stadium in Wrocław which was one of the host venues during UEFA Euro 2012. Club previously played at Olympic Stadium and Stadion Oporowska.

History

The club has had many names since its foundation in 1947. They are listed below;
* 1947 – Pionier Wrocław
* 1949 – Legia Wrocław
* 1950 – Centralny Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Wrocław
* 1951 – Okręgowy Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Wrocław
* 1957 – Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław
* 1997 – Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Sportowa Spółka Akcyjna
* Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna

Śląsk is the Polish name of Silesia, the historical region in which Wrocław is located.

Honours

*Ekstraklasa
**Champions (2): 1976–77, 2011–12
**Runners-up (3): 1977–78, 1981–82, 2010–11
* Polish Cup
**Winners (2): 1975–76, 1986–87
**Runners-up: 2012–13
*Ekstraklasa Cup
**Winners: 2009
*Polish SuperCup
**Winners (2): 1987, 2012

Youth Teams:
* Polish U-19 Champion
**Champions: 1978–79
**Runners-up: 1976–77
**Bronze Medal: 1977–78, 1979–80, 2017–18

The fans

Śląsk fans are one of the largest supporter movements in Poland. In the early 1970s, they were one of the pioneers of football supporters groups. In the 1980s many of the fans were active in the Solidarity movement, and were active with Fighting Solidarity and showing opposition to the communist regime in Poland. Due to the clubs historical fight against the former communist government it is still not unusual to see anticommunist and patriotic slogans on the stands. The Śląsk supporters call themselves Nobles from Wrocław ( pl, Szlachta z Wrocławia).

Friendships

They have a friendship with Lechia Gdańsk with which the two clubs fans have had a friendship since 1977, and have had friendly relations since 1967. This is the oldest fan friendship in Polish football. During the 2017/18 season, the two sets of fans celebrated their 40th Friendship Anniversary. Games between the two are often called " the friendship match".

The fans have also had a friendship with Motor Lublin dating back to the 1990s. Due to the clubs' long friendship, Śląsk were invited to play a friendly in 2015 in Lublin to celebrate Motor's 65th anniversary.

Despite the clubs' close proximity, Śląsk also hold friendly relations with Miedź Legnica. The fans also have friendships with fans from both SFC Opava, from the Czech Republic, and Ferencvárosi TC, from Hungary.

Rivals

Their biggest rivals are Zagłębie Lubin, with the games between the two known as the "Lower Silesian Derby" (Polish: Derby Dolnego Śląska). The two teams are the largest in the Lower Silesia region, with Śląsk representing Wrocław (the largest city in the area) and Zagłębie representing Lubin. Both teams have won the Ekstraklasa twice, Śląsk in 1977 & 2012, and Zagłębie in 1991 & 2007.

The fans of Lechia and Śląsk formally had a friendship with the Wisła Kraków fans, creating the "Three Kings of Great Cities" ( pl, Trzej Królowie Wielkich Miast) coalition. Wisła fans left the coalition in 2016. Since 2016 Wisła Kraków itself has since turned into a rivalry.

Arka Gdynia, Lech Poznań and Cracovia are rivals dating back to the time with their alliance with Wisła. This was due to the two largest fan coalitions in Poland, "Three Kings of Great Cities" (Śląsk, Lechia, Wisła) and "The Great Triad" (Lech, Arka, Cracovia) with any of the opposite coalition teams playing each other resulting in a big and hotly contested match.

There is also a competitive rivalry with Widzew Lodz, with the two often facing each other throughout their history. However, due to Widzew currently in the lower divisions of Polish football, it is unlikely this rivalry will played out on the pitch any time soon.

Stadium

The Stadion Wrocław in Wrocław, Poland, is the highest fourth category football (soccer) stadium built for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. The Stadium is located on aleja Śląska in the western part of the city (Pilczyce district). It is the home stadium of the Śląsk Wrocław football team playing in the Polish PKO Ekstraklasa. The stadium has a capacity of 45,105 spectators, all seated and all covered. The Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw is the largest arena in Ekstraklasa and the third largest in the country (after National Stadium and Silesia Stadium). Stadium construction began in April 2009 and was completed in September 2011. Stadium opening took place at 10 September 2011 with boxing fight between Tomasz Adamek and Vitali Klitschko was played on 10 October 2011. Śląsk won this match 1–0 and Johan Voskamp was first goalscorer on the new stadium.

Śląsk Wrocław in European football

''Śląsk Wrocław's score is shown first in each case''

;Notes
* 1Q: First qualifying round
* 2Q: Second qualifying round
* 3Q: Third qualifying round
* PO: Play-off round
* 1R: First round
* 2R: Second round
* 3R: Third round
* QF: Quarter-finals

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries.

; Poland
* Henryk Apostel (1971–72)
* Łukasz Broź (2018-)
* Adrian Budka (2005–06)
* Eugeniusz Cebrat (1978–79)
* Piotr Celeban (2008–12), (2014–)
* Mateusz Cetnarski (2011–14)
* Piotr Ćwielong (2010–13)
* Jan Erlich (1973–78)
* Roman Faber (1973–84)
* Janusz Gancarczyk (2007–10)
* Zygmunt Garłowski (1973–81)
* Wojciech Golla (2018-)
* Janusz Góra (1985–92)
* Jarosław Góra (1993–97)
* Roman Jakóbczak (1966–69)
* Tomasz Jodłowiec (2012)
* Paweł Kaczorowski (2007)
* Zygmunt Kalinowski (1971–79)
* Przemysław Kaźmierczak (2010–14)
* Jacek Kiełb (2015–16)
* Adam Kokoszka (2013–14), (2015–18)
* Jakub Kosecki (2017–18)
* Zdzisław Kostrzewa (1979–84)
* Marcin Kowalczyk (2012–13)
* Rafał Lasocki (2007)

* Antoni Łukasiewicz (2008–11)
* Krzysztof Mączyński (2019-)
* Łukasz Madej (2009–12), (2016–17)
* Adam Marciniak (2008)
* Adam Matysek (1989–93)
* Sebastian Mila (2008–14)
* Mariusz Pawelec (2008–)
* Mariusz Pawełek (2014–17)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (1974–82)
* Mirosław Pękala (1977–84)
* Arkadiusz Piech (2017–19)
* Dariusz Pietrasiak (2011–12)
* Leszek Pisz (2001)
* Przemysław Płacheta (2019–20)
* Waldemar Prusik (1981–89)
* Kazimierz Przybyś (1983–84)
* Andrzej Rudy (1983–88)
* Dariusz Rzeźniczek (1990)
* Hubert Skowronek (1962–67)
* Jakub Słowik (2017–19)
* Waldemar Sobota (2010–13), (2020-)
* Joachim Stachuła (1963–66)
* Janusz Sybis (1969–83)
* Grzegorz Szamotulski (2001)
* Stefan Szefer (1963–65)
* Roman Szewczyk (1989)
* Tadeusz Świcarz (1951)

* Ryszard Tarasiewicz (1979–89)
* Jan Tomaszewski (1967–70)
* Marcin Wasilewski (2000–02)
* Maciej Wilusz (2021-)
* Piotr Włodarczyk (2000–01)
* Roman Wójcicki (1980–82)
* Władysław Żmuda (1974–80)

;Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Amir Spahić (2009–13)

; Czech Republic
* Vladimír Čáp (2007–09)
* Lukáš Droppa (2014–15)
* Marcel Gecov (2015–16)
; Gabon
* Éric Mouloungui (2013)
; Georgia
* Lasha Dvali (2016–17)
; Hungary
* Márk Tamás (2020–)
; Japan
* Ryota Morioka (2016–17)
; Latvia
* Igors Tarasovs (2017–19)
; Macedonia
* Ostoja Stjepanović (2016–17)
; Montenegro
* Filip Raičević (2020)
; Slovakia
* Peter Grajciar (2015–17)
* Ľuboš Kamenár (2016–17)
; Slovenia
* Boban Jović (2017–18)
* Dalibor Stevanović (2012–14)
; Zambia
* Lubambo Musonda (2019–)
; Zimbabwe
* Ronald Sibanda (1997–98)

Managers

* Karel Finek (1958)
* Vilém Lugr (1959)
* Artur Woźniak (1969–70)
* Władysław Żmuda (1971–77)
* Orest Lenczyk (1979–81)
* Henryk Apostel (Oct 10, 1984 – June 30, 1988)
* Alojzy Łysko (1988)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (Oct 6, 1992 – May 10, 1993)
* Stanisław Świerk (1993–95)
* Wiesław Wojno (July 1, 1996 – March 11, 1997)
* Jerzy Kasalik (March 11, 1997 – Sept 21, 1997)
* Grzegorz Kowalski (July 1, 1998 – Dec 20, 1998)
* Wojciech Łazarek (Dec 21, 1998 – Nov 3, 1999)
* Władysław Łach (July 3, 2000 – April 10, 2001)
* Janusz Wójcik (April 10, 2001 – June 7, 2001)
* Marian Putyra (June 7, 2001 – Aug 24, 2001)
* Petr Nemec (Aug 24, 2001 – March 25, 2002)
* Marian Putyra (March 25, 2002 – June 30, 2003)
* Grzegorz Kowalski (July 1, 2003 – Sept 30, 2004)
* Ryszard Tarasiewicz (Sept 29, 2004 – June 28, 2006)
* Luboš Kubík (July 6, 2006 – Oct 2, 2006)
* Jan Żurek (Oct 2, 2006 – June 18, 2007)
* Ryszard Tarasiewicz (June 19, 2007 – Sept 22, 2010)
* Paweł Barylski ''(interim)'' (Sept 22, 2010 – Sept 27, 2010)
* Orest Lenczyk (Sept 27, 2010 – Aug 31, 2012)
* Paweł Barylski ''(interim)'' (Aug 31, 2012 – Sept 3, 2012)
* Stanislav Levy (Sept 3, 2012 – Feb 23, 2014)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (Feb 24, 2014 – Dec 6, 2015)
* Romuald Szukiełowicz (Dec 7, 2015 – March 9, 2016)
* Mariusz Rumak (March 9, 2016 – Dec 19, 2016)
* Jan Urban (Jan 5, 2017 – Feb 19, 2018)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (Feb 19, 2018 – Dec 11, 2018)
* Paweł Barylski ''(interim)'' (Dec 11, 2018 – ?)
* Vítězslav Lavička (2019 – March 21, 2021)
* Jacek Magiera (Mar 22, 2021 – present)

Śląsk Wrocław (women)

The Śląsk Wrocław (women) team was formed in 2020 taking the place of KŚ AZS Wrocław in the Ekstraliga.

See also

* List of Polish football champions
* Śląsk Wrocław II (reserve team)
* Śląsk Wrocław (basketball)
* Śląsk Wrocław (handball)
* Wrocław football riot 2003

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Śląsk Net

Wrocław Kibice Sport

ŚLĄSKopedia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slask Wroclaw


Football clubs in Wrocław
Military association football clubs in Poland
Association football clubs established in 1947
1947 establishments in Poland