Śląsk Wrocław (football)

Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław (), is a Polish professional football club based in Wrocław that plays in , the second level of the Polish football league system.

Two-time Polish champion (1977, 2012), four-time Polish runner-up (1978, 1982, 2011, 2024), two-time Polish Cup winner (1976, 1987), two-time Polish Super Cup winner (1987, 2012) and Ekstraklasa Cup winner (2009).

The club's home is Tarczyński Arena Wrocław, a 45,105 capacity stadium in Wrocław which was one of the host venues during UEFA Euro 2012. The 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

League

*
**Champions: 1976–77, 2011–12
**Runners-up: 1977–78, 1981–82, 2010–11, 2023–24

Cup

*Polish Cup
**Winners: 1975–76, 1986–87
**Runners-up: 2012–13
*Ekstraklasa Cup
**Winners: 2008–09
*Polish Super Cup
**Winners: 1987, 2012

Youth teams

* Polish U-19 Championship
**Champions: 1978–79
**Runners-up: 1976–77

* Polish U-17 Championship
**Champions: 2023–24

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. The Śląsk supporters call themselves Nobles from Wrocław (). Notable Śląsk fans include: Waldemar Kasta, a rapper and ring announcer KSW, that also created fan songs for Śląsk, Hubert Hurkacz, a Polish tennis player.

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 capital of Lower Silesia) and Zagłębie representing Lubin, a traditionally industrial and copper mining city. Both teams have won the twice, Śląsk in 1977 & 2012, and Zagłębie in 1991 & 2007. They also hold a big rivalry with Legia Warsaw, due to both clubs having military roots. There also is a rivalry with Widzew Łódź, traditionally only due to competitive reasons, however, after the murder of a 17 year old Śląsk fan by a group of Widzew hooligans in Walichnowy, the rivalry became more heated than ever, and it still holds this status.

The fans of Lechia and Śląsk formally had a friendship with the Wisła Kraków fans, creating the "Three Kings of Great Cities" () 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.

Stadium

The Wrocław Stadium 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 42,771 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. Śląsk won 1–0, with Johan Voskamp becoming the 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

Best results in European competitions

Players

Current squad

Other players under contract

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries.

; Poland
* Henryk Apostel (1971–72)
* Łukasz Broź (2018–20)
* Adrian Budka (2005–06)
* Eugeniusz Cebrat (1978–79)
* Piotr Celeban (2008–12, 2014–21)
* 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 (2018–20)
* 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)
* Rafał Leszczyński (2022–25)
* Antoni Łukasiewicz (2008–11)
* Daniel Łukasik (2023–24)

* Krzysztof Mączyński (2019–22)
* Łukasz Madej (2009–12, 2016–17)
* Adam Marciniak (2008)
* Adam Matysek (1989–93)
* Sebastian Mila (2008–14)
* Mariusz Pawelec (2008–23)
* 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, 2020–22)
* Joachim Stachuła (1963–66)
* Janusz Sybis (1969–83)
* Grzegorz Szamotulski (2001)
* Stefan Szefer (1963–65)
* Roman Szewczyk (1989)
* Tadeusz Świcarz (1951)
* Jakub Świerczok (2024–25)
* 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)
; Bulgaria
* Aleks Petkov (2023–)
* Simeon Petrov (2024–25)

; Czech Republic
* Vladimír Čáp (2007–09)
* Lukáš Droppa (2014–15)
* Marcel Gecov (2015–16)
* Petr Schwarz (2021–)
; Gabon
* Éric Mouloungui (2013)
; Georgia
* Lasha Dvali (2016–17)
; Hungary
* Márk Tamás (2020–22)
; Iceland
* Daníel Leó Grétarsson (2022–23)
; Japan
* Ryota Morioka (2016–17)

; Kosovo
* Besar Halimi (2025–)
; Latvia
* Igors Tarasovs (2017–19)
; Montenegro
* Filip Raičević (2020)
; North Macedonia
* Ostoja Stjepanović (2016–17)
; Palestine
* Assad Al Hamlawi (2025)
; Romania
* Tudor Băluță (2024–25)
; Slovakia
* Peter Grajciar (2015–17)
* Ľuboš Kamenár (2016–17)
; Slovenia
* Boban Jović (2017–18)
* Dalibor Stevanović (2012–14)
; Zambia
* Lubambo Musonda (2019–21)
; Zimbabwe
* Ronald Sibanda (1997–98)
; Venezuela
* Jorge Yriarte (2025–)

Managers

* Karel Finek (1958)
* Vilém Lugr (1959)
* Artur Woźniak (1969–70)
* Władysław Żmuda (1971–77)
* Orest Lenczyk (1979–81)
* Henryk Apostel (10 October 1984 – 30 June 1988)
* Alojzy Łysko (1988)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (6 October 1992 – 10 May 1993)
* Stanisław Świerk (1993–95)
* Wiesław Wojno (1 July 1996 – 11 March 1997)
* Jerzy Kasalik (11 March 1997 – 21 September 1997)
* Grzegorz Kowalski (1 July 1998 – 20 December 1998)
* Wojciech Łazarek (21 December 1998 – 3 November 1999)
* Władysław Łach (3 July 2000 – 10 April 2001)
* Janusz Wójcik (10 April 2001 – 7 June 2001)
* Marian Putyra (7 June 2001 – 24 August 2001)
* Petr Nemec (24 August 2001 – 25 March 2002)
* Marian Putyra (25 March 2002 – 30 June 2003)
* Grzegorz Kowalski (1 July 2003 – 30 September 2004)
* Ryszard Tarasiewicz (29 September 2004 – 28 June 2006)
* Luboš Kubík (6 July 2006 – 2 October 2006)
* Jan Żurek (2 October 2006 – 18 June 2007)
* Ryszard Tarasiewicz (19 June 2007 – 22 September 2010)
* Paweł Barylski ''(interim)'' (22 September 2010 – 27 September 2010)
* Orest Lenczyk (27 September 2010 – 31 August 2012)
* Paweł Barylski ''(interim)'' (31 August 2012 – 3 September 2012)
* Stanislav Levy (3 September 2012 – 23 February 2014)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (24 February 2014 – 6 December 2015)
* Romuald Szukiełowicz (7 December 2015 – 9 March 2016)
* Mariusz Rumak (9 March 2016 – 19 December 2016)
* Jan Urban (5 January 2017 – 19 February 2018)
* Tadeusz Pawłowski (19 February 2018 – 11 December 2018)
* Paweł Barylski ''(interim)'' (11 December 2018 – 3 January 2019)
* Vítězslav Lavička (3 January 2019 – 21 March 2021)
* Jacek Magiera (22 March 2021 – 8 March 2022)
* Piotr Tworek (9 March 2022 – 1 June 2022)
* Ivan Đurđević (2 June 2022 – 21 April 2023)
* Jacek Magiera (21 April 2023 – 12 November 2024)
* Michał Hetel and Marcin Dymkowski ''(interim)'' (12 November 2024 – 24 December 2024)
* Ante Šimundža (24 December 2024 – ''present'')

Śląsk Wrocław (women)

The Śląsk Wrocław's women's 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