Jacek Kamil Krzynówek (; born 15 May 1976) is a Polish former 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 lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is regarded as one of the best Polish footballers. He has earned many awards and trophies, not only in Poland, but also abroad. He has earned the honour of twice being named the Polish Footballer of the Year by magazine ''Pilka Nozna'' in 2003 and 2004. He has appeared in 96 international matches for Poland, scoring 15 goals. He is also a member of the Elite Poland national team Footballers by the

PZPN The Polish Football Association ( PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the ), the national cups, and manages the men's and women's national teams. It also runs the nati ...

. One of his career highlights of his career was scoring a highly acclaimed goal against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

in the

2004–05 UEFA Champions League The 2004–05 UEFA Champions League was the 50th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the 13th since it was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League in 1992. The competition was won by Liverpool, who beat Milan on penalt ...

Career

Early career

Krzynówek's football career started with LZS Chrzanowice. In 1994 he joined RKS Radomsko where he played two seasons and then moved to another Polish club,

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of natio ...

, in which he made his debut on 28 July 1996 in the Polish

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

. After a season with Raków, he moved to second division club,

GKS Bełchatów GKS Bełchatów is a Polish professional football club based in Bełchatów. The club currently competes in group I of the III liga. History GKS Bełchatów entered Poland's Klasa A in 1977 under the name of Węgiel Brunatny Bełchatów, and ...

. In the 1997–98 season, he with his team advanced to the

. His club was unable to keep itself in the top division, and was relegated to the second division. Despite this, his skills and play impressed scouts from other clubs, including 1. FC Nürnberg, as well as the coach of the Poland national team,

Janusz Wójcik Janusz Marek Wójcik (18 November 1953 – 20 November 2017) was a Polish politician, football player and manager. Playing career He played in several clubs at home and abroad, including Agrykola, Gwardia, Ursus and Hutnik Warsaw, Ravalpandi ...

International career and Bundesliga

Whilst still a player for

, he made his debut in the Poland national team on 10 November 1998 against

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

in a 3–1 Poland win. In 1999, he moved to 1. FC Nürnberg in the 2. Bundesliga. He made his return to the national team in the beginning of 2000, after Jerzy Engel became coach. Very shortly, he became one of the most important players in the team that qualified for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. In 2002, he contributed to the promotion of 1. FC Nürnberg to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, and was named the best left midfielder in the 2. Bundesliga. Also in 2002, he went to South Korea and Japan for the 2002 World Cup with Poland. Despite a poor performance by Poland, he was praised for his play, and appeared in all three matches. He missed most of the 2002–03 season due to injury. In the fall of 2003, he played in crucial

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

qualifying matches for Poland. Poland failed to qualify and 1. FC Nürnberg was unable to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga. As a result of his performances, he was transferred to Bundesliga club

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

. In the 2004–05 season, he was one of Leverkusen’s best players, and the trio of Krzynowek,

Andriy Voronin Andriy Viktorovych Voronin (; Russian: Андрей Викторович Воронин, born 21 July 1979) is a Ukrainian professional football manager and a former player. Voronin spent five full seasons in the Bundesliga of Germany, and las ...

and

Dimitar Berbatov Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov (; born 30 January 1981) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Known for his technique and ball control, Berbatov is regarded as one of the greatest Bulgarian players of all time. He cap ...

drew the attention of many top European sides. Bayer Leverkusen also performed well in the Champions League, defeating both

and

A.S. Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: ) is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its exis ...

in the group stage, but were eliminated by eventual champions

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

in the round of 16. Krzynówek scored three goals, one of which was a long shot versus Real Madrid. In August 2005, he was part of the national team's triumphant performance at the

Valeri Lobanovsky Memorial Tournament Valeriy Lobanovskyi Memorial Tournament () is an international football tournament established in honour and memory of Valeriy Lobanovskyi since his death on 13 May 2002, hence the name Memorial. The idea was initiated by the FC Dynamo Kyiv managem ...

2005. During

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America ...

, he played in the most important games for Poland and contributed to Poland's qualification to the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

in Germany. As a result of another injury during the spring of 2006, he was unable to play regularly at his club,

. This was evident in his poor form during the

and was one of the poorest performers in the Polish team as they lost 2–0 to the surprising

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and 1–0 to hosts

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. After a disappointing 2005–06 season, he moved to

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

. Krzynówek was a key player in the

UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals tournament took place between August 2006 and November 2007. Fifty teams were divided into seven groups. In a Round-robin tournament, double round-robin system, each team played against each of the others ...

campaign for Poland where he scored four goals; three against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and an astonishing equalizer in the 87th minute against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. His left-foot strike from 40 yards hit the post and the back of Portuguese keeper

Ricardo Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name * Ricardo de Araújo Pereira (born ...

before squeezing into the back of the net. Thanks to a very successful all around performance he was then picked into

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

's dream team as the left midfielder and Poland's squad for

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

where the Poles competed for the first time in their history. On 17 November 2007,

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. They currently compete in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system, ...

announced that they were interested in purchasing Krzynówek during the

transfer window, but after negotiations the Polish club could not agree to terms with

. On 2 February 2009, Krzynówek moved to

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

where he stayed until the summer of 2010.

Retirement and post-retirement

On 15 August 2011, Krzynówek officially announced his retirement after 178 matches in the German top-flight. Between 1 July 2015 and 31 May 2016 he was the

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

International statistics

International goals

:Source:

Honours

Individual * Polish Footballer of the Year: 2003, 2004

References

External links

Official site of Jacek Krzynówek
* * * *
Leverkusen-who's who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krzynowek, Jacek Living people 1976 births People from Radomsko County Footballers from Łódź Voivodeship Men's association football midfielders Polish men's footballers Poland men's international footballers RKS Radomsko players Raków Częstochowa players GKS Bełchatów players 1. FC Nürnberg players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players VfL Wolfsburg players Hannover 96 players Ekstraklasa players I liga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Polish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Polish expatriate sportspeople in Germany 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players