Piotr Sebastian Zieliński (; born 20 May 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 le ...

who plays 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 ...

for club Napoli and the Poland national team. During his senior career he has also played for Udinese and

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

. Zieliński was selected to represent Poland at

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, as well as the

2018 FIFA 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 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, the pan-European

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

, and the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

. He has two brothers who are also professional footballers – Paweł and Tomasz Zieliński.

Club career

Early career

Zieliński started his career at his local club, Orzeł Ząbkowice Śląskie, where he was coached by his father. At the age of 14, he joined

Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. () is a Polish professional football club based in Lubin. Founded in 1945 as ''OMTUR Lubin'', the club competes in the Ekstraklasa. History The football team was founded in 1945 as OMTUR Lubin by local members of the ''Y ...

, even though he was wanted by

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and also had trials at

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

and Hereenveen. He rose through the ranks and started training with the first team at the age of 15, under Franciszek Smuda. At 17 he moved abroad to join

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a f ...

after they scouted him on international youth tournament.

Udinese

He made his debut in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

on 2 November 2012 when he replaced

Antonio Di Natale Antonio Di Natale (; born 13 October 1977) is an Italian fotball coach and former professional player who played as a striker. After being a member of the Empoli youth side since 1994, Di Natale started his professional career with the Empoli s ...

in 91st minute of a match against

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitan ...

Empoli (loan)

In 2014, he joined

on loan.

Napoli

On 4 August 2016, after months of transfer speculation, Zieliński moved from Udinese to Napoli for a reported €16 million. He scored his first goal with Partenopei's shirt on 3 December, in a 3–0 home win against

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

; he ended his first season with six goals. On 31 August 2020 he signed new contract with Napoli until 2024. On 31 October 2021, not only did he decide the derby between U.S. Salernitana 1919 and Napoli, scoring the only goal of the game, but with 32 goals he also became the second best Polish goal-scorer in Serie A's history (behind

Arkadiusz Milik Arkadiusz Krystian Milik (; born 28 February 1994) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Juventus, on loan from Ligue 1 club Marseille, and the Poland national team. Milik began his career as a footballer i ...

), beating

Zbigniew Boniek Zbigniew Boniek (; born 3 March 1956) is a Polish former footballer and manager as well as current UEFA vice-president. A former midfielder, who was also capable of playing mostly as a right winger and second striker, he is considered one of the ...

's record. On 17 February 2022, he scored a goal for Napoli in a

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

match against

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which ended in a 1–1 draw. On 7 September 2022, he scored two goals and had one assist in a Champions League match against

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has ...

, which concluded in a 4–1 victory for Napoli.

International career

On 4 June 2013, Zieliński made his senior international debut for Poland in a friendly match against

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...

. 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 ...

Personal life

On 15 June 2019, Zieliński married Laura Słowiak with whom he has a son, Maksymilian (born 2021). In 2021, he passed an

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

exam at the B2 level at the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

in an effort to obtain Italian citizenship.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals :''Scores and results list Poland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Napoli *

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity ...

: 2019–20 Poland U21 *Four Nations Tournament: 2014–15

References

External links

Profile
at the S.S.C. Napoli website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zielinski, Piotr Living people 1994 births People from Ząbkowice Śląskie Sportspeople from Lower Silesian Voivodeship Association football midfielders Polish footballers Polish expatriate footballers Poland international footballers Zagłębie Lubin players Udinese Calcio players Empoli F.C. players S.S.C. Napoli players Serie A players Expatriate footballers in Italy Polish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Poland under-21 international footballers Poland youth international footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players