Przemysław Tadeusz Kaźmierczak (; born 5 May 1982) 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 ...

. Besides Poland, he has played in England and Portugal. During a 15-year professional career, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 145 games and 21 goals over the course of seven seasons. He also competed professionally in Portugal (three years) and England (one, with

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

Club career

Kaźmierczak was born in

Łęczyca Łęczyca (; in full the Royal Town of Łęczyca, ; ; ) is a town of inhabitants in central Poland. Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship, it is the county seat of the Łęczyca County. Łęczyca is a capital of the historical Łęczyca Land. Or ...

. After entering

ŁKS Łódź ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in Łódź. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, boxing, and in the past ice hockey, ...

's youth ranks at the age of eight, and spending the following decade there, he started his professional career in 2000 with

Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski is a women's Poland, Polish team handball, handball team, based in Piotrków Trybunalski. Current squad :''Squad for the 2018–19 season'' ;Goalkeepers *1 Natalia Kolasińska * 16 Daria Opelt * 69 Karoli ...

, playing three seasons with the club. In 2003 Kaźmierczak moved to

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 ...

, establishing himself as an

player. He then served a loan in

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 ...

with

Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese football, at the Estádio do B ...

during the 2006–07 campaign, where he scored five

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

goals and played alongside compatriot

Rafał Grzelak Rafał Grzelak (; born 24 June 1982) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a left winger. Career Born in Łódź, Grzelak made his Ekstraklasa debut on 22 May 1999 for ŁKS Łódź against Wisła Kraków. He spent the 200 ...

. After solid overall displays, Boavista neighbours

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

paid Pogoń around

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

1.4 million to acquire Kaźmierczak's services. He helped the northerners retain their domestic supremacy, but appeared sparingly (11 league games, plus 65 minutes in a 1–4 loss at

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

for the group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

). Kaźmierczak's disappointing first year at Porto saw him linked with a move away from the club and, on 21 July 2008, he joined English

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

side

on a season-long loan, with a view to a £1.3m permanent deal. After coming on as a substitute he scored his first goal for his new team with a clinical finish against

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

, in a 3–1 win. However, Kaźmierczak fell out of favour under new Derby manager

Nigel Clough Nigel Howard Clough (born 19 March 1966) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Mansfield Town. Playing predominantly as a forward, but later in his career used as a midfielder, Clough was capped by ...

, and finished the season with 22 league appearances, scoring twice. He later revealed his frustration at being left out of the team, accusing the coach of "not liking foreign

layers Layer or layered may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Layers'' (Kungs album) * ''Layers'' (Les McCann album) * ''Layers'' (Royce da 5′9″ album) *“Layers”, the title track of Royce da 5′9″’s sixth studio album * Layer, a ...

, and that "I have made up my mind – I want to leave. It is all over. I am leaving Derby County". Clough responded to the player's accusations, saying "Is that what he said, is it? I have got no problems with foreign players at all. If they have got the right character and they want to fight tooth and nail for Derby County, we will have players whether they are Chinese, American, Spanish – anyone to help us get three points." On 14 July 2009 Porto arranged for another loan deal for Kaźmierczak, who joined

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long move. The following year he was released and returned to his country, signing for

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

International career

Whilst at Piotrcovia Piotrków, Kaźmierczak was called into the Polish under-18 national team, helping them win the 2001 UEFA European Championship in Finland. He eventually forced his way into the full side following his stint with Boavista, scoring once during

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 ( ...

qualifiers and helping his country qualify for the final stages in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, for which he was not finally picked.

International goals

Honours

Pogoń Szczecin *

I liga I liga (, ), currently named Betclic I liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga via promotion/rel ...

: 2003–04 Porto *

: 2007–08 Śląsk Wrocław *

: 2011–12 *

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 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Poland U18 *

UEFA European Under-18 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Individual *Ekstraklasa Player of the Month: March 2011 *

Goal of the Season:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

* * *
National team data
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kazmierczak, Przemyslaw 1982 births Living people People from Łęczyca Footballers from Łódź Voivodeship Polish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Ekstraklasa players I liga players ŁKS Łódź players GKS Górnik Łęczna players Pogoń Szczecin players Śląsk Wrocław players Primeira Liga players Boavista F.C. players FC Porto players Vitória F.C. players English Football League players Derby County F.C. players Poland men's international footballers Polish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Polish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in England Polish expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Polish sportsmen