Pogoń Szczecin

MKS Pogoń Szczecin (Polish pronunciation: [ˌɛmkaˈɛs ˌpɔɡɔj̃ ˈʂtʂɛtɕin]) is a Polish professional football club, based in Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The club also has a men's handball team that plays in the Superliga.

Pogoń Szczecin
Full nameMorski Klub Sportowy
Pogoń Szczecin
Nickname(s)Portowcy (The Dockers)
Duma Pomorza (Pride of Pomerania)
Founded21 April 1948 (1948-04-21)
GroundStadion Florian Kryger
Capacity18,027
ChairmanJarosław Mroczek
ManagerKosta Runjaić
LeagueEkstraklasa
2019–206th
WebsiteClub website

History

The club was founded by Poles from Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), who had been transferred west after the Soviet annexation of Poland's eastern territories in 1945. The founders of Pogoń Szczecin had previously been supporters of Pogoń Lwów and the colors of their new club reflect their old club. Polonia Bytom and Odra Opole were likewise founded or revived by the former inhabitants of Lwów.

The most popular sports organization in Szczecin was founded on 21 April 1948 as Klub Sportowy Sztorm. Its first departments were football and boxing, and the football team began playing in the local C-Class championship. In March 1949, several sports clubs in Szczecin (KS Sztorm, KS Cukrownik, KS Drukarz, Pocztowy KS) were merged into a large organization called Klub Sportowy Zwiazkowiec. The team of Zwiazkowiec joined local A-Class league, replacing Pocztowy KS. In November 1950, Zwiazkowiec was dissolved, and a new organization, Klub Sportowy Kolejarz Szczecin was formed. Its football team, supported by the Port of Szczecin, in 1953 was promoted to the newly created Interregional League (Liga Miedzywojewodzka), which covered the provinces of Szczecin, Zielona Góra and Poznań.

In autumn 1955, Kolejarz was renamed into Pogon Szczecin. The name and the hues of the club are a continuation of Pogon Lwow. In 1957, Pogon was runner up of the Interregional League, qualifying to the second division playoffs. After beating Flota Gdynia, Kujawiak Włocławek and Warta Gorzow, Pogon for the first time won promotion to the second level of Polish football system. In 1958, Pogon was the winner of Group North of the Second Division (37 points, goals 54–22, not a single game lost), winning promotion to the Ekstraklasa.

In its top level debut, Pogon lost at home to Gwardia Warszawa 0–1. In 1960, Pogon was relegated from the Ekstraklasa, to return there in 1962.

For most of the 1960s and 1970s, Pogon remained in the top Polish league, but remained an average team, without any successes. This changed in the early 1980s: in 1981, Pogon advanced to the final of the Cup of Poland, to lose 0–1 to Legia Warszawa. In 1982, Pogon again made it to the Cup final, to lose 0–1 to Lech Poznań.

Ground: Stadion Florian Kryger

In 1984 Pogon, managed by Eugeniusz Ksol, for the first time in history was among top three teams in the Ekstraklasa, which meant that the team qualified for the UEFA Cup. In its European debut, Pogon faced 1. FC Köln, with such stars as Harald Schumacher, Pierre Littbarski and Klaus Allofs. In the first leg (September 19, 1984 in Cologne, Pogon lost 1–2. In the second leg (October 3), Polish team lost 0–1, after its players failed to score on two penalty kicks.

In 1987, Pogon was Polish runner-up. Managed by Leszek Jezierski, the team played offensively, scoring plenty of goals. With such players as Mariusz Kuras, Marek Ostrowski and Marek Lesniak, Pogon was only behind Górnik Zabrze. In the first round of UEFA Cup, Pogon faced Hellas Verona, with Thomas Berthold and Preben Elkjær Larsen. In the first leg (September 16, 1987), Pogon tied at home 1–1. Two weeks later, Polish team lost in Italy 1–3.

Pogoń in 2002 was on the brink of bankruptcy. As a result, fans created a new team on the basis of the reserves in the fourth division. However owner of Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski Antoni Ptak decided to move the team and renamed the club MKS Pogoń Szczecin. The initial distrust was lost when the team performed well and used local players, however halfway through the 2005–06 season the team started underperforming and Ptak decided to replace almost the entire squad with only Brazilian nationals, making it the "most Brazilian team outside Brazil". Antoni Ptak also built a small training facility in Gutów Mały, meaning the home games were played almost 500 km (311 mi) away from Szczecin. The experiment failed and in 2007 Antoni Ptak moved away from football, leaving the club to be rebuilt on the basis of the 4th division counterpart set up originally by the fans, which acted as the reserve team in the meantime.

The club was promoted to the Zachodnia (Western) group of the new II Liga (formerly the Third League) for the 2007–08 season. The club earned promotion to the Polish First League after finishing 2nd in Western Group of Polish Second League in 2008–09 season. Finally Pogoń returned to top division after finishing First League as runner-up in 2011–12 season.

Honours

Domestic
Runners-up (2): 1986–87, 2000–01
Runners-up (3): 1980–81, 1981–82, 2009–10

International

Youth Team
1986
  • Polish U-19 Runner Up:
1965, 2016
  • Polish U-19 Bronze Medal:
1960, 2008, 2012, 2014
  • Polish U-17 Bronze Medal:
2002

Current squad
As of 7 August 2020.[1]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  CRO Dante Stipica
2 DF  POL Jakub Bartkowski
7 FW  GRE Michalis Manias
8 MF  POL Damian Dabrowski
9 FW  POL Adam Frączczak (Captain)
10 MF  AUT Srđan Spiridonović
11 FW  GER Soufian Benyamina
13 DF  GRE Konstantinos Triantafyllopoulos
14 MF  POL Kamil Drygas
15 DF  POL Hubert Matynia
16 MF  FIN Santeri Hostikka
18 MF  POL Michał Kucharczyk
22 DF  AUT David Stec
No. Pos. Nation Player
23 DF  AUT Benedikt Zech
25 FW  SWE Paweł Cibicki
26 GK  POL Jakub Bursztyn
27 MF  POL Sebastian Kowalczyk
28 MF  POR Tomás Podstawski
33 DF  POL Mariusz Malec
54 MF  POL Maciej Żurawski
55 DF  POL Igor Lasicki
61 MF  POL Kacper Smolinski
64 MF  POL Kacper Kozłowski
67 GK  POL Jędrzej Grobelny
68 GK  POL Nikodem Sujecki
77 DF  RSA Ricardo Nunes

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
32 MF  POL Robert Obst (at Wigry Suwałki)

Managers
gollark: Posting memes in a general channel because of one staff member is fairly apiohazardous.
gollark: Firefox's spellcheck says counselor for some reason, hm.
gollark: I think you mean counsellor.
gollark: "I don't care if you hold [VIEW] but don't talk about it, mention it in any way or act according to [VIEW]".
gollark: I feel like that in general that is a somewhat apiohazardous/dodecahedral attitude too.

See also

References
  1. "Pierwsza drużyna" (in Polish). Pogoń Szczecin. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  2. "Trenerzy Pogoni".
  3. "Kosta Runjaić trenerem Pogoni" (in Polish). 90minut. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
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