GKS Bełchatów

GKS Bełchatów
Full nameFundacja Akademia GKS Bełchatów[1]
NicknamesGieksa
Brunatni (The Browns)
Torfiarze (The Turfers)
Founded26 November 1977 (1977-11-26)
GroundGIEKSA Arena
Capacity5,264
ChairmanJakub Rzeszowski
ManagerMateusz Milczarek
LeagueIII liga, group I
2024–25III liga, group I, 8th of 18
Websitegksbelchatow.com.pl

GKS Bełchatów [ɡʲɛkaˈɛs bɛwˈxatuf] is a Polish professional football club based in Bełchatów. The club currently competes in group I of the III liga.[2]

History

GKS Bełchatów entered Poland's Klasa A in 1977 under the name of Węgiel Brunatny Bełchatów,[3] and gained promotion to the III liga in the 1981–82 season.[3] It took the club another seven years to rise to the II liga (1986/1987 season), before winning a place in the top-tier I liga in 1992.[3] After another spell in II liga, the club again won promotion to the I liga at the end of the 2004–05 season. The club finished the 2005–06 season in 10th place, with 37 points.[4] The following season they challenged for the league title. After spending much of the latter part of the 2006–07 season in first place, they were ultimately overtaken by Zagłębie Lubin and had to settle for second place.[5]

On 11 March 2022, the club, then playing in the II liga, withdrew from the league and did not start playing in the spring round. As a consequence, they were moved to the last place in the 2021–22 season standings and their remaining matches being declared 0–3 forfeits for their opponents.[6] They declared liquidation on 20 April 2022.[7] On 31 May 2022, the Łódź Football Association admitted its academy (Akademia GKS Bełchatów) as its continuator to the Łódź group of the fifth division for the 2022–23 season.[8]

Honours

Fans and rivalries

The fans are called Torfiorze (the "Turfers" in translation).[9] They have friendly relations with fans of Wisła Sandomierz.[10] Their biggest rivals are neighbours RKS Radomsko, and as Bełchatów is located in the Łódź Province, they also have rivalries with the two traditional well-established Łódź teams, ŁKS and Widzew.[10]

Bełchatów in Europe

Season Competition Round Opponent Home Away Aggregate
2007–08 UEFA Cup 1Q Georgia (country) Ameri Tbilisi 2–0 0–2 2–2 (4–2 pen)
2Q Ukraine Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2–4 1–1 3–5

Players

Current squad

As of 2 March 2026

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  POL Tomasz Kucharski
2 DF  POL Mateusz Szymorek
3 DF  POL Norbert Warmuz (on loan from GKS Katowice)
4 DF  POL Mateusz Lipp
5 MF  POL Patryk Pytlewski
6 MF  POL Damian Michalak
7 FW  POL Kacper Popławski
8 MF  POL Wiktor Kościuk
9 FW  POL Nikodem Powroźnik
10 MF  POL Ricardo Gonçalves do Nascimento
14 MF  POL Szymon Małecki
16 DF  POL Marcel Sadziński
17 FW  UKR Serhiy Napolov
No. Pos. Nation Player
18 DF  POL Szymon Sarnik
19 DF  POL Jakub Bartosiński
20 MF  POL Mikołaj Błaszczyk
21 DF  POL Adam Dębiński
22 MF  POL Antoni Koszur
23 GK  POL Alan Ostrowski
24 MF  POL Oliwier Kasprzycki
25 MF  JPN Daichi Kato
27 DF  POL Wojciech Bogacz
28 MF  POL Mateusz Wójcik
30 MF  POL Łukasz Wroński (captain)
33 MF  POL Natan Wysiński
77 GK  POL Jakub Wiśniewski

Notable players

Players who have been capped at any time and/or have over 80 appearances for the club

Notable Polish players
  • Poland Grzegorz Baran
  • Poland Bartłomiej Bartosiak
  • Poland Jacek Berensztajn
  • Poland Rafał Boguski
  • Poland Edward Cecot
  • Poland Mateusz Cetnarski
  • Poland Grzegorz Fonfara
  • Poland Łukasz Garguła
  • Poland Janusz Gol
  • Poland Artur Golański
  • Poland Mikołaj Grzelak
  • Poland Tomasz Jarzębowski
  • Poland Marcin Komorowski
  • Poland Kamil Kosowski
  • Poland Rafał Kosznik
  • Poland Jacek Krzynówek
  • Poland Mariusz Kukiełka
  • Poland Piotr Kuklis
  • Poland Łukasz Madej
  • Poland Paweł Magdoń
  • Poland Michał Mak
  • Poland Maciej Małkowski
  • Poland Radosław Matusiak
  • Poland Filip Modelski
  • Poland Dawid Nowak
  • Poland Arkadiusz Piech
  • Poland Dariusz Pietrasiak
  • Poland Jacek Popek
  • Poland Patryk Rachwał
  • Poland Grzegorz Rasiak
  • Poland Marek Rzepka
  • Poland Dariusz Rzeźniczek
  • Poland Łukasz Sapela
  • Poland Maciej Stolarczyk
  • Poland Mateusz Szymorek
  • Poland Bartosz Ślusarski
  • Poland Jakub Tosik
  • Poland Mariusz Ujek
  • Poland Maciej Wilusz
  • Poland Łukasz Wroński
  • Poland Tomasz Wróbel
  • Poland Marcin Żewłakow
Notable foreign players

Managers

  • Poland Włodzimierz Tylak (7 March 1992 – 20 June 1993)
  • Poland Władysław Lach (1 July 1993 – 31 Aug 1995)
  • Poland Krzysztof Pawlak (1 Sept 1995 – 30 June 1996)
  • Poland Janusz Białek (27 July 1996 – 21 Sept 1996)
  • Poland Marek Pochopień (28 Sept 1996 – 31 Dec 1996)
  • Poland Bogusław Kaczmarek (5 March 1997 – 14 May 1997)
  • Poland Jerzy Wyrobek (17 May 1997 – 30 June 1998)
  • Poland Krzysztof Pawlak (1 July 1998 – 9 May 1999)
  • Poland Marek Pochopień (10 May 1999 – 30 June 1999)
  • Poland Orest Lenczyk (1999)
  • Poland Krzysztof Wolak (1999–2000)
  • Poland Ryszard Polak (2000)
  • Poland Jan Złomańczuk, Poland Piotr Szarpak & Poland Adam Mażysz (9 May 2000 – 22 April 2001)
  • Poland Józef Dankowski (2001)
  • Poland Krzysztof Tochel (Oct 2001 – 2 May 2002)
  • Poland Jacek Zieliński (11 June 2002 – 10 Sept 2002)
  • Poland Mariusz Kuras (11 Sept 2002 – 6 Oct 2005)
  • Poland Orest Lenczyk (10 Oct 2005 – 21 March 2008)
  • Poland Jan Złomańczuk (interim) (21 March 2008 – 21 May 2008)
  • Poland Paweł Janas (21 May 2008 – 3 Jan 2009)
  • Poland Rafał Ulatowski (2009 – 24 May 2010)
  • Poland Maciej Bartoszek (2 June 2010 – 17 June 2011)
  • Poland Paweł Janas (17 June 2011 – 31 Aug 2011)
  • Poland Kamil Kiereś (1 Sept 2011 – 25 Sept 2012)
  • Poland Jan Złomańczuk (25 Sept 2012 – 14 Nov 2012)
  • Poland Michał Probierz (14 Nov 2012 – 21 Dec 2012)
  • Poland Kamil Kiereś (9 Jan 2013 – 23 March 2015)
  • Poland Marek Zub (2015)
  • Poland Kamil Kiereś (21 May 2015 – 22 June 2015)
  • Poland Rafał Ulatowski (2015–2016)
  • Poland Krystian Kierach (interim) (2016)
  • Poland Andrzej Konwiński (2016)
  • Poland Mariusz Pawlak (2017–2018)
  • Poland Artur Derbin (2018–2020)
  • Poland Marcin Węglewski (2020–2021)
  • Poland Patryk Rachwał (25 June 2021 – 15 Nov 2021)
  • Poland Kamil Socha (2021–2022)
  • Poland Bogdan Jóźwiak (22 June 2022 – 27 April 2024)
  • Poland Patryk Rachwał (interim) (29 April 2024 – 13 June 2024)
  • Poland Artur Derbin (13 June 2024 – 5 Jan 2025)
  • Poland Patryk Rachwał (7 Jan 2025 – 9 June 2025)[11]
  • Poland Radosław Pęciak (17 June 2025 – 9 November 2025)[12][13]
  • Poland Mateusz Milczarek (12 November 2025 – present)[14]

References

  1. ^ "Fundacja Akademia GKS Bełchatów". ngo.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  2. ^ "Czas rozpocząć świętowanie! GKS wygrywa i awansuje do III ligi". GKS Bełchatów (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  3. ^ a b c "GKS Bełchatów - sezon po sezonie - Historia Polskiej Piłki Nożnej - HPPN.PL". www.hppn.pl.
  4. ^ "Orange Ekstraklasa 2005/2006". www.90minut.pl.
  5. ^ "Dziesięć lat temu GKS Bełchatów zaszokował piłkarską Polskę". Dziennik Łódzki. November 9, 2016.
  6. ^ "GKS Bełchatów wycofał się z rozgrywek 2 ligi". www.lodz.tvp.pl (in Polish).
  7. ^ "Oficjalnie: GKS Bełchatów ogłosił upadłość". weszlo.com (in Polish). 2022-04-28. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  8. ^ "OFICJALNIE: GKS Bełchatów-reaktywacja. Klub zgłoszony do nowych rozgrywek". transfery.info (in Polish). 31 May 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  9. ^ Kieruzel, Adam (November 27, 2020). "Bełchatów. Kibice GKS utworzyli mural z podobizną papieża Jana Pawła II [ZDJĘCIA]". Bełchatów Nasze Miasto.
  10. ^ a b "GKS Bełchatów — zgody, układy, kosy, grupy, grill i inne".
  11. ^ "Patryk Rachwał kończy swoją misję w PGE GiEK GKS Bełchatów" (in Polish). GKS Bełchatów. 9 June 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Radosław Pęciak nowym trenerem PGE GiEK GKS Bełchatów!" (in Polish). GKS Bełchatów. 17 June 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  13. ^ "Radosław Pęciak nie jest już trenerem PGE GiEK GKS-u Bełchatów" (in Polish). GKS Bełchatów. 9 November 2025. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  14. ^ "Mateusz Milczarek nowym trenerem PGE GiEK GKS Bełchatów" (in Polish). GKS Bełchatów. 12 November 2025. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
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