GKS Bełchatów

GKS Bełchatów

Full name	PGE Górniczy Klub Sportowy Bełchatów
Nickname(s)	Gieksa Brunatni (the Browns) Torfiarze (the Turfers)
Founded	1977
Ground	GIEKSA Arena, Bełchatów, Poland
Capacity	5,264
Chairman	Wiktor Rydz
Manager	Artur Derbin
League	I liga
2018-19	3rd
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

PGE GKS Bełchatów [ˌpɛɡʲɛˈʔɛ ˌɡʲɛkaˈɛs bɛwˈxatuf] is a professional football club that competes in the Polish First League. GKS is an abbreviation for the Miners' Sport Club (Górniczy Klub Sportowy).

History

GKS Bełchatów entered Poland's Division 4 in 1977 and gained promotion to Division 3 after four years (in the 1981/1982 season). It took the club another seven years to rise to Division 2 (1986/1987 season), before winning a place in the Polish Premier League in 1992. After another spell in Division 2, the club again won promotion to the First league at the end of the 2004/2005 season. The club finished the 2005/2006 season in 10th place, with 37 points. 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.

Achievements

• Ekstraklasa (First division):
  • 2nd place (1): 2007
• Polish Cup:
  • Finalist (2): 1996, 1999
• Ekstraklasa Cup:
  • Finalist (1): 2007
• Polish SuperCup:
  • Finalist (1): 2007

Fans

The fans are called Torfiorze (the "Turfers" in translation). They have friendly relations with fans of Wisła Sandomierz. 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.

Bełchatów in Europe

Season	Competition	Round		Club	Score
2007/08	UEFA Cup	1Q		FC Ameri Tbilisi	2–0, 0–2 (4–2 p.)
		2Q		FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	1–1, 2–4

Current squad

As of 28 August 2019.

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	POL	Paweł Lenarcik
2	DF	POL	Mateusz Szymorek
3	DF	POL	Marcin Grolik
5	DF	POL	Michał Kołodziejski
6	FW	POL	Dawid Kocyła
7	MF	POL	Bartłomiej Bartosiak
8	MF	POL	Paweł Czajkowski
9	MF	POL	Krzysztof Wołkowicz
10	MF	POL	Dawid Flaszka
11	MF	SEN	Émile Thiakane
12	GK	POL	Daniel Niźnik
13	MF	POL	Artur Golański

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
14	MF	POL	Bartosz Biel
15	MF	UKR	Viktor Putin
16	DF	POL	Mikołaj Grzelak
17	MF	POL	Marcin Ryszka
18	FW	POL	Maciej Mas
19	MF	POL	Adrian Małachowski
20	MF	POL	Mateusz Marzec
21	DF	POL	Mariusz Magiera
22	GK	POL	Kewin Komar
30	MF	POL	Damian Michalak
45	DF	POL	Bartłomiej Lisowski
70	DF	POL	Marcin Sierczyński

Managers

• Wlodzimierz Tylak (March 7, 1992 – June 20, 1993)
• Wladyslaw Lach (July 1, 1993 – Aug 31, 1995)
• Krzysztof Pawlak (Sept 1, 1995 – June 30, 1996)
• Janusz Bialek (July 27, 1996 – Sept 21, 1996)
• Marek Pochopień (Sept 28, 1996 – Dec 31, 1996)
• Bogusław Kaczmarek (March 5, 1997 – May 14, 1997)
• Jerzy Wyrobek (May 17, 1997 – June 30, 1998)
• Krzysztof Pawlak (July 1, 1998 – May 9, 1999)
• Marek Pochopień (May 10, 1999 – June 30, 1999)
• Orest Lenczyk (1999)
• Krzysztof Wolak (1999–00)
• Ryszard Polak (2000)
• Jan Złomańczuk, Piotr Szarpak & Adam Mażysz (May 9, 2000 – April 22, 2001)
• Józef Dankowski (2001)
• Krzysztof Tochel (Oct 2001 – May 2)
• Jacek Zieliński (June 11, 2002 – Sept 10, 2002)
• Mariusz Kuras (Sept 11, 2002 – Oct 6, 2005)
• Orest Lenczyk (Oct 10, 2005 – March 21, 2008)

• Jan Złomańczuk (interim) (March 21, 2008 – May 21, 2008)
• Paweł Janas (May 21, 2008 – Jan 3, 2009)
• Rafał Ulatowski (2009 – May 10)
• Maciej Bartoszek (June 2, 2010 – June 30, 2011)
• Paweł Janas (June 17, 2011 – Aug 31, 2011)
• Kamil Kiereś (Sept 1, 2011 – Sept 25, 2012)
• Jan Złomańczuk (Sept 25, 2012 – Nov 14, 2012)
• Michal Probierz (Nov 14, 2012 – Dec 21, 2012)
• Kamil Kiereś (Jan 9, 2013–2015)
• Marek Zub (2015)
• Kamil Kiereś (2015)
• Rafał Ulatowski (2015-2016)
• Krystian Kierach (interim) (2016)
• Andrzej Konwiński (2016)
• Mariusz Pawlak (2017–2018)
• Artur Derbin (2018-)

Notable players

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

• Carlo Costly
• Dainius Suliauskas
• Łukasz Garguła
• Jacek Krzynówek
• Radosław Matusiak
• Grzegorz Rasiak
• Łukasz Sapela

See also

• List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries

External links

• Official club website
• GKS Bełchatów at Soccerway