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	Michał Antczak
Manager	Mariusz Pawlak
League	II Liga
2015–16 I liga	16th, (relegated)
Website	http://www.gksbelchatow.com
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 26 June 2017

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
4	MF	POL	Mikołaj Bociek
6	MF	POL	Szymon Zgarda
7	MF	POL	Bartłomiej Bartosiak
10	FW	POL	Dawid Flaszka
11	MF	POL	Albin Maciejewski
12	GK	POL	Kamil Bruchajzer
13	GK	POL	Daniel Niźnik
14	DF	POL	Adrian Klepczyński

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
15	DF	POL	Krzysztof Michalak
16	MF	ARM	Aghvan Papikyan
17	DF	POL	Damian Michalski
20	MF	POL	Patryk Rachwał
21	MF	POL	Marcin Ryszka
22	DF	POL	Robert Pisarczuk
23	MF	POL	Bartłomiej Kondracki
25	DF	POL	Piotr Witasik
-	MF	POL	Robert Chwastek
-	MF	POL	Michał Ciarkowski
-	MF	POL	Marcin Garuch
-	MF	SEN	Émile Thiakane

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 02)
• 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–)

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