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
Ground Capacity	5,238
Chairman	Marcin Szymczyk
Manager	Rafal Ulatowski
League	I Liga
2014–15 Ekstraklasa	16th, (relegated)
Website	Club home page
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 31 August 2015

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Paweł Lenarcik 3 DF Marcin Wdowiak 4 MF Damian Szymański 5 DF Václav Cverna 6 MF Szymon Zgarda 7 FW Bartłomiej Bartosiak 8 DF Lukáš Kubáň 9 MF Paweł Zięba 10 FW Dawid Flaszka 11 MF Łukasz Wroński 12 GK Kamil Bruchajzer 15 FW Hieronim Gierszewski (on loan from Lechia Gdansk)

No. Position Player 16 MF Aghvan Papikyan 17 DF Krystian Stolarczy 18 MF Łukasz Klemenz 20 MF Patryk Rachwał 22 GK Maciej Krakowiak 23 FW Cezary Demianiuk (on loan from Piast Gliwice) 25 DF Piotr Witasik 42 DF Seweryn Michalski 46 DF Mateusz Szymorek 66 FW Szymon Stanisławski 94 DF Marcin Flis

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
• Grzegorz Rasiak
• Łukasz Sapela

See also

• List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries

External links

• Official club website
• GKS Bełchatów at Soccerway