| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Wojciech Kowalczyk | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1972-04-14)14 April 1972 (age 53) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Warsaw, Poland | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (5 ft11+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Striker | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| Olimpia Warsaw | |||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1990 | Polonez Warsaw | ||||||||||||||||
| 1990–1994 | Legia Warsaw | 109 | (39) | ||||||||||||||
| 1994–1997 | Betis | 62 | (14) | ||||||||||||||
| 1998–1999 | Las Palmas | 28 | (6) | ||||||||||||||
| 2001 | Legia Warsaw | 15 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2001–2002 | Anorthosis | 27 | (24) | ||||||||||||||
| 2003–2004 | APOEL | 16 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005–2006 | Absolwent UW Warsaw | ||||||||||||||||
| 2018–2019 | Weszło Warsaw | 8 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 258 | (89) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| Poland Olympic | |||||||||||||||||
| 1991–1999 | Poland | 39 | (11) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Wojciech Kowalczyk (born 14 April 1972) is a Polish former professionalfootballer who played as astriker, currently working as a footballpundit.
He played a bulk of his professional career withLegia Warsaw and inSpain. Early into his international career, he helped thePoland national team winthe silver medal at the1992 Summer Olympics. In 1992, he won thePolish Footballer of the Year plebiscite organized by thePiłka Nożna football weekly.
Born inWarsaw, Kowalczyk played his youth football with local Olimpia and Polonez, joining country giantsLegia Warsaw in 1990 at the age of 18. Almost from the very beginning, he was an automatic first-choice; in his weakestseason, his first, he only appeared in 11Ekstraklasa games, but was crucial in helping oustU.C. Sampdoria inthe quarter-finals of theUEFA Cup Winners' Cup by scoring twice inGenoa for the 2–2 draw and qualification for the semifinals 3–2 on aggregate.
After having started the1994–95 campaign with Legia (five matches, three goals, another league title), Kowalczyk moved abroad and signed withLa Liga sideReal Betis, but was never able to reproduce his previous form. He finished his five-year spell in Spain withUD Las Palmas in thesecond division, where he also appeared sparingly.
After almost one year out of football, Kowalczyk returned to his country and his main club, Legia. In late 2001 he changed countries again, joiningCyprus'Anorthosis Famagusta FC and netting a career-best 24 goals; after a nearly non-existent second season he finished his professional career in the same country, withAPOEL FC, retiring at 32 – afterwards, he would play in amateur football until 2019, with AZS AbsolwentUW Warsaw andWeszło Warsaw.
Kowalczyk gained 39caps forPoland, scoring 11 goals. His debut came at the age of 19 on 21 August 1991, againstSweden.[1]
His biggest international highlight was helping the Olympic squadwin silver at the1992 Summer Olympics inBarcelona. He did not score at all in the group stage, but eventually ranked third in the charts at four, three behind compatriotAndrzej Juskowiak.[2]
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland | 1991 | 3 | 1 |
| 1992 | 7 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 4 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 6 | 0 | |
| 1995 | 4 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 6 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 3 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 4 | 1 | |
| Total | 39 | 11 | |
| # | Date | Place | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 August 1991 | Gdynia,Poland |  Sweden | 1–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |
| 2 | 19 May 1992 | Salzburg,Austria |  Austria | 4–1 | 4–2 | |
| 3 | 14 October 1992 | Rotterdam,Netherlands |  Netherlands | 2–0 | 2–2 | 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 4 | 27 October 1993 | Istanbul,Turkey |  Turkey | 1–0 | 1–2 | |
| 5 | 25 April 1995 | Zabrze, Poland |  Israel | 3–2 | 4–3 | UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying |
| 6 | 1 May 1996 | Mielec, Poland |  Belarus | 1–0 | 1–1 | Friendly |
| 7 | 24 September 1997 | Olsztyn, Poland |  Lithuania | 2–0 | 2–0 | |
| 8 | 25 March 1998 | Warsaw, Poland |  Slovenia | 1–0 | 2–0 | |
| 9 | 10 November 1998 | Bratislava,Slovakia |  Slovakia | 2–1 | 3–1 | |
| 10 | 3–1 | |||||
| 11 | 10 February 1999 | Ta' Qali,Malta |  Finland | 1–0 | 1–1 |
After retiring, Kowalczyk established himself as a footballpundit, initially working withPolsat Sport TV.[3] Since 2018, he has contributed columns to theWeszło website and appeared on Weszło TV’sLiga Minus, a program analyzingEkstraklasa matches.[4][5] He was affiliated withKanał Sportowy until 2024.[6] Since 2024, he has been associated with the YouTube channelKanał Zero.[7]
In collaboration with sports journalistKrzysztof Stanowski, he co-authored the bookKowal. Prawdziwa historia (Kowal: The True Story), which was reissued in 2021.[8]
His brother, Artur Kowalczyk, was also the player until he finished his career withGrom Lipowo in the 2013–14 season.[9]
Legia Warsaw
Anorthosis
APOEL
Weszło Warsaw
Poland Olympic
Individual
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