Seven Poles in Ligue 1 this season…
Seven Polish players are featured in Ligue 1 this season, including three at RC Lens. Przemyslaw Frankowski it is certainly the best known of them. For two seasons, the Polish international with 29 caps (1 goal) trod the right lane of Sang et Or. With 6 goals scored and 5 assists provided, the 27-year-old largely contributed to Lensoise’s 7th-place finish last season.
the attacker Pants Adam he has a harder time finding a place in the Lensois workforce. At 26 he played for several Polish clubs before going into exile with the New England Revolution in MLS where he scored 28 goals in two seasons. Buksa has been sidelined with multiple ankle injuries this season and has made just four appearances, the same as his compatriot Lukasz Poreba (22 years old).
Among the Poles in Ligue 1, Marcin Bulka (23) is also a familiar face. Having arrived as PSG’s number 3 goalkeeper in 2019, the aspiring international was then loaned out to Châteauroux and then to Nice, before making a permanent move to the Riviera club last summer. Lined for Benitez last season, the goalkeeper has been training at Chelsea under Kasper Schmeichel this season. But Ligue 1 has a second Polish goalkeeper in its ranks Matthew Lis (25 years old). Loaned to Troyes from Southampton, he is a substitute for Gauthier Gallon and has featured three times this season.
The other two Poles in Ligue 1 are on the side of Clermont and Strasbourg. After four full seasons at Legia Warsaw, Mateusz Wieteska (25) is one of the mainstays of the Clermont defense this season having made 15 league appearances, all as a starter. In Strasbourg, Julien Stéphan trusts less and less Charles Fila (24 years). Appearing 16 times in Ligue 1 last season, the right side have only featured in the game twice this season and are regularly out of the group.
…but only two at the World Cup
Of these seven players, only two were selected by Czeslaw Michniewicz for the World Cup. Przemyslaw Frankowski played in all three group stage matches, including two as a starter. Among the globalists there is also Clermontois Mateusz Wieteska, who, however, did not enter the game in the first three meetings.
In addition to these two Ligue 1 residents, the Polish group also has many well-known faces from the French league. Former Monegasque and 2017 French champion Kamil Glik starts in defence, while former Bordeaux, Reims and Parisian Grzegorz Krychowiak is one of the managers in midfield. The Poles can also count on the entrances of the former Marseille Arkadiusz Milik or more rarely on those of the former Rennes Kamil Grosicki.
Obraniak, the most experienced Pole in Ligue 1
66 Poles have evolved in the French championship. The most experienced of them is Ludovic Obraniak. Trained in Metz, then moved on to Lille and Bordeaux, the 2011 French champion played 290 Ligue 1 games between 2002 and 2018. He also played in Ligue 2 for two seasons with AJ Auxerre.
Performed by Piotr Swierczewski, midfielder surpassed by Saint-Étienne, Bastia and OM. The podium is completed by Jacek Bak, French champion in 2002 with Lyon before moving to Lens for three seasons.
Kamil Glik, the most numerous in the selection
From the top of his 102 selections, the experienced Kamil Glik (34) dominates the ranking of players who have passed Ligue 1 with the most appearances in the Polish selection. He is closely followed by Grzegorz Krychowiak who has been in the White Eagles shirt 97 times. Former Lyonnais and Lensois Jacek Bak completes the podium but could be overtaken by Kamil Grosicki if the former Rennes player continues his international career.
Apart from Milik, Rybus or Dudka, the rest of the ranking reflects the close and old ties between France and Poland. For example, there are players who played in France in the 90s (Świerczewski, Kosecki, Klos…) or in the 70s and 80s (Gadocha, Szarmach…).
