ŁKS Łódź

Full name Łódzki Klub Sportowy Spółka Sportowa
Nickname(s) Rycerze wiosny (Knights of Spring)
Founded 1908
Ground Stadion ŁKS,
Łódź, Poland
Capacity 5,700
Chairman Tomasz Salski
Manager Kazimierz Moskal
League I liga (II tier)
2017–18 2nd – II liga (Promoted)

ŁKS Łódź (Łódzki Klub Sportowy; Polish pronunciation: [ˌɛwkaˈɛs ˈwut͡ɕ]) is a Polish sports club that is owned by Łódź city council. They are best known for their football club, but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, athletics and in the past ice hockey. The club is based at Stadion LKS, at Al. Unii Lubelskiej 2 in the West of Łódź. The club was founded in 1908. The football section had since been sold to private investors as the city could no longer afford to support it.[1] After years of financial hardships, the club declared bankruptcy in May 2013.[2] and was re-founded by a partnership between fans and local investors in the fifth tier of the league pyramid.

Their nickname "Rycerze Wiosny" ("Knights of Spring") has been given to them due to their usually strong performance in the second round of the league, after Winter break.

Facilities

1936 ŁKS side.

In 2009 the new Atlas Arena[3][4] was completed adjacent to the football stadium. It is an indoor arena and has already hosted international events in basketball, volleyball and boxing.

The City council still intend to construct a brand new stadium on the site of the current football stadium. It was intended to be complete in time for UEFA Euro 2012, but now is expected to be finished in late 2013-early 2014. Although Łódź is not a Euro 2012 host city, it had been believed that a failure by Ukraine to be ready on time[5] would lead to Poland hosting the entire tournament on its own and therefore requiring more host cities. There were four Polish host cities (Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław) involved in hosting the tournament. It was envisioned the new stadium will hold approximately 34,000 seats, as required by UEFA.[6] Due to their rivalry, Widzew Łódź have ruled out using this new stadium and instead intend to rebuild their own stadium. Support for the project was undermined by the successful re-call of the Łódź city president in early 2010. The city has also announced a public auction for their stake in the club as they can no longer afford to cover the clubs loses. Due to financial constraints and lack of demand from LKS fans, the stadium size was scaled down to 16,500 in 2012.[7][8]

As part of renovations, a new 3,000 seat arena was supposed to be built to compliment the existing Atlas Arena. All work was expected to cost 218 million PLN.

All plans to provide the club with new facilities, however, have been abandoned as of 2013, due to financial constraints and the bankruptcy of the club in May 2013.[9]

Rivalries

The club has a fierce rivalry with cross-town club Widzew Łódź, with the derby match between the two clubs being intense both on and off the field. See Łódź derby

Achievements

The new ground
  • Ekstraklasa (First division):
    • 1st Place (2): 1958, 1998
    • 2nd Place (1): 1954
    • 3rd Place (3): 1922, 1957, 1993
  • Polish Cup:
    • Winner (1): 1957
    • Finalist (1): 1994
  • Polish SuperCup:
    • Finalist (2): 1994, 1998
  • Youth Teams:
    • Polish U-19 Champion: 1962, 1983, 1999
    • Polish U-19 Runner-up: 1953, 1955, 1973, 2002
    • Polish U-19 Bronze Medal: 1971, 1981
    • Polish U-17 Champion: 1994, 1999

Current squad

As of 3 October 2018

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

No. Position Player
2 Poland DF Jan Sobocinski
4 Poland DF Artur Bogusz
5 Poland DF Bartosz Widejko
6 Poland MF Maciej Wolski
7 Poland MF Patryk Bryła
8 Poland DF Kamil Rozmus
9 Poland MF Wojciech Łuczak
10 Ukraine FW Yevhen Radionov
11 Spain MF Dani Ramírez
12 Poland GK Michal Brudnicki
13 Poland FW Jakub Kostyrka
14 Slovenia DF Lukáš Bielák
16 Poland FW Paweł Wojowski
17 Poland MF Mateusz Gamrot
No. Position Player
18 Poland MF Piotr Pyrdoł
19 Poland MF Mikolaj Maschera
20 Poland MF Oskar Koprowski
21 Poland DF Jan Grzesik
22 Poland FW Kamil Zylski
23 Poland MF Bartłomiej Kalinkowski
24 Poland DF Kamil Juraszek
25 Poland GK Michał Kołba
28 Poland MF Łukasz Piątek
29 Poland MF Maksymilian Rozwandowicz
33 Poland GK Dominik Budzynski
88 Poland FW Rafał Kujawa
— Poland GK Dawid Arndt

ŁKS in Europe

The old ground
Season Competition Round Club Score
1959–60 European Cup Q Luxembourg Jeunesse Esch 0–5, 2–1
1994–95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R Portugal Porto 0–2, 0–1
1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup GR Russia KAMAZ 0–3
Bulgaria Spartak Varna 1–1
Germany 1860 Munich 0–5
Czech Republic Kaučuk Opava 0–3
1998–99 UEFA Champions League 1Q Azerbaijan Kapaz 4–1, 3–1
2Q England Manchester United 0–2, 0–0
UEFA Cup 1R France Monaco 1–3, 0–0

Notable players

Managers

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Nowy ŁKS idzie na przetarg. I do pierwszej ligi". Lodz.gazeta.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ "AtlasArena Łódź – Home". Atlasarena.pl. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Dampf, Andrew (2009-10-29). "Ukraine still risks losing Euro 2012". Usatoday.Com. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "Nowy stadion ŁKS Łódź – WIZUALIZACJA – SE.pl". Gwizdek24.se.pl. 2011-12-23. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  8. ↑ "W czerwcu przetarg na budowę stadionu ŁKS-u – Sport – WP.PL". Sport. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  9. ↑
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