Twenty-four Polish footballers have played in Spain’s top league to date. The biggest star in this group is, of course, Lewandowski, but in the 1990s several compatriots enjoyed similar status at their clubs. Jan Urban almost single-handedly dealt with Real Madrid and Roman Kosecki with Barcelona.
Wembley hero
The first Pole to play at the highest level in Spain was the famous goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. The hero from Wembley in the early 1980s went to Hercules Alicante. However, he failed to conquer the Iberian Peninsula as he played just six games there before returning to ŁKS Łódź.
In the 1990s in Spain, a fashion for Polish players took hold. Jan Urban, in particular, made a good name for our football. The current coach of Górnik Zabrze played as many as 168 games for Osasuna Pampeluna between 1989 and 1995, scoring 49 goals in the process. Until last year, he remained the most successful Pole in La Liga history. He became particularly famous for his hat-trick, or three goals, in an away match against Real Madrid in 1990.
Three more Poles came through Osasuna during that period: Roman Kosecki, Miroslaw Trzeciak and Ryszard Staniek. Kosecki played his best game in Spain after his transfer to Atletico Madrid. In 1993, his two goals and an assist allowed Los Colchoneros to turn around a match against the great Barcelona – from 0:3 to 4:3.
Barcelona’s scoring king
Polish fans, on the other hand, associate Trzeciak primarily with an anecdote from his time as sporting director of Legia Warsaw. However, it too is related to Spain! It was 2007, the player of the reserves of the capital club was the then 19-year-old Robert Lewandowski, and Trzeciak was to decide his future. He had just brought in La Liga striker Mikel Arruabarrena from Spain. At the time, the famous “You can sell Lewandowski, we have Arruabarrena” was uttered, and so it went.
While the Spaniard failed to live up to expectations, Lewandowski found himself first at Znicz Pruszków and then at Lech Poznań. At both these clubs, he scored as if on cue. We all know how his career turned out, and today he is a top Polish player, captain of the Polish national team and top scorer at FC Barcelona.
Few people remember that Lewandowski’s former agent, Cezary Kucharski, also scored an episode in the Spanish league. The former Legia star played 12 games for Sporting Gijon in 1997. A much stronger presence in Spain was made by another footballer from Lazienkowska three years earlier – Wojciech Kowalczyk. He was sent to Sevilla – to the Real Betis club. He scored a goal on his debut and added a goal in his first derby (a match against Sevilla FC), which earned him the status of a grandstand favourite. For Betis, he played a total of more than 60 matches.
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They struggled with Lewandowski in the Champions League, today they are recovering from the crisis
Krychowiak star at Sevilla
In the early 2000s, Spanish clubs stopped betting on Poles. The drought was broken by the transfer of Euzebiusz Smolarek to Racing Santander in 2007. The popular Ebi spent one season in northern Spain and scored four goals in La Liga. Subsequent years in Spain saw the likes of Jerzy Dudek (Real Madrid reserve), Dariusz Dudka (Levante), Damien Perquis (Betis), Bartłomiej Pawłowski (Malaga) and Przemysław Tytoń (Elche and Deportivo La Coruna).
We had to wait for another Polish star in the Spanish league until 2014, when Grzegorz Krychowiak came to Sevilla. The central midfielder spent two seasons at Andalusia. He triumphed twice with this team in the Europa League, and in 2015/16 he was considered one of the best players in his position in La Liga, which resulted in a move to Paris Saint-Germain. Spanish fans remember Krychowiak in particular for his memorable – and effective – chase after Leo Messi in a match against Barcelona.
The duo from Barcelona
Now the Pole is on the other side of the barricade – right at the Pride of Catalonia. Lewandowski is playing his third season at Barcelona and has scored 84 goals for them in all competitions, with 25 goals in 25 games in the 2024/25 season. He is now edging ever closer to the TOP20 of Barca’s all-time top scorers.
For the past few months, Lewandowski’s club teammate has been his friend from the national team, Wojciech Szczęsny. The Polish goalkeeper has already scored on his debut in his new colours in a match against fourth-league UD Barbastro. He will also soon become the 25th Polish footballer to play in Spain’s top division, La Liga.
