Bartosz Kapustka (born 23 December 1996) is a Polish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Ekstraklasa club

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning record 15 Ekstraklasa champions titles, a ...

Club career

KS Cracovia

In October 2012, he started his career after being promoted to

KS Cracovia {{Short description, Sports club based in Kraków Cracovia is a multi-sports club in Kraków, Poland. Its teams include: *MKS Cracovia Miejski Klub Sportowy Cracovia Sportowa Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known simply as MKS Cracovia or Cracovia ...

first team squad.

Leicester City

Kapustka was signed by

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club Leicester City for a reported £7.5m in August 2016, signing a five-year contract. He cited manager

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri Grande Ufficiale OMRI (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian football manager and former player. He will be the new head coach of club Cagliari from 1 January 2023. Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in It ...

as his motivation for joining the club. Ranieri admitted he was unsure when Kapustka "will be ready to play in the Premier League". Having already played for the Leicester Under-23s, a

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

move was not possible due to FIFA rules prohibiting a player from appearing for three clubs in one season. Kapustka finally made his senior debut for Leicester in a 2–1

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

third-round win at Everton on 7 January 2017, coming on as an 84th-minute substitute for

Marc Albrighton Marc Kevin Albrighton (born 18 November 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or wing-back for Championship side West Bromwich Albion, on loan from Premier League club Leicester City. Albrighton joined Aston Vil ...

. He made his full debut in a 3–1 FA Cup fourth-round replay win over Derby County on 8 February 2017, playing in a central attacking role behind striker Ahmed Musa. Kapustka made 47 touches and two interceptions before he was replaced by Riyad Mahrez in the 81st minute.

SC Freiburg (loan)

On 14 July 2017, Kapustka joined

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

on loan for 2017–18 season. The

Breisgau The Breisgau () is an area in southwest Germany between the Rhine River and the foothills of the Black Forest. Part of the state of Baden-Württemberg, it centers on the city of Freiburg im Breisgau. The district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, ...

-based side secured an option to sign him permanently at the end of the season for a transfer fee of €5 million.

OH Leuven (loan)

On 31 August 2018, Kapustka joined

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

club Oud-Heverlee Leuven on loan for 2018–19 season.

Legia Warsaw

On 13 August 2020, Kapustka joined Polish Ekstraklasa club

on a two-year contract.

International career

On 7 September 2015, Kapustka made his debut appearance for the Poland national team in a match against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, substituting

Jakub Błaszczykowski Jakub Błaszczykowski (; born 14 December 1985), also known as Kuba, is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Wisła Kraków, businessman and Wisła Kraków's part owner. He started his professional football at Wisła Krakó ...

. He scored his first goal for the national team on his debut. In the buildup to the

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

, Kapustka was involved in a brawl outside a night club, in which he sustained an injury. Following the incident, he made a phone call personally to Polish national team manager

Adam Nawałka Adam Nawałka (; born 23 October 1957) is a retired Polish football player and former manager of Poland. Player career Club Nawałka comes from a footballing family. His father, Adam, played for the local team Orlęta (Eaglets) Rudawa. Nawałka ...

, to ask for his forgiveness and ask that he not be excluded from the squad for the upcoming tournament. Kapustka was eventually selected for Poland's Euro 2016 campaign, and produced a standout performance in the team's opening match victory over

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Poland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kapustka goal.''

Honours

Legia Warsaw * Ekstraklasa:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual *Ekstraklasa Player of the Month: February 2021

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapustka, Bartosz 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Tarnów Association football midfielders Polish footballers Poland international footballers Poland youth international footballers Poland under-21 international footballers Ekstraklasa players Regionalliga players Bundesliga players Tarnovia Tarnów players Hutnik Nowa Huta players MKS Cracovia (football) players Leicester City F.C. players SC Freiburg players SC Freiburg II players Oud-Heverlee Leuven players Belgian First Division B players UEFA Euro 2016 players Polish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Polish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Polish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Belgium Polish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Legia Warsaw players