Mariusz Lewandowski (; born 18 May 1979) is a Polish professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

. He was most recently in charge of Polish

I liga I liga (, ), currently named Betclic I liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga via promotion/rel ...

club

Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza Klub Sportowy Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza (), is a Polish professional football club based in Nieciecza. They compete in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of the Polish footbal ...

. He was mostly a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

and could also play as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He spent the majority of his club career with Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, with whom he won the UEFA Cup, five Ukrainian Premier League titles and 3 Ukrainian Cups. In 2009, he was named the Polish Footballer of the Year.

Club career

Born in

Legnica Legnica (; , ; ; ) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River and the Czarna Woda. As well as being the seat of the county, since 1992 the city has been the seat of the Diocese of Legnica. Le ...

, Lewandowski started his career with Polish club

Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. () is a Polish professional association football, football club based in Lubin. Founded in 1945 as ''OMTUR Lubin'', the club competes in the Ekstraklasa. History The football team was founded in 1945 as OMTUR Lubin by lo ...

in 1996. After a short time in

Dyskobolia Grodzisk Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski (), previously Groclin Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski, was a Polish football club based in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Greater Poland Voivodeship. History Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski was founded on 30 April 1 ...

, he was bought by

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

club

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

in 2001. For nine seasons, Lewandowski was an integral part of the team, which won 5 Ukrainian Championships and 3 Ukrainian Cups during his spell in Donetsk. On 20 May 2009, he played in the final of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

against

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

, with Shakhtar claiming the trophy. In July 2010, he signed with fellow Ukrainian Premier League side PFC Sevastopol. On 27 November 2013, he left the Crimean club. On 24 September 2014, after remaining a free agent for 10 months, he announced his retirement.

International career

He was named in the 23-man Poland's 2006 World Cup squad held in Germany. He was also a member of the Poland squad at

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

. After

Franciszek Smuda Franciszek Smuda (; 22 June 1948 – 18 August 2024) was a Polish football player and manager. As a player, he spent his career playing for clubs in Poland, the United States and Germany. In 1983, he turned to coaching, becoming the manager of ...

took over the national team in 2009, he stopped playing for

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. He was however, called up by

Waldemar Fornalik Waldemar Fornalik (born 11 April 1963) is a Polish professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Ekstraklasa club Zagłębie Lubin. He spent his entire playing career with Ruch Chorzów. From July 2012 to O ...

in October 2013 for the matches against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the qualification campaign for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Managerial statistics

Honours

Shakhtar Donetsk *

: 2008–09 *

: 2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2007–08 *

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup () is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competition season in Ukraine. Originally it was s ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Individual *

's All-Time XI * Polish Footballer of the Year: 2009

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewandowski, Mariusz 1979 births Living people Polish men's footballers Zagłębie Lubin players Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players FC Shakhtar-2 Donetsk players UEFA Europa League–winning players FC Sevastopol players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Poland men's international footballers Polish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Footballers from Legnica UEFA Euro 2008 players Ekstraklasa players Ukrainian Premier League players Ukrainian First League players Polish expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Men's association football defenders Polish football managers Ekstraklasa managers I liga managers Zagłębie Lubin managers Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza managers Radomiak Radom managers