FKS Stal Mielec, commonly known as Stal Mielec (), is a Polish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Mielec Mielec () is the largest city and County seat, seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 was 59,509. ...

. The team competes in the

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 ...

, the second level of the

Polish football league system The Polish football league system refers to the league system for association football in Poland. The men's system As of the 2023–24 season. The Ekstraklasa lies at the top of the Polish football system, followed by I liga, II liga and III l ...

. The club was established on 10 April 1939. Historically, the club has enjoyed great success within Poland's top division, winning the title in 1973 and 1976, but had undergone significant management changes and financial difficulties within the past two decades, which prevented the club from participation in the Poland's top league. After finishing first in the I liga in 2020, Stal Mielec was promoted to the

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

for the first time since the 1995–96 season, where it remained until 2025. StalMielec-Mecz3

History

Naming history

* 1939 – Klub Sportowy PZL Mielec * 1946 – Robotniczy Klub Sportowy PZL Zryw Mielec * 1948 – Związkowy Klub Sportowy Metalowców PZL Mielec * 1949 – Związkowy Klub Sportowy Stal Mielec * 1950 – Koło Sportowe Stal przy Wytwórni Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego Mielec * 1957 – Fabryczny Klub Sportowy Stal Mielec * 1977 – Fabryczny Klub Sportowy PZL Stal Mielec * 1995 – Autonomiczna Sekcja Piłki Nożnej FKS PZL Stal Mielec * 1997 – Mielecki Klub Piłkarski Stal Mielec * 1998 – Mielecki Klub Piłkarski Lobo Stal Mielec * 1999 – Mielecki Klub Piłkarski Stal Mielec * 2002 – Klub Sportowy Stal Mielec * 2003 – FKS Stal Mielec * 2018 – PGE FKS Stal Mielec * 2024 – FKS Stal Mielec

1939–1945 – the beginning and interwar period

The football club was one of the first two (next to the volleyball club) at the PZL Mielec, established in 1939. The team was made up of players playing in other clubs in Mielec and employees of the PZL, an aerospace company. In the first match played, the team defeated the Gymnastic Society "Sokół" Mielec 4–1. Three more matches were played against Dzikovia Tarnobrzeg (2–1), Metal Tarnów (3–1) and a team made up of players from an ammunition factory in Nowa Dęba (6–1). A match against

Okęcie Warsaw Okęcie Warsaw is a Polish sports club from the Okęcie neighbourhood of Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vist ...

planned for September did not take place, because World War II started and all sports games were forbidden. However, the matches were played illegally in the meadows beyond the communal forest and in other towns (including

Dębica Dębica (; ''Dembitz'') is a town in southeastern Poland with 44,692 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the capital of Dębica County. Since 1999 it has been situated in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it had previously been in the Tarnów Voiv ...

, Kolbuszowa,

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; , ) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (), situated on the Vistula River near its confluence with the San, in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy ...

). The only official match was played against a German military unit and ended with the score 1–2.

Honours

League

** Champions: 1972–73, 1975–76 ** Runners-up: 1974–75 *

** Champions: 1960, 1984–85, 1987–88 * II liga ** Champions: 1955, 1968–69, 2015–16 *

III liga III liga (Trzecia liga), currently named Betclic III liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is a Polish football league that sits in the fourth tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, III liga ref ...

** Champions: 2012–13 (group Lublin–Subcarpathia) *

V liga V liga represents the sixth level of the Polish football hierarchy. Teams promoted from V liga move up to IV liga, whilst relegated teams descend to the regional league. Currently, this league is present only in the Greater Poland (Wielkopols ...

** Champions: 1998–99 *

Klasa A Klasa A represents the seventh level of the Polish football league system, Polish football hierarchy. Teams promoted from Klasa A move up to the liga okręgowa, whilst relegated teams descend to the Klasa B leagues. The exceptions are Klasa A i ...

** Champions: 1950, 1954 *

Klasa B Klasa B represents the eighth (or ninth in some regions) level of the Polish football hierarchy. Teams promoted from Klasa B move up to Klasa A, whilst relegated teams descend to the Klasa C Klasa C represents the ninth and lowest level of the P ...

** Champions: 1949

Cup

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

**Runners-up: 1975–76

Europe

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

**First round: 1973–74, 1976–77 *

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 ...

**Quarter-finalists: 1975–76 **First round: 1979–80, 1982–83

Youth teams

* Polish U-19 Championship ** Runners-up: 1964, 2007 * Polish U-17 Championship ** Champions: 2007 ** Runners-up: 1996, 2012

Stadium

The construction of the club's current stadium, Stadion Stali Mielec (patroned by

Grzegorz Lato Grzegorz Bolesław Lato (Polish pronunciation: ; born 8 April 1950) is a Polish former professional association football, football player and manager who played as a winger (association football), winger. He was a member of Poland's golden gene ...

), was concluded in 1953. The stadium underwent a major renovation, completed in 2013. It maintains a seating capacity for 7,000 spectators. Before the 2013 renovation, it maintained seating capacity for 30,000 spectators, and hosted numerous European Champions Cup,

, and Poland national team matches, including

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

and

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

qualifiers.

Individual player awards

top goalscorer ** 1973 -

- 13 goals ** 1975 - Grzegorz Lato - 19 goals ** 1995 - Bogusław Cygan - 16 goals *

Piłka nożna magazine plebiscite The ''Piłka Nożna'' magazine plebiscite () is an annual plebiscite organized by the journalists of '':pl:Piłka Nożna (tygodnik), Piłka Nożna'' (literally "Foot Ball"), the Polish football weekly. Jurors choose the best men's player, women' ...

**Player of the Year *** 1976 - Henryk Kasperczak *** 1977 - Grzegorz Lato **Newcomer of the Year *** 1975 - Zbigniew Hnatio *** 1978 - Włodzimierz Ciołek *''Przegląd Sportowy'' Polish Athlete of the Year ** 1974 - 4th place - Grzegorz Lato ** 1977 - 5th place - Grzegorz Lato *''Sport'' Player of the Year ** 1974 - Grzegorz Lato ** 1976 - Henryk Kasperczak ** 1977 - Grzegorz Lato *''Tempo'' Goalkeeper of the Year ** 1979 - Zygmunt Kukla

Reserves

The club operates a reserve team which currently plays in the Subcarpathia group of the

IV liga IV liga (Czwarta liga) is the fifth level of the Polish football league system. The current structure of IV liga was created in the 2000–01 season after introducing the new administrative division of Poland. Groups consist most often of 18 c ...

, the fifth tier of the league pyramid. During the 2020–21 season, a third team participated in the regional league, as well as the Subcarpathian

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

–

edition.

Players

Current squad

Notable players

The players below played for their respective countries at any point during their career.

Managers

* Stanisław Maurer (1947–1948) * Rudolf Pirych (1948–1952) * Eustachy Poticha (1952–1953) * Antoni Brzeżańczyk (1954–1956) * Michał Matyas (1957–1958) * Antoni Brzeżańczyk (1959–1960) * Henryk Skromny (1961) * Czesław Suszczyk (1962) * Michał Matyas (1962–1963) * Stanisław Malczyk (1963–1964) * Otton Opiełka (1964) * Władysław Lemiszko (1964–1965) * Konrad Jędryka (1966–1967) * Andrzej Gajewski (1968–1972) * Károly Kontha (1973) * Aleksander Brożyniak (1973–1974) * Zenon Książek (1974–1975) * Edmund Zientara (1975–1977) * Alfred Gazda (1977) * Konstanty Pawlikaniec (1977–1978) * Zenon Książek (1978–1980) * Mieczysław Kruk (1980–1981) * Józef Walczak (1981–1982) *

Witold Karaś Witold Józef Karaś (born 20 October 1951) is a Polish former professional Manager (association football), football manager and Football player, player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Career Karaś started his career wi ...

(1982) * Jacek Machciński and Marian Kosiński (1982–1983) * Henryk Stroniarz (1983–1984) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (1984–1985) * Ryszard Latawiec (1985–1986) * Zenon Książek (1986–1987) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (1987–1990) * Marian Kosiński (1990) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (1990–1991) *

(1991–1993) *

(1993) * Franciszek Smuda (1993–1995) * Jan Złomańczuk (1995) *

(1996–1997) * Jerzy Płaneta (1998) * Marek Chamielec (1999) * Jerzy Płaneta (1999–2000) *

(2000) * Roman Gruszecki (2000–2001) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (2001) * Marek Lorenc (2001) * Krzysztof Łętocha (2001–2002) * Jacek Klisiewicz (2002) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (2003–2006) * Tomasz Tułacz (2006) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (2006–2007) * Janusz Białek (2007) * Zbigniew Hariasz (2007) * Andrzej Jaskot (2008) * Grzegorz Wcisło (2008–2009) * Zbigniew Hariasz (2009) * Janusz Białek (2009) * Zbigniew Hariasz (2009–2010) * Grzegorz Wcisło (2010) * Mariusz Łuc (2010) * Tomasz Tułacz (2011–2012) * Roman Gruszecki (2012) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (2012–2014) *

Rafał Wójcik Rafał Wójcik (born 18 September 1972 in Starachowice) is a Polish long-distance runner. Up to 2004 he specialized in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He finished eighth at the 2002 European Championships and competed without reaching the final at ...

(2014) * Janusz Białek (2014) *

(2014) * Janusz Białek (2014–2016) * Maciej Serafiński (2016) * Zbigniew Smółka (2016–2018) * Artur Skowronek (2018–2019) * Dariusz Marzec (2019–2020) * Dariusz Skrzypczak (2020) * Leszek Ojrzyński (2020–2021) * Włodzimierz Gąsior (2021) * Adam Majewski (2021–2023) * Kamil Kiereś (2023–2024) * Janusz Niedźwiedź (2024–2025) * Ivan Đurđević (2025–''present'')

References

External links

*
Stal Mielec
at 90minut.pl {{Authority control Mielec Association football clubs established in 1939 1939 establishments in Poland