Wojciech Kowalewski (; born 11 May 1977) is a Polish former 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 lea ...

who played as a

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Club career

Kowalewski made his top-flight debut with

Wigry Suwałki Wigry Suwałki is a Polish football club based in Suwałki, Podlaskie Voivodeship. In the 2025–26 season, they compete in group I of the III liga. They play their home games at the . Players Current squad Ou ...

during the 1996–97 season, but it was not until 2001–02, after a loan spell with second division side Dyskobolia Grodzisk, that he finally established himself with Legia. Midway through the season he moved to

FC 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 ...

and only conceded once in nine league games as Shakhtar stormed to the Ukrainian title for the first time. After initially moving to Spartak Moscow on loan in June 2003, Kowalewski signed a five-year contract with Spartak on 7 November 2003. In late 2007, having lost his place to Stipe Pletikosa, he requested to leave the club. In December 2007 Spartak agreed to terminate his contract. He had not played for Spartak in over a year. On 17 January 2008 it was announced that Kowalewski had started a trial period with

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club

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. On 3 February 2008, Kowalewski signed a three-year deal with Polish club Korona Kielce. Kowalewski has a reputation of being an excellent penalty-saver, once breaking FC Torpedo Moskva's Vladimir Leonchenko's streak of 13 successful spot-kicks. On 17 January 2010 Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. released experienced Polish goalkeeper. The player was tracked by

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 a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

, but joined the

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newcomers Sibir Novosibirsk instead.

International career

Kowalewski made his Poland debut in February 2002, but made only a handful of appearances before being recalled to the side at the start of Euro 2008 qualifying. He was replaced by Artur Boruc after picking up a second yellow against

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on 11 October 2006. Poland won that game 2–1. Kowalewski replaced Tomasz Kuszczak in Poland's Euro 2008 squad following the Manchester United goalkeeper's back injury. He had to re-use the UEFA ID card of his team-mate Mariusz Lewandowski to enter the

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in Klagenfurt for the match against

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as he did not obtain an accreditation pass due to an oversight by the Polish delegation. In September 2009, he was recalled to the squad for the

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qualifiers against the

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and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

by coach Stefan Majewski. He was the starter against the Czechs as Poland slipped to a 2–0 defeat on 10 October 2009 which killed off any lingering hopes of qualifying for the tournament finals.

International statistics

Honours

Shakhtar Donetsk *

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 ...

: 2001–02 *

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

References

External links

*
National team stats
on the website of the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the ), the national cups, and manages the men's and women's national teams. It also runs the nati ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kowalewski, Wojciech 1977 births Living people Footballers from Białystok Men's association football goalkeepers Polish men's footballers Poland men's international footballers Wigry Suwałki players Legia Warsaw players Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players FC Spartak Moscow players Korona Kielce players Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) players FC Sibir Novosibirsk players Anorthosis Famagusta FC players UEFA Euro 2008 players Polish expatriate men's footballers Ekstraklasa players Ukrainian Premier League players Super League Greece players Russian Premier League players Cypriot First Division players Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Polish expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Polish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Polish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Association football goalkeeping coaches Legia Warsaw non-playing staff