Reflecting on 2025, looking ahead to 2026

Reflecting on 2025, looking ahead to 2026

It’s virtually a tradition at this point to pen an article at year’s end, and this year is no different. 

This won’t be a long diatribe, because I think many of 2025’s events in Polish football have been well covered. It is of course still worth reflecting upon, and always having a positive look ahead to the coming 12 months. 

Looking at the Polish national team, 2024 ended in rough shape and halfway through 2025 it practically imploded, with Michał Probierz stripping Robert Lewandowski of the captaincy before having to resign anyway a couple of days later. In comes Jan Urban who more or less fixes things overnight, and wipes away all memory of the struggles Poland were having in the first half of the year. Urban has us all feeling pretty optimistic about the chances we might see Poland at the World Cup in 2026, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

There has been similar pitfall and revelation for Poland’s U-21s. Suffering an abysmal tournament in the summer, in comes Jerzy Brzęcek and immediately turns the U-21 side into a seemingly unstoppable force, powered in no small part by the breakout star of Polish football this last six months, Oskar Pietuszewski. He’s on his way to Porto if reports are to be believed, and what a positive move that is for such a prodigious talent. 

Rediscovering form has been another positive these last six months, particularly Jakub Kamiński, but special mention should also go to Jan Bednarek finally getting the recognition he deserves following his own move to Porto, as well as players like Michał Skóraś and Przemysław Wiśniewski revitalising themselves. 

Domestically the first half of the year saw Polish teams yet again do well in the Conference League, and the end of the year was the same, Legia Warszawa excepted. Speaking of Legia they have endured such a torrid first half of this year’s Ekstraklasa campaign they are largely the standout story, but with someone like Marek Papszun now at the helm I am eager to see what might happen over the first six months of 2026. 

Focusing again on the Ekstraklasa, it’s perhaps the most open title race amongst the most unfancied duo we’ve had in some time. Wisła Płock and Górnik Zabrze are not two teams many would’ve predicted to hold the top spots over the winter, and yet there they are. Jagiellonia Białystok and their game in hand should be feared by the duo at the summit, but generally it does feel like every team from Korona Kielce in 9th upwards have a real shot at challenging. 

Widzew Łódź look set to try and buy a whole new team this coming transfer window, allegedly looking at bringing in some (formerly) big Polish names such as Bartłomiej Drągowski and Przemysław Płacheta. I’m not against either of these two returning to the Ekstraklasa, especially as it can often be a good way of re-entering the conversation for the national team. 

One of my hopes for 2026 is that Kacper Urbański can be part of that picture again, as he enjoyed a good 2024 and things have unfortunately gone backwards in that regard. Were Legia’s fortunes to improve, and in turn Urbański’s, maybe we can see another upward trend for someone we still forget is a developing young player. 

I obviously haven’t delved into everything that went on in 2025, nor have I fully looked ahead to 2026, but overall it’s very much been a year during which Polish football started off in one place, sank to some pretty low depths, and then recovered to a point where it has somehow managed to reach to the last page of the calendar looking pretty healthy. Yet another reason to celebrate, I suppose. 

Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!

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