Zagłębie Lubin is a club founded in 1945. The initiators, and at the same time the founders of the Coppers, were young people associated mainly in the Youth Organisation of the Workers’ University Society. Shortly after Lubin was incorporated into Poland, they founded the first sports club in Lubin.
The team of the then Zawisza Lubin played its debut match exactly on 5 May 1946, against a team from the Militia Sports Club Zgorzelec. The two-thousand-strong crowd gathered in Lubin at the time feted the club’s first historic victory. Another important date in the club’s history was 1966, when a change of the club’s name was adopted at a general meeting. The name KS Górnik Lubin was replaced by the name Międzyzakładowy Klub Sportowy Zagłębie Lubin. Fans had to wait until 1985 for their debut in Poland’s top division, when, on 27 July, Zagłębie took on GKS Katowice at the newly-opened stadium in Lubin. Zagłębie striker Eugeniusz Ptak opened and, as it later turned out, also closed the scoring. Zagłębie Lubin won 1:0 on their debut in League 1 (then Ekstraklasa).
The following years were intertwined with promotions and relegations, with Zagłębie returning to the Premier League for good at the beginning of the 1990s. The club’s greatest successes include two Polish Championships, won in 1990/91 and 2006/07, and the Polish Super Cup in 2006/07. Miedziowi thanks to their good performance in the league in the 1990s, played in the European Cups quite often. In the 1995/96 season, thanks to finishing fourth a season earlier, the then great AC Milan with names such as Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini visited Lubin. As expected, Zagłębie Lubin couldn’t cope with the Rossoneri and eventually lost as much as 8:1. Apart from matches against the club from Milan, the Lubinians also competed against Dinamo Minsk, Broendby or even Steaua Bucharest. In total, Zagłębie played as many as 32 matches in Europe.
Currently, Miedziowie are a team led by a very respected coach, Waldemar Fornalik, who took over after Piotr Stokowiec at the beginning of this round. His goal was simple, to keep the team in the PKO BP Ekstraklasa. It can be said that, so far, the new coach is fulfilling his duties well, he has managed to improve Zagłębie’s game, which has translated into results. At the moment, after 15 games played, coach Fornalik won 7, drew 3 and lost 5. The most dangerous club from Lubin is in fast attacks and special attention should be paid to that. When it comes to footballers, the most impressive are Łukasz Łakomy and Tomasz Pieńko. The former is an excellent midfielder by the standards of our league, with a technique and good field vision, while the latter is a rising star of our league, impressing with his speed and remarkable dribbling.
The last three matches have been three wins for the Coppers. They are definitely on a roll, which makes the upcoming clash extremely interesting!
Text: Szymon Markulis
