Szymon Grabowski (born 8 April 1981) is a Polish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the current manager of Lechia Gdańsk.

Playing career

Born in Rzeszów, Grabowski began playing football for the youth teams of his local team Resovia Rzeszów. He broke into the first team in 1998, and made his first team debut on the 8 August 1998, in a 2–0 home win against Dynovia Dynów.^[1] During his playing career Grabowski played in the lower divisions of Polish football, never managing to break into the fully professional leagues. During his first spell with Resovia he went out on loan to Błękitni Ropczyce and Izolator Boguchwała, before making a move to Strug Tyczyn. Grabowski stayed with Strug for 18 months before making a return to Resovia. His return lasted only 12 months, before he once again swapped Resovia for Strug, before returning to Resovia once again another 12 months later. At this point Grabowski cemented himself as an important first team player, and over the next 3 years played in most of the teams games, including the 2006–07 season when Resovia won the IV liga (gr. podkarpacka), the and 2008–09 season when the team won the III liga (gr. lubelsko-podkarpacka).

After securing his second promotion with Resovia, Grabowski left the team for a final time. He went on to play for MKS Kańczuga, Wisłok Strzyżów (as a player manager), LKS Przybyszówka, and finally Wisłok Strzyżów again, before retiring as a player in 2016.

Managerial career

Grabowski's first taste of management came during his first spell with Wisłok Strzyżów, where he was a player manager from 2010 to 2013. In 2014 he held the role as Resovia's assistant manager, a position he held for a year before Resovia manager Maciej Huzarski was sacked in September 2015. Grabowski's next chance to manage a team came in 2017 when he was offered the position by Resovia Rzeszów. Grabowski oversaw Resovia's league win in 2017–18, and helped the club to become a stable II liga club. However, after a slow start at the beginning of the 2020–21 season he was removed from his position.^[2]

In July 2021 Grabowski joined NKP Podhale Nowy Targ in the III liga.^[3] Despite not managing to achieve promotion, Grabowski's performance with NKP Podhale Nowy Targ saw him being offered the chance to join Stomil Olsztyn.^[4] Grabowski's influence on a team once again proved to be positive as Stomil reached the II liga play-off final. Grabowski's team just missed out on promotion however as they lost the final and the final promotion place to Motor Lublin. Despite once again failing to achieve promotion, Grabowski's positive impact over the Stomil team attracted attention from teams in higher divisions. In June 2023, recently relegated Lechia Gdańsk agreed for Grabowski to become their manager for their attempt at an instant return to the Ekstraklasa.^[5]

Honours

References