Polish men’s team support women’s football by wearing names of female counterparts

The Polish men’s national team has expressed support for women’s football by wearing shirts bearing the names of their female counterparts during the warm-up for their European Championship qualifying match against Albania this week.

Before the game, the team’s goalkeepers – Wojciech Szczęsny, Łukasz Skorupski and Bartłomiej Drągowski – were the first to emerge onto the pitch at Warsaw’s National Stadium. Fans quickly noticed that their shirts bore the names of Kinga Szemik, Karolina Klabis and Natalia Radkiewicz.

The rest of the players then followed, including captain and Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski with the name of Ewa Pajor – a fellow striker who has scored 52 goals in 73 for Poland and also captains the women’s side – on his back.

Pajor is the top scorer in this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League for her club side, VfL Wolfsburg of Germany. Polish men’s winger Jakub Kamiński, who also plays for Wolfsburg, says that the club’s “women’s team is on an equal footing with the men’s team, and it’s one of the best in Europe”.

“Their leading player is our Ewa Pajor, who is a perfect example that women and girls can also play football fantastically,” Kamiński said this week. “But they still encounter many more barriers on their way.”

“We wanted to show how much we appreciate them with a simple gesture of putting on shirts with our female colleagues’ names on them,” he explained. “I hope that by doing so, we have drawn the attention of a wider audience to the effort, passion and commitment of the Polish women’s football community.”

The shirts also bore the slogan #CzasNaNas (#TimeForUs), which is being used by Poland’s football association, the PZPN, to promote the women’s game. At the end of last year, the organisation adopted its first ever strategy document on developing women’s football.

“This is a breakthrough moment for us, but also a long-term commitment,” said PZPN chairman Cezary Kulesza at the time. “Women’s football must be treated as an integral part of football. The PZPN will do everything to make that happen.”

Poland is also bidding to host the European Women’s Football Championships in 2025, which the PZPN hopes will draw further attention to the women’s game. A decision on who will host the event is due to be made on 4 April, with France, Switzerland and a joint Scandinavian bid also in contention.

The Polish women’s football team are currently ranked 30th in the world. They have never qualified for a major international tournament, and last year narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2023 World Cup, finishing third in their group behind Norway and Belgium.

Main image credit: PZPN

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.