Date: 1 April 2024 / League: Polish second tier
Final Score: 0-0 / Attendance: 1,801
Experience
If you’ve heard of Znicz Pruszkow, I’m guessing it’ll be for one of two reasons: firstly, as the club that ‘discovered’ Robert Lewandowski. Signing him for the equivalent of GBP 1,000, they essentially launched his career after he’d been told he wouldn’t make it by Legia Warsaw. Even more likely though, you’ll know Znicz not by name, but by sight – here lies what many portals have described as “the worst away end in the world”.
Achieving viral fame many times over, Znicz’s cage for visitors finds itself flashed up on social media with regular frequency. In actuality, it’s not even the worst away facility in the district, but that’s not to say it isn’t worth its place in football folklore. Holding 105 fans within a zoo-like enclosure tucked in a distant, far corner, it surely deserves a place as one of the Seven Wonders of Polish Football. It is, to put it mildly, an astonishing structure.
Somewhat amazingly, the rest of the ground scrubs up very well indeed, consisting as it does of one other modern stand running the length of the pitch. Bookended by two brick rotundas on either side, the stand looks all the better for the way it seems to merge into the glass cultural centre that rises right behind. In stark contradiction to the away pen, this stand would not be out of place in England’s League One.
Anyhow, I shan’t rattle on about Znicz for I have done so at length before – for my previous musings, CLICK HERE! What I will do, though, is sing its praises one more time. For the groundhopper, it’s a wonderful place to visit, not least if treated as an add-on to a weekend in Warsaw. With Uber weighing in at around GBP 7 from the capital’s city centre, this satellite town is dead simple to visit – use a match at Legia or Polonia as your prime reason to book a trip to Warsaw, but then don’t forget an excursion to Znicz as a secondary motive.
Speaking of Polonia, it was they that were the guests on this occasion. Filling their pen to the brim, they provided decent enough backing during a mild-mannered game. Znicz, for their part, have a newly-born supporter movement that also added to the atmosphere. Yet despite their fans supporting Legia as their ‘main side’, hostility was absent from this game, making for a quite soothing afternoon.
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