GKS Katowice
Also written as Katowice.
The club
GKS Katowice were founded on 27 February 1964 out of a merger of several sports clubs in the city. The initials stand for Gorniczy Klub Sportowy, the Miners' Sports Club, and the coal heritage is still how Katowice describe themselves. Since 2025 they have played at the Arena Katowice, which holds 15,048, having previously used the old GKS Katowice stadium on the same site. They are known as GieKSa, from the pronunciation of the initials, and play in black and white stripes at home. Their away colours were not established from the sources read here.
Recent seasons
Katowice spent nineteen years outside the Polish top flight before winning promotion back to the Ekstraklasa in May 2024. The 2025/26 season was their best in a generation: fifth place with 50 points, which was enough for a Conference League place and a return to European football after 23 years away. Lech Poznan won that title, their second in a row, sealed with a 3-1 win over Radomiak Radom on 16 May 2026; Gornik Zabrze won the Polish Cup.
Honours and landmarks
Three Polish Cups, in 1985/86, 1990/91 and 1992/93. Two Polish Super Cups, in 1991 and 1995. Four times runners-up in the Ekstraklasa, in 1987/88, 1988/89, 1991/92 and 1993/94. The club has never won the Polish championship.
Notable scorelines
No club record win or record defeat was established from the sources read here, and neither is stated rather than guessed. The results Katowice remember are European: a 4-0 aggregate win over Fram Reykjavik in the 1986/87 Cup Winners' Cup, before Sion put them out of that competition, and the elimination of Girondins de Bordeaux 2-1 to reach the last sixteen of the UEFA Cup in 1994/95, which is the club's furthest run. A 1991/92 Cup Winners' Cup passage past Motherwell on away goals is carried in the material read here but was not confirmed against a second source, and the leg scorelines are not stated.
European record
Katowice have been in European competition on and off since 1970 and have faced Barcelona, Rangers and Benfica across those campaigns. The high point is the UEFA Cup last sixteen of 1994/95, reached by beating Bordeaux 2-1 and ended by Bayer Leverkusen. Then came the long absence: the 2026/27 Conference League is their first European campaign in 23 years.
It has already produced a comeback. In the second qualifying round they lost 2-1 away to MSK Zilina on 23 July 2026 and won 3-1 at home on 30 July 2026 to go through 4-3. The third qualifying round paired them with Hapoel Tel Aviv. The first leg on 6 August 2026 was played in Miskolc, Hungary, Hapoel using a neutral ground, and Katowice lost 2-0. Stav Turiel scored on 5 minutes after a misplaced Borja Galan pass and Roei Alkoukin doubled it on 18 after an error by captain Arkadiusz Jedrych. A pitch invader in the final quarter added seven minutes of stoppage time.
Quotes
- "Zdajemy sobie sprawe, jak poprzeczka jest dla nas wysoko zawieszona, natomiast gralismy z rywalem bardzo dobrym, w takim meczu bezapelacyjnie powinnismy byc najlepsza wersja siebie w kazdym elemencie, a jesli popelni sie dwa bledy, ktore sa dosc razace, to z takim przeciwnikiem mozna te bramki stracic." - Rafal Gorak, head coach, to GieKSa.pl, 6 August 2026. https://gieksa.pl/gorak-stworzyc-rywalizacje-w-rewanzu/
- "W pucharach o porazce mozemy mowic dopiero po drugim meczu" - Rafal Gorak, head coach, to Sportowe Fakty, 7 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266578/zaprosilismy-rywala-do-tanca-trener-gks-u-wierzy-w-awans
- "Rywal ma ogromna jakosc. Popelnilismy bledy i Hapoel je wykorzystal. Nie byly to sytuacje, w ktorych bylismy bezradni, tylko po prostu zaprosilismy rywala do tanca" - Rafal Gorak, head coach, to Sportowe Fakty, 7 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266578/zaprosilismy-rywala-do-tanca-trener-gks-u-wierzy-w-awans
- "Mamy w naturze, ze bardzo szybko spuszczamy glowy. Spokojnie, jestesmy dopiero w polowie rywalizacji" - Rafal Gorak, head coach, to Sportowe Fakty, 7 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266578/zaprosilismy-rywala-do-tanca-trener-gks-u-wierzy-w-awans
- "Tak nie wolno robic. Na tym poziomie takie bledy bardzo duzo kosztuja" - Rafal Gorak, head coach, to Sportowe Fakty, 7 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266578/zaprosilismy-rywala-do-tanca-trener-gks-u-wierzy-w-awans
Right now (2026/27)
Rafal Gorak is head coach, Arkadiusz Jedrych is captain and Slawomir Witek is chairman. The Ekstraklasa table current to 9 August 2026 has Katowice tenth, played two, won one, lost one, four scored and three conceded, three points. The sources read here disagree on the two opponents and on which scoreline belongs to which match, and the individual results are therefore not stated.
The tie they are in right now is the Conference League third qualifying round against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Katowice lost the first leg 2-0 on 6 August 2026 in Miskolc, both goals inside the opening eighteen minutes and both following Katowice errors. The second leg is at the Arena Katowice on 12 August 2026, kicking off at 18:00, with a two-goal deficit to overturn and a Europa League play-off place at stake. Gorak's public line all week has been that a European tie is not lost until the second match has been played.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GKS_Katowice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Ekstraklasa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Ekstraklasa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401903117/gks-katowice-hapoel-tel-aviv https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401896566 https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401896567/gks-katowice-msk-zilina https://weszlo.com/gks-katowice-pokonany-przez-hapoel-wynik-lepszy-od-gry/ https://gieksa.pl/gorak-stworzyc-rywalizacje-w-rewanzu/ https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266578/zaprosilismy-rywala-do-tanca-trener-gks-u-wierzy-w-awans https://www.gkskatowice.eu/game/3214-gks-katowice-hapoel-tel-aviv_2026-08-12 https://breakingthelines.com/@uefa_coefficient_expert/conference-league-third-qualifying-round-preview
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.