Raków Częstochowa

Also written as Rakow, Rakow Czestochowa.

The club

Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa was founded on 15 March 1921 in the village of Raków, which became a district of Częstochowa in 1928. The club dissolved in 1925 for want of registration and was reactivated in 1927 under the patronage of the Polish Socialist Party, financed by the Częstochowa steelworks. It plays at the Miejski Stadion Piłkarski Raków, capacity 5,500, the smallest ground of any recent Polish champion. The nickname is Medaliki, the Medallions. The owner is Michał Świerczewski and the chairman Wojciech Cygan. The manager is Dawid Kroczek.

Recent seasons

Raków were promoted to the Ekstraklasa in 2018-19 after 21 years away, having won I liga, and finished tenth in their first season back. Then came the best decade in the club's history: runners-up in 2020-21 and 2021-22, champions in 2022-23, and runners-up again in 2024-25 with 20 wins, 9 draws and 5 defeats, 51 goals scored and 23 conceded.

In 2025-26 they finished fourth of eighteen with 16 wins, 7 draws and 11 defeats from 34 matches, 51 goals scored and 40 conceded, behind Lech Poznań, Górnik Zabrze and Jagiellonia Białystok. They also reached the Polish Cup final and lost it to Górnik Zabrze on 2 May 2026, and they went to the round of 16 of the Conference League.

Honours and landmarks

Ekstraklasa champions 2022-23; runners-up 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2024-25. I liga champions 1993-94 and 2018-19. Polish Cup winners 2020-21 and 2021-22, the first of them the club's first major trophy, won 2-1 against Arka Gdynia on 2 May 2021; runners-up 1966-67, 2022-23 and 2025-26. Polish Super Cup winners 2021, beating Legia Warsaw on penalties on 17 July 2021, and 2022, beating Lech Poznań 2-0; runners-up 2023.

Notable scorelines

The club's all-time record win and record defeat were not established from the sources read here. The best European results are a 6-0 aggregate win over Astana in the 2022-23 Conference League qualifiers, a 6-1 aggregate win over Žilina in the 2025-26 second qualifying round, a 4-1 home win over Rapid Wien in the 2025-26 league phase, and a 7-1 aggregate win over Valletta in this season's second qualifying round, which included a 4-0 win in Malta.

European record

Raków's first European campaign was 2021-22. They beat Sūduva on penalties after a goalless aggregate in the Conference League second qualifying round, then Rubin Kazan 1-0 on aggregate, then lost the play-off to Gent, winning the home leg 1-0 and losing 3-0 in Belgium. In 2022-23 they beat Astana 6-0 and Spartak Trnava 3-0 on aggregate before losing the play-off 3-2 to Slavia Prague. As champions in 2023-24 they went through Flora, Qarabağ and Aris Limassol in Champions League qualifying and lost the play-off to FC Copenhagen, then finished fourth in a Europa League group with Atalanta, Sporting CP and Sturm Graz.

The 2025-26 Conference League was their deepest run. They beat Žilina 6-1 in the second qualifying round, Maccabi Haifa 2-1 in the third after losing the home leg 1-0 and winning 2-0 away, and Arda Kardzhali 3-1 in the play-off. In the league phase they finished second of thirty-six: 2-0 at home to Universitatea Craiova, 1-1 away at Sigma Olomouc, 0-0 away at Sparta Prague, 4-1 at home to Rapid Wien, 1-0 at home to Zrinjski Mostar and 1-0 away at Omonia. Seeded straight into the round of 16, they lost both legs 2-1 to Fiorentina, out 4-2.

Their overall UEFA record, updated to 6 August 2026, is 43 matches, 23 wins, 10 draws and 10 defeats, 58 goals scored and 32 conceded. Twenty-nine of those matches have been in the Conference League, where they have won 17.

Quotes

- "Nie można być zadowolonym, gdy ma się zero punktów po dwóch meczach. To nienaturalne i niespójne z nami. Będziemy robić wszystko, aby każdy kolejny mecz był lepszy. Jak najszybciej trzeba wyciągnąć wnioski" (you cannot be satisfied with zero points after two matches; it is unnatural and it is not us; we will do everything to make each next match better, and we have to draw conclusions as quickly as possible) - Dawid Kroczek, Raków Częstochowa manager, to WP SportoweFakty, 6 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266187/na-co-stac-rakow-przeciwko-hammarby-chcemy-byc-faworytem - "Mimo tych dwóch porażek nie dzieje się sytuacja, w której wywracalibyśmy wszystko do góry nogami" (despite those two defeats we are not in a situation where we would turn everything upside down) - Dawid Kroczek, Raków Częstochowa manager, to WP SportoweFakty, 6 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266187/na-co-stac-rakow-przeciwko-hammarby-chcemy-byc-faworytem - "Faworytem chcemy być my i zrobimy wszystko, żeby na boisku tak było. Z takim nastawieniem podejdziemy do tego spotkania" (we want to be the favourites and we will do everything to make it so on the pitch; that is the attitude we will take into this match) - Dawid Kroczek, Raków Częstochowa manager, to WP SportoweFakty, 6 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266187/na-co-stac-rakow-przeciwko-hammarby-chcemy-byc-faworytem - "Nasi analitycy byli na meczach Hammarby. Znamy potencjał tej drużyny. Jesteśmy gotowi" (our analysts have been at Hammarby's matches; we know what that team is capable of; we are ready) - Dawid Kroczek, Raków Częstochowa manager, to WP SportoweFakty, 6 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266187/na-co-stac-rakow-przeciwko-hammarby-chcemy-byc-faworytem - "Nie jest to jedna z najlepszych muraw w Ekstraklasie, natomiast jest jaka jest - musimy być gotowi do gry na każdej płycie. Też nie jest tak, że to najgorsza murawa" (it is not one of the best pitches in the Ekstraklasa, but it is what it is; we have to be ready to play on any surface, and it is not the worst pitch either) - Dawid Kroczek, Raków Częstochowa manager, on his own ground, to WP SportoweFakty, 6 August 2026. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/pilka-nozna/1266187/na-co-stac-rakow-przeciwko-hammarby-chcemy-byc-faworytem

Right now (2026/27)

Dawid Kroczek is the manager and this is the club's eighth consecutive Ekstraklasa season and its 106th in existence. The summer was quiet in the market. In came Dieudonné Gaucho Debohi free from Caen on 1 July 2026, goalkeeper Tarik Karić from Velež Mostar and midfielder Oliwier Kwiatkowski from Polonia Bytom, both for undisclosed fees on 1 July, plus a set of loan returns. Out went the long-serving defender Zoran Arsenić to Legia Warsaw at the end of his contract on 1 July after five years, Leonardo Rocha to JEF United Chiba on 4 July for an undisclosed fee, and, significantly, the striker Jonatan Braut Brunes to Sparta Prague on 25 July for an undisclosed fee. Kacper Nowakowski, Jakub Rajczykowski and Muhamed Šahinović all went out on loan.

The domestic start has been poor. Raków lost their opening Ekstraklasa match 1-2 at home to Wisła Płock on 26 July 2026, Patryk Makuch scoring a penalty on 68 minutes after Marcin Flis and Žan Rogelj had put the visitors ahead. They lost again away at Śląsk Wrocław on 2 August. As of 9 August 2026 they had played two, lost two, scored two and conceded four, with no points.

In Europe it has gone better. Raków entered the Conference League at the second qualifying round and beat Valletta 7-1 on aggregate, winning 3-1 in Częstochowa on 23 July 2026 through Mahir Emreli, Makuch and Stratos Svarnas after Manuel Morello had opened the scoring, then 4-0 in Malta on 30 July through Michael Ameyaw, Tomasz Pieńko, Ádin Molnár and Makuch.

The tie they are in now is the Conference League third qualifying round, main path, against Hammarby IF of Sweden. The first leg at the Miejski Stadion Piłkarski Raków on 6 August 2026 finished 0-0. The second leg is at the 3Arena in Stockholm on 13 August 2026. The winners face the winners of Žalgiris against Hajduk Split in the play-off round on 20 and 27 August, away first.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.