AP LOTOS Gdańsk

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AP LOTOS Gdańsk
Full nameAkademia Piłkarska LOTOS Gdańsk
Nickname(s)APLG
Founded19 August 2010; 11 years ago (2010-08-19) (as Akademia Piłkarska Lechia Gdańsk)
GroundGdańsk Athletics and Rugby Stadium
Capacity924
ManagerTomasz Borkowski[1]
LeagueEkstraliga
2020–21Ekstraliga, 9th of 12
WebsiteClub website

Akademia Piłkarska LOTOS Gdańsk (English: Football Academy LOTOS Gdańsk) is a footballing academy based in Gdańsk, Poland. It focuses on training and developing players in the Pomeranian region and is well known for its development of female players with the women's football team being the academies most successful section. The team name includes the name of their title sponsor and main funder of the academy, Lotos, a Polish oil company based in Gdańsk. APLG was formerly known as Akademia Piłkarska Lechia Gdańsk from 2010–2020.

History[]

APLG were founded in 2010[2] with close cooperation with Lechia Gdańsk and funded by the Lotos group. APLG became part of the "Football Future" program which is operated by Lotos, and has the goal of introducing football and promoting physical activities to children.[3][4] APLG and Lechia Gdańsk had a cooperation agreement in place in which APLG would train players up to the age of 15 with those being good enough transferring into the Lechia Academy. After Lechia extended their own academy to include younger players the strong cooperation between Lechia and APLG started to break down.[5] While the academy and Lechia still cooperate with each other the benefits shared are not as strong as they once were. Since 2015 APLG and the Lotos group have run the footballing academy as an independent entity.

In September 2020 the team removed all association with Lechia Gdańsk removing Lechia from its name and replacing it with Lotos who funds the club, becoming "Akademia Piłkarska LOTOS Gdańsk" to be shortened as "AP LOTOS Gdańsk". This name change was due to the confusion with Lechia Gdańsk and some fans and those associated with ALPG feeling as though the team had no identity of their own.[6]

Club names[]

  • Akademia Piłkarska Lechia Gdańsk (2010–2020)
  • Akademia Piłkarska LOTOS Gdańsk (2020–)

Women's football[]

APLG Women's football section was formed in 2014 and has enjoyed early success rising up the leagues, finishing runners-up and third in the III liga, and winners of both the II liga and I liga along their way to promotion to the Ekstraliga. The 2020–21 is the club's first season in Poland's top league.[7]

Seasons[]

Season League Tier Position Matches Points W D L GF GA
2014–15 III liga (Pomeranian group) IV 2nd 14 33 11 0 3 67 15 [8]
2015–16 III liga (Pomeranian group) 3rd 22 41 12 2 7 66 38 [9]
2016–17 II liga (Wielkopolska group) III 1st 20 50 16 2 2 85 23 [10]
2017–18 I liga (northern group) II 9th 16 10 3 1 12 26 42 [11]
2018–19 I liga (northern group) 5th 22 33 10 3 9 66 44 [12]
2019–20 [a] I liga (northern group) 1st 11 28 9 1 1 29 13 [13]
2020–21 † Ekstraliga I 9th 22 19 5 4 13 19 47 [14]

† Season ongoing

Notes

  1. ^ The 2019–20 season did not resume after the winter break due to the coronavirus pandemic. The season was later cancelled with only half of the games having been played.

Colours[]

To start with while the APLG team was very closely linked with Lechia Gdańsk, they wore the Lechia kits and using the team's colours. While the team still used green as a predominant colour after the gradual distancing of the two clubs, it has changed to dark grey, black, and white as of their first season in the Ekstraliga.

Former academy players[]

The following notable players have spent time developing in the APLG academy system.

Name Pos. Time at APLG Ekstraklasa apps Ekstraklasa goals Current team Teams Notes
Karol Fila DF 2011–2014 87 3 RC Strasbourg Lechia Gdańsk, Chojniczanka Chojnice Played in Ligue 1.
Jakub Kałuziński MF 2013–2015 14 0 Lechia Gdańsk -
Mateusz Sopoćko MF 2011–2015 11 0 Warta Poznań Lechia Gdańsk, Podbeskidzie
Kacper Urbański MF 2013–2016 4 0 Bologna Lechia Gdańsk The youngest ever player to have started an Ekstraklasa game.
Youngest Polish player to play in a Serie A game.

Honours[]

Women's team[]

I liga (Northern group) (second tier)

  • Winners (1): 2019-20 [a]

II liga (Wielkopolska group) (third tier)

  • Winners (1): 2016-17

III liga (Pomeranian group) (fourth tier)

  • Runners up (1): 2014-15
  • Third place (1): 2015-16

Notes

  1. ^ The 2019–20 season was cancelled after half of the games had been played due to the coronavirus pandemic. APLG were given the league title and promotion to the Ekstraliga as they were in 1st place at the league's cancellation.

References[]

  1. ^ "trenerzy". aplg.sportbm.com.
  2. ^ "AKADEMIA PIŁKARSKA LG". krs-pobierz.pl.
  3. ^ "o nas". aplg.sportbm.com.
  4. ^ "Pilka Lotos". pilkalotos.pl.
  5. ^ "Akademie Lechii, czyli miliony złotych w tle". sport.trojmiasto.pl.
  6. ^ "Akademia Piłkarska LG z nową nazwą. Pojawi się w niej sponsor główny piłkarek". trojmiasto.wyborcza.pl.
  7. ^ "Akademia Piłkarska LG debiutuje w Ekstralidze Kobiet. Historyczny mecz 9 sierpnia". sport.trojmiasto.pl.
  8. ^ "2014-15 III liga Pomeranian". 90minut.pl.
  9. ^ "2015-16 III liga Pomeranian". 90minut.pl.
  10. ^ "2016-17 II liga Wielkopolska". 90minut.pl.
  11. ^ "2017-18 I liga north". 90minut.pl.
  12. ^ "2018-19 I liga north". 90minut.pl.
  13. ^ "2019-20 I liga north". 90minut.pl.
  14. ^ "2020-21 Ekstraliga". 90minut.pl.
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