Krzysztof Popczyński (born 8 March 1969) is a Polish football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.
Career Playing career Born in Kraków, Popczyński played for a number of Polish as well as international clubs during his active career. He had his most successful spells in hometown club Hutnik Kraków between 1990 and 1995, where he made 135 appearances and scored 19 goals, and between 1998 and 2001, where he, as a player-manager for Faroese club VB Vagúr managed to score 35 goals throughout three seasons. He furthermore had short spells at Greek club Panionios and Danish club Esbjerg fB.
Coaching career Popczyński had a notable run as a player-coach in Faroe Islands, where he besides VB Vagúr also managed GÍ Gøta, HB Tórshavn and TB Tvøroyri.
On 27 July 2008, Popczyński was appointed as the new head coach of Danish club Aarhus Fremad who had recently been relegated from the Danish second tier. He coached the club for five years, before being sacked in favour of Jesper Tollefsen in July 2013 after missing promotion play-offs.
In November 2014, Popczyński signed a one-year contract to replace Jesper Borup as the head coach of FC Djursland who were at the bottom of the Danish fourth division. However, he was unable to keep the team up and the club was relegated to the Jutland Series, the fifth tier of Danish football at the end of the season. Another horrific season followed, in which Djursland suffered relegation to the sixth tier, after a decisive 3–1 loss in the penultimate round of the season to Fuglebakken KFUM. Popczyński announced his resignation as of 31 October 2015, a few games before the second consecutive relegation became a fact.
In October 2017, Popczyński was named the new manager of Horsens Freja competing in the Danish fifth tier. He signed a two-year contract, and would be coaching the first team while completing his Danish Football Union coaching degree. On 5 November 2018, however, he resigned from his position at Horsens Freja citing disagreements over personal ambitions regarding amount of training sessions with the first-team's lacking ambitions.
A month later, on 12 December 2018, Popczyński was announced as the new head coach of Danish third tier club Kjellerup IF, who were bottom of the table. He was sacked by Kjellerup in November 2021.
In July 2022 he was announced as the new manager of Thisted FC in the Danish 2nd Division. He left the club on 7 November 2022.THISTED FC OG CHEFTRÆNER KRZYSZTOF POPCZYNSKI STOPPER SAMARBEJDET, thistedfc.dk, 7 November 2022
Honours Manager VB Vágur Faroe Islands Premier League: 2000
GÍ Gøta Faroe Islands Cup: 2005
HB Tórshavn Faroe Islands Premier League: 2006
Career statistics
Manager
TeamNatYearRecordGWDLWin Vágs Bóltfelag1998 18 5 6 7%Vágs Bóltfelag1999 18 6 3 9%Vágs Bóltfelag2000 18 12 4 2%Vágs Bóltfelag2001 18 9 3 6%GÍ Gøta2002 18 10 2 6%GÍ Gøta2003 18 5 5 8%GÍ Gøta2004 18 6 5 7%GÍ Gøta2005 29 8 5 16%Havnar Bóltfelag2006 27 16 7 4%Havnar Bóltfelag2007 27 15 4 8%Tvøroyrar Bóltfelag2008 Aarhus Fremad2008–09 30 13 6 11%Aarhus Fremad2009–10 3017 8 5%Aarhus Fremad2010–11 3019 6 5%Aarhus Fremad2011–12 3012 10 8%Aarhus Fremad2012–13 3018 7 5%Total35617181107%
References
External links Aarhus-Fremad.dk Playing Profile Gí Gøta retain their place in the 1st Division