In the 13th century, an abbey was founded in a picturesque location on the Oława River. Permission for its establishment was granted by Henry the Bearded, Duke of Silesia, whose son would later stop the Mongols in the famous Battle of Legnica. That son was Henry the Pious, who, in addition to his military achievements, also became the founder of the Abbey in Henryków—which is what the locality is still famous for today.
Henryków has a monument worthy of inclusion on UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” list: the Henryków Book, which contains one sentence written in Polish. There would be nothing extraordinary about that if not for the fact that the book was created a good 200 years before the birth of Mikołaj Rej, who was presented to us at school as the first author to write in Polish.
It may turn out that Henryków in Ząbkowice County will hold a second record on a national scale—not only for the oldest sentence written in Polish, but also… for the largest number of registered amateur players of a senior team. As many as… 244 footballers are eligible to play in this village!
Substitutes? There is no shortage of them!
“Are you having problems with substitutes?” we begin our conversation with the president with a rather provocative question. “Noooo,” replies Marcin Szczepański, the current president of Ludowy Klub Sportowy Henrykowianka. “It’s not the case that everyone is from Henryków, either. We have players from Nowy Dwór and Wadochowice. But they have one thing in common: they were taught physical education at the local school by Dariusz Ziomek,” says the Henrykowianka president.
Mr Dariusz Ziomek is a local legend: he was a player, coach and club official—and until 2023, the president of the local club. He “infected” the entire locality with a passion for football. He died after suffering from diabetes two years ago. As our interviewees say, he spent even the final hours of his life engaged in activities connected with Henrykowianka.
Waldemar Jurczak played with him at the stadium, which has already felt the tooth of time: “The highest level we reached was the A-Class. The club was founded back in 1947. We played such local derbies against the club from Ziębice. They moved between the Fourth League and the A-Class. When Darek finished university, he returned to Henryków and became a physical education teacher. Boys from 14 village districts attended our primary school: he infected hundreds, if not thousands, of them with a love of football,” says Waldemar Jurczak.
Mr Waldemar played for Henrykowianka until he was nearly 40. Another player, Andrzej Łach, moved from striker to centre-back and played until his sixtieth year. He hung up his boots only a few years ago and still actively works around the club. Naturally, he remains one of the 244 players registered with Henrykowianka to this day.
Did anyone from this group reach the national level? Indeed! Running across the Betclic 1. Liga pitches is… Jakub Szkutnik, a national-level referee from Henryków.
“I was absolutely delighted by that phone call about Henryków! I knew about this situation with registering all of us, and now I can even play myself!” says referee Jakub Szkutnik, a former—but in his own way still current—Henrykowianka player. “That’s how it should be in the B-Class! Mr Dariusz Ziomek was a football fanatic through and through. It was tremendous hardening because, as everyone knows, we came from a small place, so we often took a beating week after week. But none of us ever thought about skipping the next away match.”
Jakub Szkutnik was deployed in midfield. The current president, who was a Henrykowianka player at the time, called the 16-year-old “the backbone of the team.” To this day, he recalls having a calendar in the attic in which he recorded his goals. “In one of the youth matches, I scored six!” he recalls.
Asked whether he will play in Henrykowianka’s colours again, he replies: “That is the coach’s sovereign decision!”
The next generations are already training
“Do you want to come with a camera this weekend? Go ahead, but I won’t be there! I’m taking a youth group to a tournament in Silesia!” says Łukasz Buszczak, the U-13 coach at Henrykowianka—and, it probably goes without saying, a registered player of the senior team.
“How many of those 240 players will come and say on camera, ‘My name is so-and-so, and I am a Henrykowianka player’?” “How many do you want?” the youth coach replies mischievously.
The next generations of footballers are diligently training in Henryków—the municipality’s largest locality after Ziębice. Currently, more than 20 children train in the youth groups in this picturesque village. Does that number not sound impressive? Let’s remember that we are talking about a place with barely 1,400 residents.
This is how B-Class football should look!
B-Class clubs compete at the lowest level of the football league system in Lower Silesia. For the vast majority of them, competing in this league is… simply fun.
“Around small localities, life often revolves around a small club. The history of Henrykowianka and Mr Dariusz, who raised generations of footballers, is an absolutely phenomenal example of the enormous influence football clubs have on small communities,” says Łukasz Czajkowski, president of the Lower Silesian Football Association.
Piotr Zieliński, currently an Inter Milan player and regular Poland international, also began his football journey in Ząbkowice County, where Henryków is located. Referee Jakub Szkutnik, who caught the football bug in Henryków, officiates matches at the national level.
In Lower Silesia, tens of thousands of players affiliated with more than 700 football clubs scattered throughout the voivodeship take part in weekly competition across eight levels. Lower Silesia is the only region in Poland to have created a map showing the locations of all of them. It is available at: DZPN Map