There are unlikely stories in football… and then there is Mateusz Zukowski. A right-back who spent part of his career chasing wingers and who ended the season as one of the most effective strikers in the German second division.
Key details
The 24-year-old Pole became one of the figures of the season with Magdeburg, after a radical change of position. A full-back since he became a senior — with a few games as a winger in between — Zukowski ended up at the center of the attack and responded with… 17 goals in 22 games. Result? Magdeburg went from being a serious candidate for relegation to remaining in the 2. Bundesliga, finishing in 14th place and avoiding falling to the German third tier.
The most curious thing is that, until the beginning of this season, Zukowski had only scored six goals in his entire career. Six. In years of professional football. Now he has scored almost triple that in a single season.
Trained at Lechia Gdansk, the Pole started as a winger in Poland’s youth teams and youth teams, where he won 24 caps. When he reached the first team, he moved back on the field until he established himself as a right-back. In the middle he also went through several positions on the sides, both more offensive and defensive, becoming almost a luxury stopgap.
In 2021 he transferred to Rangers, where he arrived with the mission of being James Tavernier’s successor at right back. But the adventure in Scotland went wrong: he played just one game in six months before returning to Poland.
And that’s when the change began, but almost by accident. Slask Wroclaw was going through a season marked by several injuries and Zukowski, known for his ability to play on practically the entire right wing — and even on the left — was being used to make up for the losses in the squad. In some games it appeared more advanced, even as a spearhead, in a resource solution that ended up surprising.
Read more in Serie A news. and related tags: Mateusz Zukowski, Lechia Gdansk.