Jaga, Jaga, Jaga. Jagiellonia! Mastery against logic. 

A year ago it was close to relegation from the top league, at the beginning of this season its fans still saw losers on the pitch and predicted a desperate fight for relegation. No one bet on Jagiellonia Białystok, but they are the ones enjoying the historic Polish championship. Despite everything, despite my own expectations, maybe even against logic. So as usual – writes Jakub Seweryn from Sport.pl.

Pitch invasion after the Polish championship for Jagiellonia Legia Warszawa or Lech Poznań not dreaming of greatness, Raków Częstochowa not defending the title and entering European halls, Pogoń Szczecin or Śląsk Wrocław not having greater potential. Jagiellonia Białystok became the Polish champion and it is a historic, unexpected and unique title. On the way to the title, coach Adrian Siemieniec’s team was the best, the most consistent and, in a fight that at times resembled a turtle race, simply the most effective.

And so a historic thing happened – for Jagiellonia it was the first championship in the 104-year history of the club. Indeed, the first for Podlasie, and even the entire north-eastern Poland. The title also has a geographical dimension, because “Jaga” became the first champion north of Warsaw and the furthest to the east. So far, its greatest successes have been two runner-up finishes in the country and the Polish Cup and Super Cup achieved in the previous decade. The current title means that the Białystok club is at its peak.

Ekstraklasa can surprise – we have known this for a long time. But that much? Jagiellonia has been a typical mediocre team in recent years. Last season, it had to worry about its existence in the league until the very end. Ultimately, she took 14th place and saved the top league. But this season did not start any better – in the first round, Jagiellonia clearly lost 0:3 in Częstochowa against Raków and its fans quickly began to predict another poor season and a desperate fight for relegation. “New season, old stupid mistakes”, “The demons are back”, “embarrassing Jagiellonia”, “I won’t watch these idiots” – these are just some of the comments. “Can we end the season now?” – they asked.

However, the Białystok team has once again shown that it usually achieves success when absolutely no one expects it.

Jagiellonia’s “big trinity”. The championship was won not only on the pitch

Jagiellonia did not think about success before the season, absolutely. The club focused mainly on healing the financial situation and dealing with the sins of previous years, when Podlasie received expensive transfer duds. This was handled by President Wojciech Pertkiewicz, formerly the president of Arka Gdynia, who in the football community is said to be a specialist in making subsequent columns in Excel glow green. Pertkiewicz, whose knowledge of football cannot be denied , consistently cleaned up the club’s finances from round to round, but at the same time so that Jagiellonia could function at the appropriate level.

However, among others For this reason, another of the main architects of the success, sports director Łukasz Masłowski, did not receive a penny for new players in the summer. He admitted that of the two variants of summer reinforcements, the economical one was chosen again. Despite this, he was practically 100% effective, because each of his transfers contributed to the final success of the Białystok team, and as many as three new Jaga players – Dominik Marczuk, Adrian Dieguez, Afimico Pululu – were nominated for top league awards.

Adrian Siemieniec, currently 32 years old and the youngest coach in the Ekstraklasa, who took over “Jaga” in April 2023 and kept it in the league, did not take shortcuts. He wanted to create a team that would evoke positive emotions in Białystok. His team had to play with commitment, passion and in such a style that its coach could leave his mark with full confidence. And he believed in the team. When Jagiellonia was losing a summer sparring with first-league Polonia Warszawa 0-1, he showed statistics on pressing and said: – This is how we want to play, we want to dominate, we need time.

He was right and time has proven it. We are talking about a coach who previously led the club’s reserves and was completely unknown in Poland. Today he is compared to the TV series trainer Ted Lasso, and he is also called “Podlasso”. And he talks about football, but also about interpersonal relationships, which are extremely important in building a team. – I love people – we heard from him at the end of the previous competition. – A man won’t open up to you if you don’t open up to him. The key is to not only demand something from your relationship with the player, but also give something from yourself, he added.

A championship that no one expected. But this is how Jagiellonia achieves its greatest successes

Siemieniec gave of himself, the players returned the favor. Jagiellonia quickly started winning, also in impressive style. In addition to such renowned brands as Jesus Imaz and Taras Romanczuk, the league stars included Nene, Dominik Marczuk, Afimico Pululu, Bartłomiej Wdowik and Adrian Dieguez, and in total, as many as nine footballers from Białystok were nominated for the annual top league awards. What’s more, Marczuk, Wdowik and Romanczuk were called up to the national team. In the ending season, they took Jagiellonia to the top, while in the past theoretically more famous names failed to do so.

Examples? There are plenty of them. Almost exactly 20 years ago, still in the first league, Adam Nawałka, who later became the coach of the Białystok team, became the coach, and over time the club made very impressive reinforcements considering the level of the competition, acquiring, among others: the former top scorer of the Premier League, Adam Kompała, or well-known Premier League players such as Ariel Jakubowski or Remigiusz Sobociński. Effect? Lost the play-offs against Arka Gdynia, Nawałka was dismissed in a terrible atmosphere. It was promoted only a year later, when a much more modest team was introduced to the top league by the duo Artur Płatek and Tomasz Wałdoch.

Polish Cup and Super Cup? Michał Probierz’s team won the first trophies in the club’s history in 2010, when the most important goal was completely different – staying in the top league despite being punished with 10 negative points for corruption. The team from Białystok, together with Kamil Grosicki and Tomasz Frankowski, followed suit – they defeated the Greek Aris Saloniki in the Europa League qualifiers, and finished the fall in the league in first place. And to this day, Jagiellonia fans ask themselves what would have happened if Probierz and the club had not sent “Grosik” to the Turkish Sivasspor in the winter.

Touchstone could have been “fuck… whiskey.” If not the referee, then centimeters. A painful road to a historic title

Jagiellonia won its first medal in the top league in the 2014/15 season, when just before the games it carried out a cost-saving revolution in the team, getting rid of the highest-earning players, and already in the autumn, releasing the top league star, Dani Quintana. Touchstone arranged it perfectly and the question arises again what would have happened if not for the very controversial defeat at Łazienkowska Street against Legia after a penalty kick in the 99th minute. It was then that the current coach admitted at a press conference that he had nothing else to do but “fuck… whiskey.”

After a difficult 2015/16 season, when many advised the then club president Cezary Kulesza to dismiss Probierz, both men managed to withstand the pressure. And again – after several transfers, it turned out that the team, desperately fighting for survival, was able to compete for the Polish championship. “Jaga” fought for him until the last seconds of the 2016/17 season. After the end of their match, Legia players gathered in front of the TV and watched the ending in Białystok, where Jagiellonia returned from a 0-2 score against Lech to a 2-2 draw. If she had scored the third goal, she would have taken the title away from the Warsaw team, but after Piotr Tomasik’s shot, the ball missed the inserted leg of Taras Romanczuk and the rivals’ goal post by centimeters. A 2-2 draw meant for Jaga “only” the runner-up position.

To this day, Jagiellonia fans cannot say whether it was winning the Polish runner-up title or losing the historic championship. A year later, the team, with coach Ireneusz Mamrot, was able to repeat this result, but after fighting until the last round for the title, Białystok was again dissatisfied. Now they can say that three times is a charm.

A Jagiellonia fan can feel fulfilled. More challenges lie ahead for the club

Siemieniec was Mamrot’s assistant at that time. He took part in the fight for the Polish championship, the exciting competition with the Portuguese Rio Ave and the Belgian Gent in the Europa League qualifiers, as well as in the Polish Cup final lost to Lechia Gdańsk 0-1 after a goal in added time.

After that period, he had the right to feel dissatisfied, because Jagiellonia lacked the dot on the “i”. Appetites have also grown in Białystok itself. It was less and less important that the Białystok team had been competing in the top league continuously for 17 years (the third best result in the league after Legia and Lech), when previously it had only played in it for four seasons. The “Jaga” fan dreamed of something more, of more trophies, which, from the perspective of his club’s current situation, seemed a completely unrealistic goal.

Today’s Polish champion title, the first in the history of Jagiellonia Białystok, is an absolute dream come true for its fans. Something that no one even dared to dream about a dozen or so years ago after promotion to the top league. Something that has become a fact, after which the Białystok fan may feel dizzy, because if the championship is already here, what can happen next?

The sports truth says that it is easier to reach the top than to stay there, Jagiellonia has a short moment of joy and then hard work to meet the expectations. “Polish Champion” – it sounds proud, now we need to create a team worthy of this slogan, try to compete in European cups, and consolidate our place at the top of the league. The impressive season is over, but Jagiellonia wants it to be just the beginning.

Will Jagiellonia Białystok advance to the group stage of European cups?