Mirosław Szymkowiak

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Mirosław Szymkowiak
Personal information
Full name	Mirosław Szymkowiak
Date of birth	November 12, 1976
Place of birth	Poznań, Poland
Height	179 cm
Nickname	Szymek
Position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Trabzonspor
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1992-1995 1995-2000 2000-2004 2005-	Olimpia Poznań Widzew Łódź Wisła Kraków Trabzonspor	132 (11) 91 (13) 41 (14)
National team**
1997-	Poland	31 (3)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of June 20, 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of June 20, 2006.

Mirosław Szymkowiak (born 12 November 1976 in Poznań, Poland) is a Polish footballer currently playing for Turkish club Trabzonspor and the Poland national football team.

He first started playing at Olimpia Poznań, where he played from 1992 until 1994, when he joined Widzew Łódź. He remained there for five and a half years, when he left to join Wisła Kraków in the middle of the 2000/01 season. He helped them to win the championship in his first season, and to two further championships in 2003 and 2004. In January 2005, he joined the Turkish club Trabzonspor.

He has been extremely impressive in his time for Trabzonspor, displaying a level of passion that is not expected from new arrivals in a foreign country. In his first six months at Trabzonspor he scored nine goals in fifteen starts, and integrated himself into the team so well that by the end of the season he was already regarded as a successful signing.

His qualities lie in his wide ranging abilities that enable him to not only operate in a defensive capacity, but to run the play through midfield and to join in the attacking too. He displays an extremely capable passing game but has recently developed into an extremely efficient finisher too.

As well as playing for Trabzonspor, Szymkowiak has appeared 31 times and scored three goals for Poland. He was selected to the 23-men squad that competed at the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany.

	Poland squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Boruc | 2 Jop | 3 Gancarczyk | 4 Baszczyński | 5 Kosowski | 6 Bąk | 7 Sobolewski | 8 Krzynówek | 9 Żurawski | 10 Szymkowiak | 11 Rasiak | 12 Kuszczak | 13 Mila | 14 Żewłakow | 15 Smolarek | 16 Radomski | 17 Dudka | 18 Lewandowski | 19 Bosacki | 20 Giza | 21 Jeleń | 22 Fabiański | 23 Brożek | Coach: Janas

Trabzonspor - Current Squad
1 Jefferson | 2 Sungur | 3 Akyel | 4 Atan | 5 Çimşir | 6 Üçüncü | 7 Szymkowiak | 10 Bulut | 11 Yattara | 14 Musampa | 16 Büyük | 17 Demir | 20 Bayraktar | 21 Bayraktar | 22 Ocak | 23 Kahraman | 28 Martin | 29 Zengin | 30 Marcelinho | 32 Keçeli | 55 Stepanov | 61 Karadeniz | 77 Şahin | 85 Çökmüş | 88 Rıza | 99 Koçak | Manager Doğan