Pawel Wszolek: The lowdown on QPR’s new winger

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QPR have signed Polish winger Paweł Wszołek on a season-long loan with a view to a permanent deal. 

West London Sport revealed on Wednesday morning that Rangers were looking to bring the 24-year-old in ahead of the transfer deadline.

Here’s a little bit more about him….

In the beginning

Wszolek was born in Tczew, in the north of Poland just down the road from Gdansk, on 30 April 1992.

Most of his youth career was spent at hometown club Wisla Tczew, who he first joined at the age of nine. In 2004-05, he was on the books of Lechia Gdansk, but returned to Tczew and stayed there until 2009, when he was 17.

Capital gains

Wszolek then moved to Polonia Warsaw for the final year of his development, playing in the youth version of the top-flight Ekstraklasa.

A little over a year later and the Poland Under-19 international was playing in the real thing, making his first-team debut as a substitute on 13 November 2010.

His became a semi-regular in the side the following season, scoring his first goal in senior football, but it was in the 2012-13 campaign where he really made his name.

Capital losses

He started the majority of Polonia Warsaw’s league games that season, scored seven times and made his international debut.

But not all was well. The club were struggling financially and in January 2013 agreed to sell Wszolek to German club Hannover 96 – however, the player himself claimed he was unaware of the deal and refused to travel for a medical, saying: “There was nothing to negotiate. I felt like a prostitute.”

By the end of the season, Polonia Warsaw were condemned to a four-division relegation and Wszolek terminated his contract to seek a move elsewhere.


Pawel Wszolek factfile
• Born: 30 April 1992 (age 24), in Tczew, Poland
• Position: Winger
• Clubs: Polonia Warsaw (2010-13), Sampdoria (2013-16), Verona (loan, 2015-16; permanent 2016-present)
• International caps: 8 for Poland (two goals)
• Previous team-mate of: Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi and former Chelsea striker Samuel Eto’o (at Sampdoria); Aston Villa goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini and ex-Italy striker Luca Toni (at Verona); Robert Lewandowski (with Poland).

Poles apart

His eventual destination was Italy, announcing via Facebook in the summer of 2013 that he was signing for Sampdoria.

He made 21 appearances in his first season there but was restricted to just seven the following year as Sinisa Mihajlovic – who had replaced the coach who signed Wszolek – preferred other options.

Mihajlovic left to join Milan ahead of the 2015-16 campaign but it didn’t help Wszolek, who instead went on a season-long loan to Verona.

Relegation, but security at last

After three years struggling to make it at Sampdoria, Wszolek finally became a first-team regular at Verona, playing in victories over Juventus and AC Milan, and draws against Inter and Roma.

Those results against the big boys were not enough to keep Verona in the top flight, but despite relegation – and a red card on the final day of the season – he turned his loan into a permanent deal in the summer.

Euro heartbreak

Wszolek’s Poland debut came against South Africa in October 2012 and five days later he started against England in a World Cup qualifier, playing 63 minutes up against Ashley Cole in a 1-1 draw.

His lack of game time in Italy cost him, though, and he was out of the picture for two and a half years before returning to the Poland side with a bang in March this year, when he scored twice in a friendly against Finland.

However, just as it seemed as if he would be named in Poland’s squad for Euro 2016, he suffered a broken arm in a training session ahead of the tournament.

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