The saga of Śląsk Wrocław finding a coach has been going on for many weeks, or even months. The Polish runners-up parted ways with Jacek Magiera in November, without finding a successor. The completion of the round was entrusted to the duo Michał Hetel (coach of the third league reserves) and Marcin Dymkowski (assistant Magiera). This decision turned out to be disastrous. It quickly turned out that both coaches were in serious conflict, and the team's performance was even worse.
Silesia hit rock bottom and devastated the negotiating position
Śląsk lost three extremely important matches against their rivals fights for maintenance (0:1 against Puszcza, 0:1 against Lechia and 1:2 against Radomiak), which meant that they went into the winter break as the last team in the table with a loss of as many as eight points from a safe position. This state of affairs made the search for a new trainer very difficult, because taking up this position would involve a huge risk of a drop in the CV. As many as six coaches refused to support the Wrocław team, including: Tomasz Kaczmarek, Bartosch Gaul and Waldemar Fornalik.
When it seemed that WKS would enter 2025 without a coach, fate finally decided to show mercy. On Christmas Eve, the Polish runners-up first published a post on the X website with the famous white smoke (signifying the election of a new pope), and soon after the official confirmation came. The new coach of the Polish runners-up is Ante Simundza, who has been linked with taking up this position for several days.
An award-winning trainer comes to the rescue! Straight from Slovenia
He is a 53-year-old Slovenian trainer, considered one of the best in his country. His account includes, among others: the 2021/2022 Bulgarian championship with Ludogorets Razgrad (where Jakub Piotrowski led) and as many as three Slovenian championships, once with NS Mura (2020/21) and twice with Maribor (13/14 and 14/15). In fact, he started the season as Maribor's coach, but he left the club in October, almost exactly a year after being hired. During this time, his team played 47 games, in which he averaged 1.85 points per game.
Simundza faces an extremely difficult task, and not only because of the nightmare in the table. In the autumn, Silesia often looked terrible from a moral point of view, so the reconstruction must be absolute. Start in your heads football players. The Slovenian signed a contract until the end of the current season, i.e. until June 2025. Any continuation of cooperation will most likely depend on whether WKS stays in the Ekstraklasa.
– Of course, I realize the seriousness of this challenge, but I believe that we can significantly improve results and stay in the table. Otherwise, I would not have accepted this offer. There are really difficult months ahead of us, but I believe that with hard work, commitment and motivation we can achieve our goals, said Ante Simundza in an interview with the club's website.