Sammy Dudek joins the first team

The young midfielder has been developing his football skills at Lech Poznań Academy since 2021 – that's when he moved to Greater Poland from Bałtyk Koszalin at the age of 13. He won two gold and two silver medals with Lech’s youth teams in the age categories from U-15 to U-19. In April 2024, he made a debut for Lech’s B team and earlier this year, he joined the senior squad for the training camp in Turkey. Having gotten plenty of experience in Lech’s B team during the recent autumn round, Dudek was able to stand out in Turkey, and his performance in the last friendly match was even recognized by Mikael Ishak.

“I am happy about the performances of our talented youngsters who got the chance to show themselves. You saw yourselves that today Sammy was one of our best players and simultaneously one of the youngest,” said the Swedish striker after Lech’s friendly clash with FK Čukarički Belgrad.

Lech Poznań coach Niels Frederiksen also praised the 16-year-old. After the squad returned from Turkey, the coach met with the media who asked him about the biggest winners of the training camp. “If we want to discuss whether someone has truly impressed me, we must refer to the initial expectations towards the player. And there is one player like that - Sammy Dudek - who I didn’t have high expectations of, but he performed very well. Hence, he is one of those players,” emphasized the Danish coach.

At the beginning of this week, the decision was made that Dudek would now train permanently with the first team. Therefore, he is moving to Bułgarska Street where he will have the chance to develop alongside the senior squad and take inspiration from his more experienced colleagues who play in the same position, such as Radosław Murawski, Filip Jagiełło, or another homegrown player, Antoni Kozubal. Sammy will wear number 53.