Znicz Pruszków Znicz Pruszków have never in their century-long history played at the top level of Polish football, yet the club has earned a lasting place in the country's footballing story as the side that believed in a young Robert Lewandowski during one of the hardest moments of his career and helped launch him to Ekstraklasa side Lech Poznań. The club's roots trace back to 1922, when Victoria was founded in Pruszków as one of the town's first organised sports clubs, though 19 December 1923 is officially recognised as Znicz's founding date. The club's first notable success is considered to be third place in the inaugural Warsaw Championship, held in 1945, after which Znicz largely disappeared from the headlines for several decades, drifting through the lower leagues of the Masovian region.
The breakthrough came in the mid-2000s, when a then sixteen-year-old Robert Lewandowski joined the club, spending two seasons, 2006-2008, in the yellow and red shirt. In that same period Znicz twice reached the round of 32 of the Polish Cup, and in the 2007-08 season, after winning the Masovian Regional Cup and topping its III liga group, secured a historic, first-ever promotion to the II liga. The club's development was bolstered by new training pitches and the Znicz Football Academy, established in 2011 and steadily expanded in the following years as the backbone of its youth work. That progress culminated in the 2014-15 season, when the Pruszków side sensationally reached the quarter-finals of the Polish Cup, eliminating along the way Odra Opole, Termalica Bruk-Bet Nieciecza, Zagłębie Lubin and Stal Rzeszów, before losing to eventual tournament winners Lech Poznań - still the club's greatest cup achievement to date.
That same season also brought Znicz its first-ever promotion to the I liga, repeated in 2022 and again in 2023, when the club, still known as the Lightning Bolts, returned to the level just below the Ekstraklasa thanks to a goal scored in the 80th minute of the decisive match. Znicz has long maintained a fierce regional rivalry with neighbouring Pogoń Grodzisk Mazowiecki and plays its home matches at the MZOS stadium, built up over the years to meet league infrastructure requirements in Pruszków, remaining - despite never having played in the top flight - one of the most recognisable clubs in the entire Masovian region.