His name is now mentioned by all fans. Who is Filip Rózga?

Even before the official match lineups for the semi-final clash at the PGE National Stadium appeared, Tomasz Włodarczyk from the Meczyki.pl portal informed about the possibility of Filip Rózga playing from the first minute. The presence of a 19-year-old in such an important match from the very beginning was a bit questionable.

It was more predictable that Oskar Pietuszewski would get a chance. However, this cannot be ruled out, and the FC Porto player may be useful as a joker during the match. Coach Jan Urban trusted Rózga, choosing the young boy as a left attacking player, in a trio with Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Kamiński.

Who is Filip Rózga? This is a huge surprise in the composition of the Polish national team

However, it turns out that the Polish coach clearly appreciates what the offensive midfielder has been doing for Sturm Graz in recent months. The footballer from Skawina, Lesser Poland, entered the wide waters in the PKO BP Ekstraklasa, defending the colors of Cracovia. In Krakow in the years 2023-25, Rózga shined many times, which earned him a foreign transfer. And most importantly, he defended himself outside Polish borders.

This cannot be said, for example, about another Pole who landed in the same club – striker Szymon Włodarczyk.

Coach Urban trusted Rózga already at the end of the qualifying rounds for the 2026 World Cup. The teenager was called up to the November training camp, which we wrote about in more detail in WPROST. There is no denying that in the case of Rózga, his story had its twists and turns, but clearly the harsh lesson he received at the beginning of his senior career is now paying off positively.

Starting line-up in the World Cup semi-final? This best shows the scale of potential we are talking about. Rózga was supposed to perform great during the short March training camp in Warsaw, finally reassuring the Polish coach that it was worth choosing this player.

However, the match against Albania will not be a debut for the Sturm player. Urban allowed the player to play for two minutes in added time in the drawn match between Poland and the Netherlands (1:1) in November 2025.

World Cup 2026: Poland is a play-off specialist. A good series for the Urban team

In recent years, Polish football players have become specialists in winning tickets to large tournaments, competing through the so-called a second, play-off chance. This series started with the previous World Cup that was played in Qatar (2022).

After excluding the Russians from the competition, who were the Polish team’s opponents, due to their brutal attack on Ukraine, Poland immediately played in the final against the Swedes. In Chorzów, after goals by Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zieliński, the team won a relatively certain 2-0. It was also a great success for the then coach Czesław Michniewicz. The Pole was brought in in an emergency after a stormy breakup between the Polish Football Association and the Portuguese Paulo Sousa.

Two years later, a similar story happened to the team led by Michał Probierz. Paradoxically, at that time the Pole was “cleaning up” after the Portuguese, when Fernando Santos had a disastrous term in Poland. Touchstone managed to lead the team to the Euro 2024 play-off zone. However, the Poles had to overcome two obstacles. It started with a high victory at the PGE Narodowy against Estonia (5:1) in the semi-final. In the play-off final, Poland defeated Wales in Cardiff after a series of penalties (0-0 in regular time and overtime). The hero of the match was goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, who saved the decisive penalty in favor of the Poles.

For the third time in a row, Poles will enter the play-offs at the end of March this year. This time, coach Jan Urban took over the team during the qualifying rounds after Probierz’s unsuccessful campaign.

It is worth adding that coach Urban’s team has had a really good series. In the second half of 2025, since the former distinguished representative, participant of the World Cup (1986), has been leading the team, the Polish national team has not lost a match.

In September, there was a draw with the Netherlands in Rotterdam (1:1) and a victory against Finland (3:1) in Chorzów. In October, a win in a friendly match against New Zealand (1-0), a participant of the 2026 World Cup – again at the Superauto.pl Silesian Stadium – and a qualifying victory against Lithuania (2-0) in Kaunas. And the last representative window, i.e. a November draw at the PGE Narodowy with the Dutch (1:1) and a slightly tired away victory over the much lower ranked Malta (3:2).