The Polish connection at French club RC Lens

In this guest post, Ronald Schut tells us about French club RC Lens’ Polish connections. This piece originally appeared in Panenka (Dutch edition).

France is perhaps not the first country that comes to mind when it comes to football-crazy nations. Yet, the country has a lot to offer to football enthusiasts: An ambitious rising star in the capital city, provincial towns with fanatic supporters and post-industrial football clubs carrying the torch of close-knit communities. In the northern region of Artois, most of those features are united in one football club. A proud workers’ club in the heart of the mining basin. In addition, the region is attractive to non-league groundhoppers as well. Football fans who do not mind smaller attendances might be surprised to encounter Polish derbies in this part of France.

The Miners’ Club

The mining basin of Northern France has only one football club that makes all hearts beat faster: Racing Club de Lens, or simply RC Lens. While most clubs have their supporters base mainly in their respective home town, RC Lens attracts supporters from the entire region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. As a workers’ club, RC Lens is part of the identity of the Ch’tis, as the miners and workers from the North are nicknamed. Many famous French footballers made their first appearance for the RC, among whom were several of Polish descent.

Blood and Gold

Founded by students in 1906, RC Lens evolved from a local bourgeois team into a working man’s club when the Compagnie des Mines de Lens took control of the club. Nowadays, RC Lens plays in red-and-yellow (or blood-and-gold, as they prefer), but the team originally wore a green-and-black kit, representing the colours of their first ground, Place Verte. 

In the history of RC Lens, many Polish names appear, such as Mieczyslaus Lewandowski, the brothers Lech and Casimir Kozakiewicz; the latter having made one appearance in the French national squad, ironically against Poland. Two names in the club’s history stand out: Arnold Sowinski and Eric Sikora. 

Arnold Sowinski, born in the neighbouring town of Liévin, joined RC Lens in 1952 as a goalkeeper. With the squad he reached second place in the national championship in 1955/56, just behind Olympique Nice. In 2015, Sowinski was honoured in his hometown Liévin with the inauguration of a football ground bearing his name. Tragically, the former goalkeeper passed away in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, his old football club RC Lens also named one of their training pitches after him.

Eric Sikora, key player of the most successful Lens squad in history, was born in Courrières, east of Lens. He made his debut in 1985 at the reserves team under the management of Sowinski, before joining RC Lens’ head force. This brilliant team gained the national title in 1998, an extraordinary achievement of the relatively small club. Recently, the adjacent village of Loos (well-known for the historic Footballer of Loos) named a training ground after Sikora.

A League of their Own

Sowinski and Sikora are just two examples of talented footballers of Polish origin who were recruited by RC Lens. Since the 1950s, the club has built its successes on a large potential of skilful Polish footballers in the Artois region. Before that decade, the statutes of the French Football Federation (FFF) did not allow football clubs to have more than three foreign players in their team. 

All changed when immigrants’ children, born in France, started to join existing French clubs. For instance Raymond Kopa, the later star of Real Madrid, started kicking the ball in the early ‘40s at local team US Noeux-les-Mines. And even before the fifties, footballers of Polish descent (born in France) entered the big stage. When northern rivals Lille and Lens played the Coupe de France final in 1948, no less than nine players had Polish roots. During the twenties however, the vast majority of the first generation of immigrants chose to start their own football clubs. The newly founded clubs did not comply with the rules of association of the national football federation, so, numerous as they were, they played their own Polish league. Among participating members were teams with illustrious names such as Gwiazda Lens, Pogon Auchel, Wiktorja Barlin and Polonia Waziers. Match results were published in a Polish newspaper published in Northern France, the ‘Narodowiec’ (The Nationalist).

Surprisingly, some of the Polish footballers had been playing at well-known clubs in the region of Westphalia, Germany. About a third of the Polish immigrants came from Germany, where they had worked in the industries of Westphalia. In 1923, the German Ruhrgebiet region was occupied by the French army. As the French mining industry lacked manpower, the authorities recruited Polish workers in occupied Germany and in Poland. Thousands of Polish workers grabbed their opportunity and enlisted. However, many faced adaptive problems in France, such as not being able to speak French and being mistrust by the local communities (in particular toward those who spoke German). Depending largely on their own community, solidarity among immigrants was high. Under those circumstances the number of separate Polish football clubs was booming. 

Decline and Assimilation

After the Second World War, the mining industry began to decline, causing large social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, the association rules were changed, allowing Polish football clubs to join the French football system. Most of the Polish clubs joined the common French football league (FFF) or the left-wing workers’ sports union (FSGT).

During the next decades, Polish teams merged with local French clubs or even disappeared. One of the clubs that held on to its identity was CS Pogon Auchel. Founded in 1924, the team won the Polish championship title in the 1932-1933 season, beating regional competitor Waziers. In 1965, CS Pogon gained success in the regional divisions, but the club dissolved in 2017 after the club refused a merger with neighbouring clubs, as La Voix du Nord reported.

Another club, Gwiazda Lens, dissolved in 1952 and was reborn in 1955 under the name of l’Amicale Sportive Lensoise. The club plays its home matches at the tiny but scenic Stade Albert Debeyre. Non-league groundhoppers will be surprised by the scenery, with the double slag heap of mining base 11/19 being a perfect landmark.

Ruch Carvin is an example of a club that kept its Polish name. Ruch (movement), was founded in 1926 and merged with Union Sportive Carvin in 1945, adopting the new name of US Ruch Carvin. The club frequently plays derbies against other teams of Polish origin.

The Polish presence in French football is perhaps best demonstrated by Liévin-based club CS Diana. CS Diana was founded by workers the nearby Fosse (mining pit) at Liévin, the twin town of Lens. The club badge reveals its Polish roots. The crest, showing a white crowned eagle, is very similar to the Polish coat of arms.

Again, the distant twin heap with its mine shaft provides a beautiful backdrop to the club’s Stade Lelong-Voisin. Behind the main stand, Liévin’s mine shaft of Fosse 3/3 bis can still be seen. The main stand overlooks the suburbs and Stade Bollaert. Visitors may be surprised to see a memorial of the family of Lefebvre, victims of the Titanic catastrophe in 1912. The memorial plaque can be found at Rue Thiers, just a few residential blocks westward.

CS Diana’s ground is located relatively close to the home ground of Espérance Calonne. This sports ground is named after Louis Duflot, storekeeper of the mining company and founder of gymnastics association Espérance. After the Second World War, the association merged with Polish football club Warta and Etoile-Club. The French name Espérance remained, concealing the club’s partial Polish roots. Although the ground appears quite basic, Stade Duflot has a comfortable and stylish main stand. The slope behind the terrain overlooks the pitch and the Calonne quarter of Liévin with its typical Corons, miners’ houses.

Which brings us back to RC Lens. The club anthem of the Red-and-Yellow, Les Corons by Pierre Bachelet, is sung at every home match at its magnificent Stade Bollaert-Delelis. The ground was named after mining company Félix Bollaert, who stood at the cradle of the stadium, and former mayor André Delelis, who saved the stadium when the mines closed. A visit to ‘Bollaert’ is an absolute must when spending a day (or a week-end) at Lens. The spectacular atmosphere of the Tribune Marek might even distract the visitor’s attention from the game. Spending a few days in Lens also brings an opportunity to visit the Louvre-Lens museum, a temple of art that boosts cultural life in the region. The museum is surrounded by corons, some of which were transformed into a hotel.

For those who stick to groundhopping (especially non-league enthusiasts), the small but picturesque grounds are full of hidden history, bringing the visitor closer to the Polish roots of a football-crazy town.

When in Lens…

There are plenty of pubs uptown, within a 15-20 minutes’ walk from the stadium. Closer to Stade Bollaert, a few smaller pubs can be found, such as La Mi-Temps (Half-time) or Le Maquis, a Corsican-cuisine restaurant with a busy pub on matchdays. It is not unusual for fans of either teams to gather here at the same time (except from rival clubs). Furthermore, Hotel Espace Bollaert features a brasserie very close to the action.

A stylish theme restaurant can be found in the neighbouring town of Avion. Restaurant A l’Fosse 7 is decorated with mining-style attributes. Although further away from the game, it is located closer to Lens’ training ground in Avion, named La Gaillette. A simple training session may easily be attended by hundreds of fans.