Filip Bednarek

Filip Bednarek spent much of his career waiting for a chance that first-choice goalkeepers rarely give up easily. At FC Twente, where he arrived as a teenager, he never made a single Eredivisie appearance for the first team, his football confined to the reserve side, Jong FC Twente. It took a move away from the club, to FC Utrecht and then De Graafschap, before he found regular football, making 76 league appearances for the latter between 2016 and 2018.

The clearest mark he left on a club came at Lech Poznań. Signed on a free transfer in 2020, he spent most of his time there as a deputy, but during the 2021–22 Ekstraklasa season, an injury to captain Mickey van der Hart put him in goal for the first half of the campaign. Bednarek made 20 league appearances in that stretch and was part of the squad that won the title, before Van der Hart recovered the position for the run-in.

He has never played for the senior Poland side, though he came through the youth ranks, appearing for the under-17, under-18, under-19 and under-21 teams. He is the older brother of Southampton defender Jan Bednarek.

Born in Słupca, Bednarek began at Sokół Kleczew before a move to Amica Wronki preceded his transfer to the Netherlands, where he would spend the bulk of his career across Twente, Utrecht, De Graafschap and Heerenveen. He left Lech Poznań in June 2025.