Jan Bednarek

The small town of Słupca, in the heart of Poland, was the birthplace of the Bednarek brothers in the 1990s. Jan, four years younger than Filip, started playing football close to home at Sokół Kleczew before moving to the outskirts of Poznań. One season at MSP Szamotuły was enough to attract the interest of Lech Poznan, who recruited the powerful centre-back while he was still a teenager. His debut in the first team, which earned him a 2014/15 Polish Championship medal, was followed by a loan at Gornik Leczna and dozens of youth international caps. In the summer of 2016, he returned to his home club and had an excellent season in the Ekstraklasa - so good that he ended up moving to English football and becoming Lech's biggest ever sale, surpassing Robert Lewandowski's move to Borussia Dortmund. Upon arriving in Southampton, his first experience abroad, he made half a dozen appearances for the Saints' under-23s before making his Premier League debut (and immediately scoring) against champions Chelsea. That game was followed by another 183 in the top flight, with only three players managing to intercept more balls than Jan Bednarek in the last edition - equalling the 56 made by Virgil van Dijk, his predecessor at Southampton and current Liverpool captain. Jan Bednarek arrived in Porto after eight seasons in England, during which he also played in two World Cups (2018 and 2022), as well as two editions of the European Championship (2020 and 2024) and four editions of the Nations League (2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024) playing for Poland.