Piotr

Career Story

The Lower Silesia region in Poland, with all its forests, mountains and medieval castles, is a place where time seems to have stood still. Green landscapes, steep slopes, towers and ancient strongholds: in amongst all of these things, you can find Ząbkowice Śląskie, a small town of approximately 20,000 inhabitants and a place known as ‘Frankenstein’ in German. It is said to have inspired Mary Shelley when she wrote the novel with the same name.

Piotr Sebastian Zieliński was born here on 20 May 1994, in a new, young Poland with big hopes for the future. And those same hopes marked the childhood of Piotr, who dreamed of playing football in an area where winter sports ruled. It was a dream that slowly but surely emerged, with his father, Boguslaw, a PE teacher, becoming his first coach. Piotr pracitised from a young age, using both feet to improve his left foot.

He then joined the youth sector of Orzeł Ząbkowice Śląskie, his local club, before moving to Zagłębie Lubin at the age of 13. During this period, Piotr began his journey in the Poland youth setup. In 2010, while he was playing for his country’s U16s at a tournament in Spain, he was noticed by Udinese, who invited to come over to Italy for a trial in 2011. Since then, Piotr has remained in our country.

Zieliński impressed with his talent and technique: after a year at Primavera level, coach Francesco Guidolin added him to the first-team squad at the Friulani, for whom he played 20 matches across two seasons between 2012 and 2014 before being loaned out to Empoli.

He spent two fantastic seasons in Tuscany, playing and performing consistently and becoming a pillar of the Empoli side that finished tenth in Serie A in 2015/16.

Piotr had caught the attention of many big clubs and, in the summer of 2016, moved to Napoli, where he was reunited with Maurizio Sarri, under whom he had played during his first season at Empoli. At the Partenopei, he became one of the best midfielders in Serie A: he scored 51 goals in 364 matches for Napoli, where he made 64 appearances in the Champions League.

Two-footed, full of quality and with a great long-range shot on him, Piotr, who is capable of scoring important and spectacular goals, was a key figure for Napoli as they won the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years in 2022/23.

An icon for his national team, Zieliński has scored twelve goals in 93 matches for Poland, for whom he’s played at three European Championships and two World Cups. He found the net in the 2022 World Cup, too, as his country recorded a 2-0 victory over Saudi Arabia.

Class, character and plenty of experience in Serie A: Piotr Zieliński, the first Polish player in Inter’s history, is ready to display all his quality in Nerazzurri colours.