Piotr Wiśniewski (born 11 August 1982) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. All four of his teams were based in the Pomeranian area, with his longest and most notable spell with Lechia Gdańsk from 2005 until 2017, when he retired from professional football. During his 13 seasons at Lechia, he became a club icon, ranking highly in both all-time appearances and goals for the club.
Career
Early years
Wiśniewski started his career with his local team Wierzyca Starogard Gdański, playing with them from 2000–03 in the lower leagues of Polish football. For the 2003–04 season Wiśniewski joined Kaszubia Kościerzyna in the II liga. During the 2004–05 season, Wiśniewski left Kaszubia and dropped down a division in winter transfer window to play for Lechia Gdańsk.
Lechia Gdańsk
Immediately with Lechia he won the III liga, seeing Lechia back in the II liga for the first time since they had to restart in the lower divisions in 2001. The next three seasons saw Lechia rise up the league, eventually winning the division in the 2007–08 season. Wiśniewski played 16 games that season scoring four goals as he helped Lechia to the title. 2008–09 saw Lechia in the Ekstraklasa, with Wiśniewski playing 23 times in his first season in the top flight. Lechia initially struggled in the top division, finishing mid-table or in the bottom half in the first four seasons. Wiśniewski was consistent in those seasons scoring three goals in each season, and playing in most of Lechia's games. On 14 August 2011, Wiśniewski played in Lechia Gdańsk's first ever game in their new stadium, PGE Arena, coming on in the 77th minute for Marcin Pietrowski. The move into the new stadium saw Lechia's fortunes in the league improve. Despite a difficult first season where Lechia finished 13th, and then 8th, they then went on to finish in the top 5 for the next four seasons. After the move into the PGE Arena, Wiśniewski consistently played over 20 games a season, with his most successful personal seasons coming in 2012–13, when he scored a career high of seven goals in all competitions, and in 2013–14 when he played in a career high of 29 games. In the 2014–15 season, Lechia finished in 5th place, narrowly missing out on qualification for the Europa League by one place. During this season, Wiśniewski played 23 times and scored six goals in the league. This proved to be his last season playing consistently in the first team, with Wiśniewski only making ten and four league games in his final two seasons, respectively. 2016–17 was his final season in professional football. In the last home game of the season against Pogoń Szczecin, Lechia celebrated the careers of Wiśniewski and Mateusz Bąk; both players had played over 10 years for Lechia. Both came on as substitutes in the 4–0 win over Pogoń, with Wiśniewski scoring the final goal of the game, while Bąk made an important save to keep a clean sheet for the team. In total, Wiśniewski played 260 times for Lechia, scoring 48 goals.
Retirement and coaching
After leaving Lechia, he joined amateur team AS Pomorze Gdańsk for a season before it was announced that Wiśniewski would be returning to Lechia as a first-team coach, before becoming a Lechia Gdańsk II coach at the start of the 2018–19 season.
Career statistics
Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
