One of Poland’s brightest beach soccer stars, Kamila Komisarczyk, discusses her journey, roots and ambitions in the sport
Kamila Komisarczyk is one of the main protagonists on the women’s beach soccer scene, and despite the fact that Poland do not currently have a women’s beach soccer national team yet, she is certainly making a name for herself at club level.
Kamila was born 25 November 1998 in Krakow. Her parents and two sisters are a huge part of her life, but she admits that her family isn’t particularly sporty, and that her initial inspiration came from elsewhere.
“I have two sisters (one of them is my twin) but she isn’t interested in sports, and the other is a PhD student and works as an architect.
My mother is a chef and my father is a mechanic. He played football when he was young, but I don’t think that made an impact on me.”
So, if it wasn’t family that introduced Kamila to the footballing world, then what was it?
“Growing up I spent a lot of my free time with boys in my neighbourhood. They mostly played football so I started to play with them. Then I joined a team where I was the only girl. I loved football so much that this wasn’t an obstacle for me and after some time, I was the best player in that team”
Kamila has lived and breathed football from being a young child; but in her teenage years, she caught the beach soccer bug…
“I started my beach soccer journey when I was 15. I don’t live near the sea, and I didn’t even know about such type of soccer as beach soccer.
It all happened when I changed clubs and my new coaches decided to take part in Polish beach soccer championship as pre-season preparation. We finished in second place. This was in 2013 and I think that was the year when my love for beach soccer truly started.
After that success, the coach from a nearby village, decided to create a new team, UKS SPARTA DALESZYCE, consisting of very young players. We practised very hard for almost two years and in 2015 we became the champions of Poland.
In 2016 we were the first women Polish team to compete in the Euro Winners Cup – and the youngest ones in the whole tournament. At the Euro Winners Cup 2016, I was spotted by coaches from Higicontrol Melilla and the year after I played with them.
We finished as the third best team in Europe. I tried to repeat that success with Lokrians Beach Club in 2019 in Nazare, but we finished in 4th place. It was still a great achievement for me and the team.”
But why not just carry on playing 11-aside football? What was it that turned the striker’s head?
“Beach soccer is a very unpredictable sport. You can score two goals in less than 10 seconds which, by the way, my team did in the Polish cup two weeks ago!)
It provokes so many emotions minute by minute, because anything is possible in this game. That’s why I love it”
Kamila is about to begin her third year studying English philology – who says sportsmen and women can’t be intellectuals too?! – but she remains firmly focussed on her beach soccer goals.
“This year, I will fight for the 1st place in the Italian championship, playing with Pavia Beach Club, and I the same objective for the Polish championship with UKS SPARTA DALESZYCE, the team I have captained since the very beginning.”
Kamila Komisarczyk still has a long career in our wonderful sport ahead of her, expressing real drive and ambition. Perhaps someday she will be able to represent her country with a Polish national side…
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