Legia Warsaw celebrates 110 years: anniversary star match brings club legends back to Łazienkowska
Legia Warsaw is marking 110 years of existence with a special event that will bring together the club's history, former players, current generations of supporters and a major programme for children and families on 6 September 2026. The central part of the celebration will be an anniversary football match at the stadium at Łazienkowska 3 in Warsaw, starting at 16:00. According to the club's official announcement, footballers who left a distinctive mark on Legia's history during different periods will return to the pitch, while the complete line-ups of the participants will be announced gradually. The match will not have the usual competitive format, but will instead be played in three 30-minute periods, emphasising its exhibition and anniversary character. At the same time, the club is preparing content dedicated to its own history, meetings with former players and additional activities intended to turn the entire day into a multigenerational gathering centred around one of Poland's best-known football clubs.
Return of players who defined different eras of Legia
In the announcement provided to the media by Legia's public relations office, the names planned for the anniversary match include Miroslav Radović, Leszek Pisz, Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Nemanja Nikolić, Roger Guerreiro, Ivica Vrdoljak, Dariusz Dziekanowski, Tomasz Kiełbowicz and Tomas Pekhart, with further confirmations to follow. The club's official online announcement of 13 August separately confirms the participation of Dziekanowski, Radović, Odjidja-Ofoe, Guerreiro, Pisz and Kiełbowicz and states that the full line-ups of the two teams will be presented during August. In this way, the organisers are building the anniversary match as an overview of several football eras rather than a gathering of just one championship-winning generation. Players remembered by supporters from domestic league competitions, cups and European appearances are expected to meet on the same pitch, with each of those names representing a different period of the club's history. For the audience, the combination of the sporting and commemorative nature of the event is therefore particularly important: the result will be secondary, while the main value of the match will be the reunion of footballers whose careers are associated with memorable moments in Legia's history.
The club has not yet published all details regarding the allocation of players to the teams or the final schedule of all events at the stadium. According to official information, the programme will be expanded as 6 September approaches, while new participant names and additional attractions will be announced through the club's communication channels. It is known, however, that the anniversary match will be played in a 3 × 30-minute format, allowing the organisers to make a greater number of substitutions and appearances by former players without the physical demands of a standard competitive match. The club's announcement also mentions themed zones dedicated to Legia's history and opportunities for supporters to meet former footballers. Such a concept extends the anniversary beyond the 90 minutes of football itself and turns the stadium into a place for remembering the people, trophies and eras that shaped the club's identity.
From 1916 to 2026: 110 years of club history
According to Legia's official history, the club was founded in 1916, during the First World War, and its beginnings were connected with members of the Polish Legions. Over the following decades, the football team became the club's central sporting section and one of the most decorated teams in Polish football. On its official website, Legia lists 16 Polish championship titles and 21 Polish Cups, while the club's statistics also include six Super Cups and one League Cup in the total number of official domestic trophies. Altogether, that amounts to 44 official trophies, explaining why the trophy count is highlighted as one of the main symbols of the 110th anniversary. The anniversary year is therefore conceived not merely as a reminder of the club's founding date, but as an overview of a series of sporting eras during which players, coaches, competition formats and the very appearance of the stadium changed.
Legia's history is strongly linked to the location on Łazienkowska Street, which has been the club's central address for decades. The official club chronicle states that construction of the stadium at that location was completed in 1930, while in 1933 the venue officially received the name Stadion Wojska Polskiego. The present-day stadium opened in 2010, when Legia hosted London's Arsenal in the inaugural match and lost 5:6. Although the infrastructure has changed completely over the decades, the same location has remained an important symbol of the club's continuity. This is precisely why the organisers are marking the 110th anniversary at Łazienkowska 3: the site is not merely the address of the current team, but a place where generations of players and supporters have succeeded one another for almost an entire century.
The club also connected its centenary in 2016 with a major sporting achievement, when it won the Polish championship title. Ten years later, the focus of the anniversary has been broadened to include a meeting of generations and the club community. In its official materials for 2026, Legia is marking the anniversary with a special visual identity and other projects, including an anniversary home shirt. Such elements show that the celebration is not limited to a single date, although the match on 6 September will be one of the most visible moments of the entire anniversary year. For a club that continuously presents its history through museum and archive material, the return of former players to the main pitch is a way to present that history live, in front of an audience that followed different generations of those footballers across different decades.
All-day programme for families and supporters
The programme at Łazienkowska will begin well before the anniversary match. According to the announcement by Legia Soccer Schools, the 5th Legia Games will be held on 6 September starting at 10:00 on the training pitches and at the Legia Tennis & Golf facilities, with free admission to that part of the event. The organisers are announcing sports competitions, team tournaments, skill challenges, presentations of different disciplines, entertainment and activity zones. The programme includes children from numerous projects and sporting sections connected with Legia Schools, including football, swimming, gymnastics, badminton, tennis, padel, volleyball and chess. This gives the anniversary day a broader sporting character and connects professional football with programmes intended for children and young people.
According to the club's announcement, the Legia Games bring together several thousand young athletes, members of their families, coaches and other participants. One element of the programme will be an activity system through which participants can collect confirmations of participation and, after completing the required number of tasks, receive a Games medal. The organisers are placing the emphasis on participation and discovering different sports rather than solely on competitive results. The fifth edition thus becomes an important part of the wider anniversary celebration because it brings together club legends and the youngest members of the sporting community in the same place. Symbolically, it represents the passing of the club's story from generations who have already completed their professional careers to children who are only beginning to enter organised sport.
For visitors to the anniversary match, the club is also announcing additional attractions at the stadium, including themed historical zones and areas where it will be possible to meet former players. The detailed schedule of these activities has not yet been finalised, and Legia states that information will be published gradually. This means that the programme may be expanded further before 6 September. Visitors coming to Warsaw from other cities or countries can check accommodation in Warsaw for the weekend of the anniversary match in advance, especially if they also plan to take part in the morning programme of the Legia Games. Given that the activities begin at 10:00 and the main match starts six hours later, the event is conceived as an all-day sporting programme rather than simply a visit to the stadium immediately before kick-off.
Five zlotys from every ticket go to the Legia Foundation
The anniversary match will also have a charitable component. According to Legia's official announcement, 5 PLN from every ticket sold will be allocated to the Legia Foundation. The club states that the funds raised will be directed towards organising sporting activities for people at risk of social exclusion, including amputee football training, wheelchair fencing, as well as boxing and rowing programmes for older people. The Foundation is also planning additional charity auctions connected with the anniversary event. In this way, the number of tickets sold will affect not only attendance at the celebration but also directly the amount allocated to sporting and social programmes.
This purpose is consistent with the existing activities of the Legia Foundation. In recent years, the club and the Foundation have publicly presented amputee football and wheelchair fencing programmes, as well as recreational programmes for older people, including boxing and rowing. In the case of the anniversary match, the charitable component is built directly into the ticket sales model, so every purchased ticket automatically includes the allocation of a specified amount. The organisers are thus linking the 110th anniversary with the idea that the sporting community includes not only the professional team and the stands, but also programmes that make sport accessible to different groups. The final amount of the donation will depend on the number of tickets sold, and the club has not published an estimate of the total sum at this time.
Tickets from 15 PLN, children under three enter free of charge
Ticket sales are already open, and Legia has published several price categories. A ticket for children up to the age of 13 costs 15 PLN and is valid for all stands. Tickets for the south and north stands and the side sectors of the west stand cost 35 PLN, the second category on the east stand costs 45 PLN, while the first category on the east stand costs 55 PLN. Children under the age of three can enter the stadium without paying for a ticket. Since the club continues to publish details of the programme and the list of former players, buyers should check the latest organisational information on Legia's official channels before arriving.
The prices show that the event has been designed as a broadly accessible anniversary celebration, with a special discount for children and the free accompanying programme of the Legia Games. At the same time, every paid ticket includes the aforementioned allocation of 5 PLN to the Legia Foundation. This means that the sporting, family and charitable parts of the event overlap both financially and in terms of the programme. For supporters who have followed the club for decades, the main attraction will be the return of familiar players, while younger visitors will receive an all-day programme that is not limited to watching the exhibition match. Such a combination reflects the main message of the anniversary: to present 110 years of history through the people who created it, while at the same time involving the generations who will continue following the club's story in the future.
Łazienkowska as the centre of club memory
The choice of the stadium at Łazienkowska for the culmination of the anniversary carries particular significance because this location is one of the most enduring constants in Legia's history. At the same site, the club passed through the pre-war decades, post-war reconstruction, domestic successes, European matches and a complete reconstruction of the stadium. The official history of the stadium recalls that the new venue opened in 2010, but also that Legia's connection with this address reaches much deeper into the past. For this reason, the meeting of former players on the main pitch is not merely a symbolic exhibition but a return to the place where many of them achieved the most memorable moments of their careers.
At the same time, the anniversary match takes place in a year in which the club is celebrating more than football continuity alone. Legia's history includes various sporting sections, a strong youth base and social programmes, and the organisation of 6 September seeks to bring all these layers together in a single day. In the morning, children and young athletes will dominate the pitches, in the afternoon the main stadium will be taken over by former football stars, while ticket sales will simultaneously raise funds for the Foundation's programmes. Such a structure gives the anniversary substance that goes beyond a ceremonial reminder of the number 110.
Until the day of the match itself, the final list of players and the complete schedule of accompanying activities remain open questions. Legia has announced that new information will be published successively, so the programme may change or be expanded. What has so far been officially confirmed is the date of 6 September 2026, the start of the anniversary match at 16:00, the format of three 30-minute periods, family and historical zones, the 5th Legia Games from 10:00 and the charitable allocation of part of the proceeds from each ticket. This establishes the framework for one of the central celebrations of the club's 110th anniversary, at a place that has been synonymous with Legia Warsaw for decades.
Sources:
- Legia Warszawa – official announcement about the anniversary match, confirmed players, 3 × 30-minute format, programme, charitable purpose and ticket prices (link)
- Legia Warszawa / Legia Soccer Schools – official announcement of the 5th Legia Games on 6 September 2026, the programme, the 10:00 start and free admission (link)
- Legia Warszawa – official information on the club's founding and major domestic trophies (link)
- Legia Warszawa – official history of the stadium at Łazienkowska and information on the opening of the new venue in 2010 (link)
- Legia Warszawa – club statistics on 44 official trophies: 16 championships, 21 Polish Cups, six Super Cups and one League Cup (link)