In recent years, Derby County has seen a number of players come and leave; some supporters will wish to forget these players, while others they will treasure forever.
Regarding former player Kamil Jozwiak, who cost the team £3.5 million and never really made a positive impression at the club, it’s unclear where the Rams supporters stand on the matter.
Kamil Jozwiak’s arrival at Derby County created excitement
Derby County signed Polish international Kamil Jozwiak prior to the 2020–21 Championship season.
In what was reportedly a £3.5 million transaction, the Rams acquired the winger from Polish team Lech Poznan.
This marked Jozwiak’s first experience playing football outside of Poland; he began his career with the under-19 club of Falubaz before moving on a free transfer to Lech Poznan’s academy team in 2011.
After that, he progressed through the ranks of the club’s academy and played in their first team for six months while on loan at GKS Katowice.
In more than 100 games for the Polish team, Jozwiak racked up 17 goals and 17 assists. That was enough to persuade Derby to sign the winger, and considering the transfer fee and the fact he was a full international, there were high expectations for the player.
Kamil Jozwiak never lived up to the hype at Derby County
It is still very expensive for a Championship team to pay £3.5 million on a player, so when Derby County paid this much for Jozwiak, there was hope that he would arrive and significantly improve the Rams.
But in retrospect, the Polish international suffered during his time in England, so it was never actually the case. The football club handled the trade terribly.
Jozwiak played for the Rams for a season and a half, but he was unable to maintain his level of play, which led to his first trade.
Jozwiak played 41 times in the Championship during his debut season with the team. Although he was a regular under former boss Phillip Cocu, he found it difficult to provide goals and assists.
The winger only scored one goal and three assists that season, and his performance didn’t improve much the next year either, managing just one assist in 17 league appearances.
| Kamil Jozwiak’s 2020/21 Championship stats for Derby County | |
|---|---|
| Matches played | 41 |
| Minutes per game | 66 |
| Goals | 1 |
| Shots per game | 1.0 |
| Goal conversion | 3% |
| Assists | 2 |
| Big chances created | 1 |
| Key passes | 0.6 |
| Average rating | 6.63 |
| Stats as per Sofascore.com | |
Jozwiak only managed one goal in his first season of play for the team, which translates to an average of one goal every 2687 minutes of football—a very low rate for an aggressive player.
In addition, according to Sofascore.com, he was averaging 1.0 shots per game, but only 0.2 of those were deemed on target, giving him a 3% goal conversion rate.
Although you would expect a winger to create plenty of opportunities, Jozwiak only managed to produce one major chance for his teammates in the 2020–21 season, finishing with an overall Sofascore rating of 6.63. He also only managed to notch up 0.6 critical passes per match.
Mason Mount’s loan transfer to Derby served as a significant impetus for him to go on and win a Champions League for Chelsea.
Naturally, a lot of Derby supporters believed that by spending the money to sign a player like Jozwiak, they would be able to add star power to their lineup and give them something they didn’t already have. However, things never turned out that way because he never really got going at the team and never demonstrated the qualities that encouraged the team to choose to get him in the first place.
Overall, Jozwiak was a poor signing for the team because he never lived up to expectations. When it came to his departure in 2022, Derby suffered a loss because they sold him to MLS team Charlotte for less than they paid for him in 2020, during a period when every dollar mattered for the Rams.