Niels Frederiksen cannot match Bundesliga wages, so he signs players with European fixtures, UEFA money and the resale value those games build. A squad built on that pitch holds players who took less than their level commands, and Lech’s sales prove it.

Frederiksen, Lech Poznań’s head coach, runs the squad at Poland’s reigning champion, and he is blunt about what Lech can and cannot offer a transfer target. Financially, he says, the club still cannot equal the Bundesliga. Lech can get close on the rest, and Frederiksen sells that rest directly, domestic and European fixtures, the bonuses those games pay, and the exposure a player gains by closing the wage gap on the pitch.

He ties European football straight to a player’s market value. Reach the league phase of a European competition, whether the Conference League, the Europa League, or the Champions League, earn the prize money, and, in his words, “this boosts the value of our players.” Frederiksen treats European competition as the part of Lech’s offer that wealthier clubs do not always match. ¹

The wage gap

Lech are rich by Polish standards. Grant Thornton’s review of the 2024/25 Ekstraklasa put aggregate top-flight revenue at PLN 1.27 billion, with Lech second behind Legia Warszawa. ² Lech’s own figures put revenue at PLN 145.3 million, the league’s best average gate at 29,064, and PLN 36.25 million from player sales. ³

Bundesliga clubs work an order of magnitude up. The 18 top-flight clubs generated €5.12 billion in revenue in 2024/25, and the DFL’s economic report put match-operation payroll at €1.67 billion the season before. ⁴⁵ Those are the numbers Frederiksen means when he says Lech cannot compete on money, and they describe the market he recruits against.

Europe changes the club offer

A league-phase place hands Frederiksen extra money to put on the table. UEFA’s 2025/26 distribution sets equal base shares of €18.62 million for each Champions League club, €4.31 million for the Europa League, and €3.17 million for the Conference League, before any performance or value bonuses. ⁶

The Polish football-business site XYZ, in an analysis by Jakub Szlendak, traces what that does to Lech’s budget. The club reached PLN 145.3 million without European football; XYZ projects roughly PLN 40 million in UEFA distributions for 2025/26 and estimates that a Champions League league-phase run could be worth up to around PLN 100 million once prize money, fuller stadiums, sponsor leverage, and transfer-market pull are added together. ⁷

Lech can carry that money into a transfer negotiation. The club can lose a straight wage auction and still promise better opponents, bonus income, more scouts in the stands, and a stronger squad. Frederiksen can tell a target which competition he expects to play, how many European nights are realistic, and the role waiting for him.

Europe changes the resale story

A player who signs for slightly less needs a career reason to do it. The CIES Football Observatory’s report on valuing players supports Frederiksen’s argument. Its model treats club level, league level, results in international competition, and performances across those competitions as inputs to a player’s transfer value. ⁸

European nights do not guarantee a bigger fee. A player who performs in them collects minutes against foreign opposition, numbers from higher-profile games, and a record that scouts in wealthier leagues already follow, all of which can raise his valuation. Frederiksen can tell a target he may earn more elsewhere today and still build a larger move from Poznań.

The same pitch from the buying side

Every line of that offer also describes Lech to the clubs watching them. A player who signs for European nights over a bigger wage has judged himself above his pay, and the league phase tests that judgment in public, against foreign opposition rather than another domestic mismatch.

Lech’s accounts show the route out works. The club booked PLN 36.25 million from player sales in 2024/25 alone, and its two biggest exits went to the leagues Frederiksen says he cannot outbid, Jakub Moder to Brighton for a club-record 11 million euros and Jakub Kamiński to Wolfsburg for around 10 million. ^{3 11 12}

None of this is specific to Lech. A domestic champion with a league-phase place and a selling record holds players priced below their level, already benchmarked in continental games, and has every incentive to deal.

The limit

No public evidence shows a single player picked Lech over a richer offer because of Europe. The evidence shows only that European football helps Lech in a negotiation when the club cannot match a rival’s wage offer.

Frederiksen describes the rest of the process as ordinary club work. In a club interview he sets out the division of labour. The coaching staff names the positions to fill, scouting draws up the list of candidates, and the sporting director runs the contact and the negotiation. Europe enters only after the club has settled on the profile it wants. ⁹

A European campaign also loads on costs. UEFA’s club-finance landscape report notes that non-wage operating costs have outrun revenue growth across the continent, ¹⁰ and the same XYZ analysis applies the problem to Lech, where a European run lifts income and then adds bonuses, travel, match-day operations, extra staff, wage pressure, and the need for a deeper squad. ⁷

Lech cannot promise Bundesliga money. They can offer European fixtures, squad spending backed by UEFA revenue, and games that may raise a player’s resale value. Buying clubs read the same offer in reverse, as a description of where their next signing is already playing.