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In the second half of last season, Jose Mourinho turned to 20 year-old Polish winger Nicola Zalewski to play as a left wing-back, in the role vacated since the start of the season by the injured Leonardo Spinazzola.
Zalewski turned out to be something of a break-out star, helping Roma carry some positive momentum towards the conclusion of their Serie A campaign and starring in the second leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final against Leicester.
So why write this article? Essentially, it’s to gather all the relevant information in one place as a handy guide for those who are aware of him, but perhaps haven’t seen much of him other than in that Conference League semi-final.
He was born in Italy to Polish parents (although he doesn’t hold Italian citizenship), and played for Roma’s youth teams from the age of nine. Zalewski was first noticed as eligible to play for Poland by Zbigniew Boniek, and he started representing his country at the U16 level.
It was against Manchester United in a Europa League semi-final that Zalewski made his professional debut, and made his league debut a few days later. However, it wasn’t until February of this year that Mourinho entrusted him to become an understudy for Spinazzola, still not recovered from the achilles injury that ended his great Euro 2020 tournament.
Both Spinazzola and Zalewski are right-footed, but play in a wing-back role on the left side, so they are fairly similar in that regard. Despite this, their styles of play are quite different. Zalewski is shorter than Spinazzola, and in this regard his change of direction is sharper. However, Zalewski is a young player and the defensive duties of his role are less strong attributes for him, given he has been converted from a traditional, more attacking winger.
It is particularly pleasing to see Zalewski rewarded for how well he finished the season with Roma. He has been nominated for the 2022 Golden Boy award, Roma legend Bruno Conti has publicly stated how much he has enjoyed watching him, and according to La Gazzetta Dello Sport, Borussia Dortmund registered an interest in him this summer. Roma insist he is going nowhere, and even handed him captaincy in a recent pre-season friendly.
There is still, particularly in England, the perception that Jose Mourinho does not value or nurture young players. This is an assertion that has never been particularly true, and has arguably been demonstrably false since his first spell in Italy with Inter Milan. Mourinho has shown faith in Zalewski and been repaid handsomely, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Zalewski still starting games for Roma now that Spinazzola is fit again, although obviously not as many games.
Then there is Zalewski’s position in the national team. Czesław Michniewicz finds himself relatively spoiled now when it comes to left wing-backs, given he will have Zalewski, as well as Przemysław Frankowski, himself a converted winger who has been in scintillating form since he joined RC Lens in January, as well as Tymoteusz Puchasz, who won a league title in Turkey with Trabzonspor whilst on loan. It was probably this new-found depth (as well as the obvious political choice) that meant Michniewicz was comfortable telling Maciej Rybus he would have no place in the World Cup squad.
It wouldn’t be a shock to see Zalewski get less playing time throughout the 22-23 season, but given how highly his club and his manager think of him, I expect his development will not be stunted too heavily by the return of Spinazzola, and I suspect Zalewski will definitely get some playing time for his country in Qatar in November and December.
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