Ten days into the final month of 2024, and there have been quite a breadth of stories circulating in the world of Polish football. Whilst I can’t discuss everything, a number of them jumped out and I thought would be particularly worthy of discussion.
I don’t often speak about women’s football, especially when it comes to the Polish women’s national team. I do actually really enjoy watching a lot of women’s football, but the sad truth is that since I started this website there has been little to write about concerning the women’s game in Poland.
That all changed last week, when thanks to consecutive 1-0 victories in their European qualifying playoffs against Austria, Poland successfully reached the first tournament in their history, next summer’s European Championship in Switzerland. Funnily enough Poland actually bid to host the tournament, but came third in the selection process back in 2023.
Poland will be one of 16 nations at next summer’s tournament, and given what we’ve already seen in terms of celebrating the qualification, it should mean that women’s football will continue to grow in popularity in Poland and hopefully become even more visible.
From the outside looking in, where I live in the UK there is a huge amount of coverage of women’s football, which really ramped up after successive tournament appearances for the England women’s side. Hopefully a similar phenomena can occur in Poland, given it has appeared to me (and from people I have spoken to more well-versed in the subject) that there hasn’t really been the same visibility for the women’s game in Poland up to this point.
I’d also like to highlight at this point a really interesting thread I came across on Twitter, which detailed Gabriela Grzywińska, a Polish player in fine form who plays in Russia and therefore won’t be selected for Poland at their tournament debut next July.
Moving on, and I thought it prudent to take a look at a recent interview Zbigniew Boniek did with Meczyki which has understandably received a lot of attention. In it, he spoke about a good range of topics, but the most critical ones have obviously received the most attention.
Personally, I think that the comments he made as to the problems Jakub Moder has been facing both at club and international level seem a little disingenuous, given we all know the horrific injury problem he has had to deal with. It should therefore come as no surprise that Moder does not appear to be quite the same player he was prior to such a long time out of the game with injury.
Secondly, his comments defending Paulo Sousa and that he supposedly didn’t abandon the Polish national team. For what it’s worth I do somewhat agree with Boniek on this one, given it does seem very much like the as soon as the current PZPN administration was in place they sought to undo a lot of Boniek’s work either intentionally or unintentionally, and Sousa was very much a symbol of late-tenure Boniek.
However, I don’t so much agree with the way he decided to slate Michał Probierz. We’ve all been disappointed with the Nations League campaign and the way it went, but to suggest there hasn’t been progression or that Poland don’t play offensive football just doesn’t ring true. Probierz’s football hasn’t been perfect but you can’t take away the fact that Poland, when all their best players are available, do look dangerous in the opponent’s final third.
Boniek’s other criticisms, such as the lack of a regular defensive midfielder and getting younger, faster players to support the 36 year-old Robert Lewandowski, aren’t really saying anything knew. We’ve known there’s been an issue finding a regular holding midfielder for Poland going on about two and a half years now, not to mention the fact that we all know Lewandowski isn’t getting any younger and there will come a time he has to walk away from national duty.
In any case, these days Boniek is no different to any other pundit and he has a right to get his opinions across. I actually quite liked hearing his defence of Sousa and whilst his opinions on Probierz and Moder lack nuance, I do understand some of what he’s trying to get at.
Also coming over the hill is the January transfer window, and there are at least two really intriguing rumours. Firstly, several Italian papers have suggested that Roma and Napoli are working on a swap deal which would send Nicola Zalewski down to Naples and Giacomo Raspadori to the capital. In my opinion, whilst this would constitute a great deal for Roma it would be pretty disastrous for Zalewski.
Already not really seeing a great deal of playing time at Roma given they were trying to offload him this past summer, he would surely get even less time on the pitch with Napoli given Antonio Conte’s reticence to rotate his team, not that he needs to given the Neapolitan side aren’t in European competition this term. Then you add in the shabby treatment Arkadiusz Milik and Piotr Zieliński experienced at the club thanks to owner Aurelio Di Laurentiis and it really could be a recipe for disaster. I sincerely hope these rumours are just that.
A much more pleasant rumour, practically confirmed by the player himself, is a return to Cracovia for Mateusz Klich. One of Poland’s more cult footballing figures thanks to his time in England, I think his return to the Ekstraklasa would be a real boon for the league. Klich’s contract with MLS club DC United expires at the end of this calendar year, so he would be able to join Cracovia on a free transfer.
I’ve written in the past that I would like most Polish internationals to return to the Ekstraklasa when they reach a certain age in order to help grow the profile of the league, something we’ve seen Lukas Podolski and Kamil’s Glik and Grosicki do in recent years. Klich would be a fine addition, and it seems almost as good as done from the latest reports.
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