Once more an exciting European football season has (mainly) drawn to a close, and so with Poland’s provisional Euro 2024 squad being named later this week, what better time to sort through the past nine or so months of action to determine which Polish players are deserving of acclaim? Among the variety of categories we will have the best, the most disappointing, best young players, most improved players and the unsung heroes. Note please the pluralisation: this is not the Oscars, it’s not just limited to one winner.
I’d also like to remind everyone at this juncture that I am just a berk with a laptop at the end of the day, and this has absolutely no effect on the wider world of football, so if your favourite player did not get a mention feel free to make a nice comment about it.
Best Player - Marcin Bułka
Image via ogcnice.com
Realistically, there was little competition for the outright best Polish player of the season. It’s worth mentioning that Arsenal were at their best this season in my opinion with Jakub Kiwior in the side, and considering how strong their 2023/24 Premier League campaign was he is in the conversation despite only regularly playing between January and March, albeit in a lot of games.
Bułka, though, has been exceptional even as the Nice side he stars for have faltered in recent months. Winning awards for his performances is just reward for a stellar season in which he could genuinely lay claim to being Ligue 1’s best goalkeeper, given he had the most clean sheets. With Euro 2024 likely to be Wojciech Szczęsny’s international swan-song, Bułka will hopefully be Poland’s new No.1 by the end of 2024.
Most Disappointing - Jakub Kamiński and Dawid Kownacki
Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
This is perhaps a little unfair on Kamiński, given the dearth of playing time he has received at Wolfsburg and the fact that when he’s actually got on the pitch he has played quite well for them. However, the fact he has been on the pitch for so little of the season means that this was actually quite an easy choice.
It is sadly true that this season, Kamiński’s career has taken a massive backwards step, and for a player with a lot of talent who is still young he can certainly recover from what has been a most disappointing 2023/24.
Even worse has been the season Kownacki has endured at Werder Bremen. Barely getting on the pitch, and when he has he’s looked seriously out of energy and ideas. Not to be disparaging, but he really has not handled the step up from the 2. Bundesliga to the top flight.
Best Young Players - Kacper Urbański and Dominik Marczuk
Images via @BolognaFC1909en and @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
The first dual winners of these paltry awards I’m appointing, Urbański and Marczuk have both had remarkable seasons for players so young. I was tempted to put Marczuk’s teammate at title-winning Jagiellonia Białystok Bartłomiej Wdowik in this category too, but at 23 perhaps he’s a little beyond the realms of a young player award.
I wrote a week or two back that despite the amazing season Urbański has had as part of Serie A fairytale side Bologna, it was unlikely he’d get his just reward in being part of the Poland squad for Euro 2024. Recent comments from Michał Probierz indicate this may not be the case, and I for one would be very keen to see Urbański as a rotational midfield option in Germany this summer.
Marczuk also got a call-up, albeit very briefly, back in March. He has been one of the driving forces behind a Jagiellonia team which won their first ever Ekstraklasa title on Saturday afternoon, and it would not at all surprise me to see him kick on from a very impressive 2023/24 after the summer.
Most Improved Players - Jakub Kałuziński and Jakub Piotrowski
Images via Matuesz Słodkowski/Trojmiasto.pl and @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
Kałuziński has gone a little under the radar, given his compatriot at Antalyaspor Adam Buksa has scored 16 goals in the Turkish Süper Lig this season. However, the young midfielder has been excellent in his own right, and is laying the groundwork to make good on the potential he showed at Lechia Gdańsk before it all went downhill.
Piotrowski gets the nod here largely on the back of his great performances for the national team, and I don’t think many of us would have any qualms about him starting for Poland at the Euros. It is worth mentioning that he did win the league with Ludogorets, and across all competitions he scored 17 goals for the Bulgarian club. No surprise there is transfer interest across Europe for Piotrowski.
Unsung Heroes - Karol Linetty, Tymoteusz Puchacz and Krzysztof Piątek
Images via @TorinoFC_1906, @Rote_Teufel and @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
All three of these players deserve to be a part of Prober’s provisional Poland squad later this week, and I’m fairly confident that the latter two almost definitely will be. Linetty has been a regular starter for a Torino team that have managed to finish the season in a European place, a surprise to many. This is a byproduct of Serie A having nearly the entire top half qualify for Europe through the new rules and coefficients, but nonetheless it is against the odds. Linetty has been an important cog for Torino and I personally don’t think his efforts have been recognised enough.
Puchacz has been one of the talismanic figures whilst out on loan at Kaiserslautern, a team who were huge underdogs in the DfB Pokal final on Saturday night, a game which they only narrowly lost to a near-invincible Bayer Leverkusen side. He’s been good in the 2. Bundesliga too, getting ten assists and a goal from left back. Very deserving of a place in Poland’s Euro 2024 squad, should he be named as I fully expect him to be.
It’s no secret there are some players I treat with proverbial “kid gloves”, those I have a soft spot for despite there being little rationality to it. Piątek is perhaps one of those players for me a little bit, though not a lot. Nevertheless I was disappointed to see Piątek move to Turkey last summer as it is a bit of a “last hurrah” for a lot of cult players, similar to the MLS once a player gets into their late 20s or early 30s. This season Piątek has, like Adam Buksa, proved that scoring a lot of goals in the Süper Lig can translate to good performances on an international stage, and Piątek has been really good for Istanbul Basaksehir. He even finished the season with a hat-trick yesterday, and I fully expect him to be a part of Poland’s Euro 2024 squad.
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