Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock and @MijnVitesse on Twitter
We’re still some way off seeing the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik and Krzysztof Piątek retire from national team duty with Poland, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the careers of players like Bartosz Białek, Dawid Kownacki and Patryk Klimala.
Białek has been playing well in Holland with Vitesse, where he is on loan from Wolfsburg and linking up with another Polish player in Kacper Kozłowski. Białek has scored four goals and registered one assist in 13 appearances with a Vitesse side very much getting by using a rag-tag bunch of young loanees, Białek and Kozłowski included. Still only 21, Białek’s development is very much best served by the regular playing time he is getting in the Netherlands, and he is .
Looking next at someone who’s much further along with their development, and we come to Dawid Kownacki. He’s having the season of his life with Fortuna Düsseldorf, scoring nine goals and getting seven assists in 20 games. Kownacki very nearly saw a move to the Premier League today as Brentford showed some interest, but Kownacki would not have qualified for a work permit. Instead, it’s been strongly rumoured that clubs in the Bundesliga are keeping an eye on Kownacki, and apparently Copenhagen are showing some interest in taking Kownacki when his contract expires in the summer. It’s quite a reversal of fortunes from last summer when he seriously considered moving back to the Ekstraklasa with Lech Poznań after his loan spell with them in the 2021-22 season, and had Lech not focused on bringing in a central defender he probably would have joined them.
Kownacki himself admitted to suffering after being labelled with the “next Lewandowski” tag which has often put undue pressure on talented young Polish players, but he is finally playing well enough to be included in the Polish national side, and I personally was disappointed he was not taken to the World Cup.
Patryk Klimala has just completed a move to Israel with Hapoel Be’er Sheva, and I think it’s safe to say that this wasn’t a move any of us either saw coming or were desperate to happen for Klimala’s development. Since leaving Jagiellonia Białystok in January 2020 to join Celtic, he has struggled to take his game to the next level. A move sideways to the MLS with NY Red Bulls did seem like it was working out as he led the team in goals and assists during his first season, but his rate slowed down in his second year and he has now found himself moving to a league which is not thought of being overly prestigious, and it has to be said he is at present pretty far from getting near the national set-up.
More positively, Szymon Włodarczyk has been attracting the right type of interest from some of Europe’s clubs notable for developing talent, such as Anderlecht in Belgium and has also been the subject of “aggressive” interest from New York City FC. The 20 year-old looks like he’ll be seeing the season out at Górnik Zabrze, and hopefully he will still be at a level of performance capable of attracting this sort of interest in the summer.
Speaking of young Polish strikers in Belgium, Aleksander Buksa (brother of Adam) has been having a tough time there after joining OH Leuven on loan from Genoa and playing for their U-23 side. He has been scoring, but the loan was terminated by mutual consent a few days ago and now he is playing at a slightly higher level for Standard Liege’s reserve side. Whilst not brilliant for his development, it is regular football and he is better served there than sitting on the bench for Genoa, as he was last season.
Back to the Ekstraklasa, and Filip Szymczak at Lech has been attracting foreign interest similar to that of the interest in Włodarczyk. Both Szymczak and Włodarczyk are the same age and are having seasons which have been good showcases of their talent, and there is every chance they will both end up playing in a different league next season. For me however, Szymczak is just that little bit more inconsistent than Włodarczyk at present, although there is no doubting he has talent. He’s often misused in my opinion by Lech manager John van den Brom, playing him as more of an attacking midfielder than as a second striker.
Someone floating slightly under the radar has been Adrian Benedyczak at Parma. Mostly coming off the bench, the 22 year-old’s versatility has slightly cost him as he has been playing on the wings as well. Nonetheless, he has scored three goals and assisted once in 21 appearances. Clearly, Benedyczak has to do more in the next few years to warrant a call-up, but he is with a Parma side on the rise in Serie B.
The biggest issue I have when looking at all of these players however is how far away they are from where the like of Poland’s four established strikers were at this stage of their careers, with the exception of Karol Świderski. Lewandowski, Milik and Piątek were all getting big moves to strong sides in top leagues in their early twenties, and these young strikers aren’t. Of course, there is no one way for someone to become a top player, but it does seem that most of the strikers I’ve spoken about here are some way from where today’s recognised forwards are.
One young striker with lots of promise is Mateusz Kowalski, who has just completed a transfer to Parma. As pointed out earlier, they are a club on the rise and are a particularly sensible option for the 17 year-old striker, who is on the rise himself. According to reports, Kowalski favoured a move to Parma over other Italian clubs as the alternatives only wanted him to play in their development sides. Still playing for Poland’s U-19s, Kowalski is a player to keep an eye on over the next few years.
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