Image via @VfLWolfsburg_EN on Twitter
It was announced last January that Jakub Kamiński had signed a five-year contract with Bundesliga side Wolfsburg starting from July, and those of us interested in Polish football were excited by this news that such a great talent was continuing his development at a good club in a top league. This news was overshadowed by the similarities with Kacper Kozłowski’s move to Brighton just a few days later, but that isn’t too relevant for this article.
Going into the 2022-23 season, I don’t think many of us expected Kamiński to set the league alight with Wolfsburg, but were hopeful he would impress off the bench. This proved to be the case, with him being used sparingly until after September’s international break.
October was really Kamiński’s breakout month: assists against Stuttgart, Leverkusen and Mainz as well as a goal in the DFB Pokal against Braunschweig resulted in manager Niko Kovac playing him more and more in Kamiński’s favoured left-wing position.
It wasn’t just in his club games Kamiński was making an impact, either. For Poland, he turned the tide of their pre-World Cup warm-up against Chile and was able to come out of Qatar with some pride in his performances, despite often not being utilised correctly in my opinion.
Yesterday’s 4-2 loss to Bayern Munich really illustrated how important Kamiński has become to his new side: Kovac decided to change from his usual style to go more defensive, and this backfired spectacularly as they went 3-0 down in the first 20 minutes. Kamiński was introduced in the 30th minute and set about trying to turn the game around, mildly succeeding by scoring his first Bundesliga goal on the stroke of half-time. His influence waned in the second half after he was shifted to the right-wing, but Kamiński’s performance was yet another indicator of how important he has become to Wolfsburg in such a short space of time.
It’s not just me being biased, either: answering interview questions just prior to Wolfsburg exit of the DFB Pokal to Union Berlin when Kamiński was rested, Niko Kovac said: “he is very important to the way we play, but he needs to take a little rest.”
It’s nice to see a manager believing in the young Polish talent he has, as this hasn’t always been the case when promising young players move abroad from the Ekstraklasa. Hopefully yesterday’s goal gives Kamiński the confidence to take his game to even greater heights.
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