Kacper Tobiasz being in Qatar with the squad is a welcome contradiction

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

Shortly after the 26-man Polish squad was announced, Czesław Michniewicz addressed criticisms aimed at him after he omitted talented young players like Kacper Kozłowski and Michał Karbownik from the list of players going to the World Cup, stating he was building a squad to win now, not with an eye on the future.

Rightly or wrongly, that is the approach that Michniewicz has taken and we shall see if it pays off, starting with tomorrow’s game against Mexico. His reluctance to select younger players isn’t entirely true, as we can see by the fact young Legia Warszawa keeper Kacper Tobiasz is a non-registered member of the contingent in Qatar.

For all of Michniewicz’s talk of not taking young players for the sake of it, Tobiasz, Michał Skóraś, Nicola Zalewski, Jakub Kamiński and Jakub Kiwior are all 22 or younger. All these players are very firmly at Qatar on merit, and obviously in this article I am focusing on Tobiasz.

Recently turned 20, Tobiasz has been putting in exceptional performances in net for Legia, and in my opinion is a large part of why Legia have been adequately recovering after their poor league showing for most of last season. He absolutely deserves the opportunity to represent his country if he continues developing in the years to come, and it makes good sense for him to be around the squad.

Journalist Sebastian Staszewski reported on Twitter that Tobiasz shares a good relationship with Skóraś, and I have to admit I’m pleased to read this. Both are young players who are first choice players for highly reputable Ekstraklasa clubs (Legia and Lech Poznań respectively) and may well end up securing lucrative transfers to leagues of a higher level at which they can continue to develop. It’s very possible that Tobiasz and Skóraś will feature in Poland squads for years to come.

Tobiasz also finds himself at an interesting point in the production line when it comes to goalkeepers for the national team. With Szczęsny and Skorupski in their early 30s, they will still be playing for a number of years yet, and Bartłomiej Drągowski is in his mid 20s. Tobiasz, along with Kamil Grabara (and to a slightly lesser extent Radosław Majecki) are in their early 20s, so it’s pleasing to see that Poland will be well set for goalkeepers for the next 10-15 years.

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