Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
I thought it most appropriate to open this article, which is somewhat a tribute to Jakub Błaszczykowski and his career ahead of tonight’s big send-off against Germany, with a personal recollection.
Back before I was particularly interested in Polish football (please forgive me), I remember countless school friends speaking with eager excitement about Fifa Ultimate Team, which was something of a foreign concept to a Career Mode nerd like myself.
Looking back now to those days in 2013, I feel a strange sense of admiration with the gushing of which they would speak about Błaszczykowski’s card, and how great he was in the game. Of course, this is only a reflection of the real-life Błaszczykowski’s stellar performances.
It’s easy to think of Błaszczykowski’s career in terms of big moments, like his goal against Russia at Euro 2012, or scoring against Switzerland in St. Etienne at Euro 2016. That’s before we get onto the big moments he had with Dortmund, like his goal in the Champions League against Shakhtar or his assists against Bayern in the 2012 DfB Pokal final.
Personally, I think the magic of Błaszczykowski’s career is the manner in which he endeared himself to football fans the world over, regardless of whether you had any connection to Poland or Dortmund. His marauding runs and tireless work-rate played a part in that, but so did the fact he was a key cog in a Dortmund team that seemed to attract neutrals who wished them well.
Preparing this article, I spoke to Wiktor, who goes under the Twitter handle @WiktorSZN, and is a big voice in the Dortmund and Poland football Twitter community. When asking about favourite moments, Wiktor cites moments like the DfB Pokal final and 2012/13 Champions League campaign, but also the Euro 2016 run. “I think Kuba was the most important player. Ignoring his penalty miss against Portugal, he was fantastic.”
It’s hard to disagree, and nowadays we can look back at that Euro 2016 campaign as perhaps the last great moment in the sun for Błaszczykowski’s career. This is not to suggest it was completely downhill from there on, and his return to Wisła Kraków and part ownership of the club is certainly something to be celebrated.
When foreign outlets namecheck Błaszczykowski, two things tend to be mentioned: his childhood trauma and his problems with injuries. Hopefully, the more astute observers will see that Błasczykowski was far more than a couple of sentences about the issues he has faced.
I set out writing this article to establish why he was such a fan favourite to those who followed Poland, but the more I thought about it, perhaps he just became a fan favourite to those who enjoy football. We all love an underdog story, and many elements of Błaszczykowski’s life and career seem to fit into that narrative.
Seeing him speak to the press and train with the national team again in these past few days reminds us that Błasczykowski was such an enjoyable player to watch for what feels like too brief a period of time, and serious injuries obviously played a massive part in that. But to see him so much as walk out onto the pitch again at Stadion Narodowy this evening will be a great moment for all those in attendance, and it’s a send-off that has been long overdue.
Eventually, football has to move on, but Błaszczykowski’s name will always stick around in the memories of many football fans my age, partly because he was a great player at a formative age, and because many in the English-speaking world could neither spell nor pronounce his name correctly.
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