I was just reading this blog on sports in Poland and it occurred to me to try and list Polish football players playing for non Polish football teams. Of the top of my head I can think of Tomasz Kuszczak, Man Utd (Goalie), Fabianski and Szczesny at Arsenal, (both goalkeepers) and Koscielny who joined Arsenal recently and although French recently snubbed the Polish national coach’s offer to play for Poland. Also Robert Lewandowski: hasn’t left Lech Poznan left but after good performances in the Europa League will probably move soon. I haven’t seen Szczesny playing yet (if he has?) for Arsenal so not opportunity to see how Mark Bright would pronounce his name!
Ps. I can’t believe that the Polish national side won’t have a friendly match before 2012 – not a good way to prepare for the tournament given they haven’t had to qualify.
Snooker
Watched a thrilling final couple of frames in Hendry v Williams in the Snooker last night. Williams winning 7-6, 8-6 and then a thrilling frame where Hendry nearly pinched a frame back to keep in it but Williams finally beat him. It’s moments like this when I wish I was a student again, where the Masters could take up 3 or 4 days of study time (...nose buried in books of course). But what hit me most last night was that snooker must be the only sport where you get to learn players’ facial gestures so intimately. During a break the camera just zoomed onto Williams’ face whereupon he yawned so widely you could have counted his fillings. I just thought, “ah, Williams’ yawn, I know it so well.”
Update: Monsieur Decoy has pointed out there are quite a few Polish players in other leagues, as below:
Boruc (Fiorentina - another keeper!), Kamil Glik (Palermo), Kuba Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek (colleagues of Lewandowski at Borussia Dortmund), Ludovic Obraniak (another French Pole, playing at Lille) and Ireneusz Jelen played in the Champions League this year with Auxerre.
Update: Monsieur Decoy has pointed out there are quite a few Polish players in other leagues, as below:
Boruc (Fiorentina - another keeper!), Kamil Glik (Palermo), Kuba Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek (colleagues of Lewandowski at Borussia Dortmund), Ludovic Obraniak (another French Pole, playing at Lille) and Ireneusz Jelen played in the Champions League this year with Auxerre.
Wikipedia says that they have 4 friendlies lined up in 2011, against Lithuania, Greece, Georgia and Germany:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_national_football_team
For more Poles playing abroad, you have Boruc (Fiorentina - another keeper!), Kamil Glik (Palermo), Kuba Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek (colleagues of Lewandowski at Borussia Dortmund), Ludovic Obraniak (another French Pole, playing at Lille) and Ireneusz Jelen played in the Champions League this year with Auxerre.
There are many playing abroad actually that you might be surprised with - check out the link for the national team I included above and scroll down and you'll see recent squad members. Some of the players are playing in Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and Belgium!
Cheers Mr D, I've updated the post to reflect this pertinent information. I am still hoping someone more fluent in Polish will take me to a game. There's a great line in the wikipedia article you linked to: "Rossi ran the shagged-out Poland ragged, scoring in the 22nd and 72nd minute in a reportedly easy 2–0 win." Shagged-out!
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