El Clasico in Polish. Lewandowski and Szczęsny on the fans' lips. "What Times"

There may be more Poles in Barcelona’s squad today than there are Spaniards in Real’s eleven. This is an unlikely scenario, but not impossible. However, it would be naive to expect that Polish football has become fashionable in Spain. – Szczęsny won the sympathy of the fans before he even stepped onto the pitch, but interest in your football remains low – a Barcelona journalist tells me.

The most famous transfer in the Szczęsny family since Maciej, Wojtek’s father, exchanged Legia Warszawa for Widzew Łódź in the mid-1990s, became a fact. Wojciech Szczęsny retired for just over a month. In June, his contract with the Italian Juventus Turin expired, and he considered the offers he received to be unsatisfactory for various reasons. At the end of August, he announced that he was hanging up his boots (and gloves).

In September, when Barcelona’s starting goalkeeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, suffered a serious injury, Polish journalists immediately called Wojtek to the board. They encouraged him to change his plans and “last dance” alongside Robert Lewandowski, a good teammate from the national team. The Catalan club needed a classy goalkeeper. The first rumors linking the Pole with Barca appeared. Szczęsny initially mocked them. “No one will stop you from dreaming” – he winked at journalists “playing on” the topic via Instagram. But subsequent reports indicated that something was actually going on. “Lewy” himself called his friend from the national team. Coach Hansi Flick was in favor of Wojtek’s involvement. Finally, at the very beginning of October, Szczęsny arrived in the capital of Catalonia. A few days later, he signed a contract with FC Barcelona.

For the first time in its history, a club of such renown has two Poles in its squad. It is true that the “Polish” Borussia – with Lewandowski, Błaszczykowski and Piszczek – played in the Champions League final, but their arrival there was treated as a big surprise. However, Dortmund is not at the same level as Barcelona.