Wojciech Szczesny wouldn’t have believed you if you’d suggested he would be playing in the Clásico at the start of the season. He had retired from football, moved to Marbella in the south of Spain and was more concerned with lowering his handicap in golf. But he can win his second trophy as a Barcelona player on Saturday, when the LaLiga leaders meet Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final in Seville. (stream LIVE from 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
Perhaps this twist, one of the most unlikely tales in European football this year, was always the destiny for a player who, in many ways, bucks the trend of the modern-day footballer. Since joining Barça, he’s made as many headlines for smoking, meditating and speaking in a refreshingly honest way as he has for his performances, but it’s the latter that’s put him in the spotlight going into the final stretch of the campaign.
Maybe bowing out quietly at Euro 2024 with Poland last summer was no way to go for the former Arsenal and Juventus goalkeeper. Signing off with a four-trophy season at Barça would provide a much more fitting and unorthodox final chapter to his career.
“We’ll see if it’s one of the best [football stories ever],” the 35-year-old told ESPN. “It’s interesting. It can become one of the best. We will see when we talk at the end of May.”
Barça’s sporting director Deco confirmed talks have taken place to extend Szczesny’s contract beyond this summer, when it’s due to expire. That could give way to a battle for the No. 1 spot next season with Marc-André ter Stegen, who is due back from injury any day now, although it’s unlikely Szczesny is looking that far ahead.
Instead, he wants to follow up January’s Spanish Supercopa triumph with the Copa trophy on Saturday. Then he wants to win the UEFA Champions League, with Barça meeting Inter Milan in the semifinals, and LaLiga, where the Blaugrana have a four-point lead over Madrid with five games to go. (Barç also host their Clásico rivals in LaLiga on May 11.)
“The goal is obvious at this point,” Szczesny said. “We are in the final part of the season and are still in every competition. I’m not planning to lose any of the games. We want to bring every trophy home. Now’s the exciting part of the season, when I start to feel it.”
Barcelona’s Wojciech Szczesny is not your normal goalkeeper: he’s outspoken, he takes risks, and he smokes. After coming out of retirement, he could be set for the most successful season of his career. Alex Caparros/Getty Images
Szczesny was playing golf in Marbella when Ter Stegen suffered a serious knee injury at the end of September in a league game against Villarreal. The first phone call came from his former international colleague, Barça striker Robert Lewandowski, to see if he would be up for filling in for the German shot-stopper. Then Deco called. Then everything changed.
Upon announcing his retirement several months earlier, Szczesny had said his “body still feels ready for challenges, but my heart is not there anymore” after 18 years of dedication to football. Watching coach Hansi Flick’s young attacking team led by Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Pedri and his old friend Lewandowski, brought it back.
“At first I didn’t know, it was so fast, too random,” he said. “But I was looking at the Barcelona team and I was thinking, can this team do something special this season? Yes. Will I be able to live with myself if I say no and they do something big? No.
“If I saw this Barcelona team from my sofa in Marbella, knowing that I could be a part of it, I wouldn’t forgive myself.”
In total, he has now played 25 times, keeping 13 clean sheets and conceding 24 goals. Doubts about his ability to play behind such a high defensive line have dissipated.
“This is a team that is completely different to every team in Europe right now,” he said. “Very extreme in the way they play. It’s a very high risk, high reward kind of game. I’ve never played in a team like this. Can I adapt? It’s a process.
“When you take risks and you play behind the high line, you’re gonna get it wrong. There’s no way of avoiding mistakes. And funny enough, it came in the [third] game and I got sent off, but I accepted it.
“I’m not here to play the conservative game. I’m trying to do what the team needs, and the team needs a goalkeeper who’s brave enough to make those difficult decisions.”
