Barcelona announced this Wednesday the hiring, until June 30, 2025, of the Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who will cover the loss of the German Marc-André ter Stegen, seriously injured in the patellar tendon of his right knee.
Szczesny, 34, comes to the Barça team after announcing his retirement this summer, after playing in the European Championship with Poland and terminating the year of his remaining contract with Italian club Juventus.
Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny announced his retirement from professional football on August 27 because at the age of 34 he did not feel the necessary motivation to continue, but just over a month later he decided to take down his gloves to defend the Barcelona goal, a train that I couldn’t miss one last season.
The Catalan team urgently scanned the market in search of a goalkeeper without a team to make up for the loss of Marc-andré Ter Stegen, who will be absent for a minimum of eight months after breaking the patellar tendon in his right knee on September 22, and at Pole, an unexpected opportunity was presented to him when he was already enjoying retirement in Marbella with his family.
Szczesny played his last official match on July 21, in the 3-1 defeat of his team against Austria in the Euro Cup, and this same summer he reached an agreement with Juventus to agree to his separation, although he still had one year left on his contract. .
The new coach of the ‘bianconero’ team, Thiago Motta, was not counting on him and the ‘Vecchia Signora’ had signed a younger goalkeeper, Michele Di Gregorio, to take his place. The Italian press reported interest from Saudi football, but Szczesny had already publicly rejected that option the previous summer.
“I have already won a lot of money in my life. I prefer fun challenges and defending the Juventus goal is the best challenge there can be,” the goalkeeper said in statements to Polish television TVP Sport in 2023.
And the lack of motivation was the main reason given by Szczesny for announcing his retirement on August 27. “I gave 18 years of my life to this game, every day, without excuses. My body still feels ready for the challenges, but my heart is not there. I feel it is time to dedicate my full attention to my family,” he wrote on social networks.
Emerging from the Legia Warsaw youth academy, Szczesny (Warsaw, 1990) was recruited at the age of 16 by Arsenal and, after a season on loan at Brentford in the English Third Division (2009-2010), he returned to the Gunners. as third goalkeeper.
However, given the successive injuries of goalkeepers Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski, coach Arsène Wenger entrusted the goal to the new Barcelona player. And such was his performance that not only did he finish the season as a starter, but he took over the position until he signed for Roma in 2015.
Szczesny played two seasons in the capital of Italy (2015-2017), where he beat the Brazilian international and current Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker as goalkeeper, before being recruited by the great dominator of that decade in Serie A, the Juventus (2017-2024).
In Turin, the Polish goalkeeper, a full international on 84 occasions, once again took over the starting position, first ousting a club legend, the already veteran Gianluigi Buffon, and then offering more guarantees than the young Mattia Perin.
So far, Szczesny has accumulated two FA Cups and a Community Shield with Arsenal; and three Leagues, three Cups and two Italian Super Cups with Juventus. In addition, he was named best goalkeeper in Serie A in 2020, Premier Golden Glove in 2014 and Polish footballer of the year in 2022.
But there is still room on his resume for one last challenge. In Barcelona he will meet with his compatriot Robert Lewandowski and will compete for the position against Iñaki Peña, 25, who last year conceded 32 goals in 17 official matches and this season has conceded four goals in four matches.
Although the Barça coach, Hansi Flick, stressed last week that no player who signs for the Barça team is guaranteed a starting position, the Polish goalkeeper will land in the Catalan capital with the ambition of settling under the sticks, as he already achieved previously in England and Italy.
FCM
