In less than a year co-hosts Poland have gone from being rank outsiders for Euro 2012 to possible ‘dark horses’.
Not too long ago the Poles were grouped in with Ireland, Denmark and Greece as the least likely to win the tournament, despite staging the event with Ukraine. Now they find themselves alongside the likes of Czech Republic and Croatia; that is to say, teams to be respected. And this is all thanks to the emergence of five or six very promising young players who are proving themselves at the highest level of European club football.
Topping the pile is Robert Lewandowski, the Borussia Dortmund striker who has played a major part in taking the Ruhr giants to an unprecedented Bundesliga-German Cup double, for the first time in their history. Lewandowski’s hat-trick against Champions League finalists Bayern Munich in the German Cup final really brought him to the notice of the continent’s big spenders and his name looks set to dominate the summer’s transfer chatter. This is on top of the 23-year-old’s 22 goals in the Bundesliga; he scored seven more in the cup.
But there were also two more Poles heavily involved in Dortmund’s fantastic season. Midfielder Jakub ‘Kuba’ Blaszczykowski and right-back Lukasz Piszczek were both regulars in coach Jurgen Klopp’s starting line-ups and each made regular vital contributions through assists. The pair were generally rated as two of the most consistent performers in last season’s Bundesliga.
Two more of national team boss Franciszek Smuda’s squad have also made their mark at the highest level of European club football. Wojciech Szczesny is regarded as one of the English Premier League’s best goalkeepers, despite his youthful years and being the last line of a somewhat unpredictable defence at Arsenal.
The 22-year-old is still well-short of maturity, which comes later for shot-stoppers, yet he shows remarkable self-confidence, something that will be very useful to Poland in the pressure cooker atmosphere of Euro 2012. Especially as Szczesny will probably have another unpredictable defence in front of him.
Elsewhere Ludovic Obraniak has found a new lease of life at French side Bordeaux after spending five successful seasons with Lille, a club with which he won a Ligue 1 and French Cup double in 2010/11. He lost his regular place and rather than endure a possible long wait to get back into the team, snapped up a tempting offer from Les Girondins and has not looked back since. Earlier this year, Obraniak grabbed the perfect opportunity to show that Lille had made a mistake in letting him go when he scored twice against his old club, including the winner in injury time, and all this in front of their own fans.
There are a few more promising young players who have also been enjoying some success at a good level. These starlets have received less publicity than the Borussia Dortmund trio. Maciej Rybus has quickly established himself as a stalwart midfielder for cash-rich Terek Grozny in the highly-competitive Russian Premier League. Although the 22-year-old may well receive a fairly cool reception from the Legia Warsaw section of Polish fans after jumping ship halfway through this season just gone. The lure of the ruble proved more tempting even than a realistically possible good run in the Europa League with the Polish capital’s premier club.
The fact that Poland can now field a team of players who are playing regularly at a high level of European football, combined with a series of respectable recent results, suggest that the country’s long wait for the successors to the fine sides of 1974 and 1982 may not be too far away.
