Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
Yesterday, a press conference was announced declaring that Marek Papszun will be leaving Raków Częstochowa at the end of this season upon the expiry of his contract.
In the seven years Papszun has spent with Raków, leading them from the Polish third tier all the way to challenging for the Ekstraklasa title, something it looks increasing likely they will win this season. Raków also find themselves in the Polish Cup final, where they will play Legia Warszawa.
Papszun is stepping away with no plans for another job in the immediate future, and he had spoken in the past about a promise he made to his family to take a break from management.
Raków have already supposedly lined up Jacek Magiera to take over next season, although these reports are unconfirmed as of time of writing.
In my opinion, Papszun has been one of the key factors in raising the level of Polish football these past few years, and is one of very few Ekstraklasa managers playing what could be considered progressive, attractive football. His links after the World Cup with the Polish national team job were to me very intriguing, although probably coming just a bit too soon in his career.
I’ve always thought that Papszun was Polish football’s version of Jürgen Klopp, not least because of the glasses and the baseball cap but the fact he’s managed to transform the fortunes of a team whilst playing football which develops and improves the level of play and competition in the league as a whole.
What concerns me is that it’s very likely with a different manager Raków will not be as competitive in the future, and therefore Polish football loses one of their most recent success stories and a team that has been strongly competing, winning cups and possibly a title.
I hope for his sake that Papszun uses this downtime to re-energise himself away from football, but it’s always worth remembering that high-level football moves on very quickly and he may not have the same reputation or opportunities 18 months from now. It’d be interesting to see if he fancies his chances outside of Poland, as I for one can see clubs at the second or third tier level in England, Germany or Italy willing to take a chance on Papszun, given the club-building at Raków on his CV.
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