Title winners, transfer rumours and upcoming friendlies: nearing an end to the Polish football season
It seems like these fortnightly articles are becoming a bit of a habit, rattling through a select bunch of stories and picking out what I believe to be the most interesting factors. Still, it’s been working well for the last little while and yet again there are a lot of pleasant things occurring in Polish football to write about.
First things first would be the not insignificant number of Polish players who have won league titles around Europe this season. Chronologically, we have Jan Bednarek, Jakub Kiwior and Oskar Pietuszewski at Porto, Piotr Zieliński at Inter Milan and as of the weekend just gone Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczęsny at Barcelona.
It’s interesting how you can make a case for all of these players (except probably Szczęsny) being pretty instrumental in terms of their league-winning sides. Bednarek and Kiwior were arguably the foundational parts of what became a pretty formidable Porto backline, and the January addition of Pietuszewski really gave them a boost, as he ended up starting every league game since the middle of February onwards.
Zieliński has finally become the midfielder at Inter we always knew he could be after a difficult first season in Milan. Even last term when Zieliński was largely limited to minutes off the bench, there was no doubt he would eventually be able to replicate the form he had shown at Napoli, for Poland and indeed for many years throughout his career. Now in his early 30s, Zieliński had his role at Inter slightly altered by Cristian Chivu and was in great form for pretty much the whole season, and especially in the early months of 2026.
Lewandowski saw himself with a reduced role at Barcelona this season, although he was still an effective contributor to the club’s league title. Despite only playing less than 45% of possible LaLiga minutes, he was able to score a goal nearly every other game on average. Considering that even if we are talking about one of world football’s all-time great forwards, to be able to do this at the age of 37 is still deeply impressive, especially when you consider where other legendary strikers of his generation are in their careers.
Obviously, it was particularly amusing seeing Lewandowski and Szczęsny having a cracking time during Barcelona’s parade on Monday, but aside from that it does still remind you that this is going to be a big summer for Lewandowski and what the rest of his career will look like. There are ongoing uncertainties about his future with the national team, he will be out of contract with Barcelona and even if they do wish to keep him (which it seems they don’t), it would on a lower salary and with a reduced role. So the spectre of Serie A keeps arising, most forcefully reported is the interest from AC Milan and Juventus, still in the background lingers the MLS and honing ever more sharply into view is the Saudi Pro League. There is also the very brief murmurs of a move to Porto and the Polish colony that has formed at that club, but it’s hard to believe those rumours have much weight to them.
According to Tomasz Włodarczyk, Lewandowski is likely to make the decision to leave Barcelona imminently, with this Sunday’s game against Real Betis earmarked as a farewell to the club. Włodarczyk reports that Saudi Arabia is being strongly considered, which I have to say comes as a disappointment. Yes it might extend his time with the national team, but Serie A or Portugal are hardly strenuous leagues either. It would make sense leaving Barcelona if he were to continue playing for Poland as I think balancing the needs of both wouldn’t be possible, but going to Saudi Arabia and taking the easy, wealth-ensuring option would signal the beginning of the end whether you like it or not. I say this as someone who isn’t massively opposed to watching the Saudi Pro League, but simply that it would signal a lack of intent for anything other than picking up the cheque when there are other options still out there for Lewandowski.
In my opinion, the lucrative payday with a Saudi team doesn’t seem worth it just yet, and according to this report from Włodarczyk, Lewandowski has seemingly made up his mind to leave Barcelona and they seemingly aren’t going to stand in the way. This leaves the only really competitively interesting potential adventure an Italian one, and I could see Lewandowski gelling well with either Milan or Juventus. Plus, he’d be playing a majority of their games, especially when you consider how both clubs have used and discarded a variety of strikers this season with none of them appearing obvious solutions in that department.
Finally on the note of league winners, it was heartening to see Wisła Kraków secure promotion and the title of the 1. Liga, as it has been a long four years of second division football for them. I wouldn’t necessarily expect next season in the Ekstraklasa to be smooth sailing for Wisła, but having them back in the top flight can only be a good thing for the Ekstrakasa as a brand, which as we have increasingly seen in football over the last 30 years can often aid the level of talent you see on the pitch.
Back to transfer rumours, and the most interesting one gathering steam this last week were the reports that Lech Poznań’s Antoni Kozubal is becoming quite sought-after ahead of the summer transfer window. It makes sense, too: despite his young age he is a league winner, has European experience and has appeared for the national team, albeit extremely briefly.
According to these reports, Celtic, Borussia Dortmund and Lille are all interested in acquiring Kozubal. Personally, I think he would stand the best chance of regular football with Lille, whereas Dortmund and Celtic might more likely farm him out on loan next season.
Like others, I was disappointed to see some journalists suggesting Kozubal couldn’t currently be part of a potential Dortmund team as he was lacking attacking numbers. Given that Kozubal is a more defensive-minded midfielder, this should kind of be a moot point. Even if I agree with the basic premise of the point being made, that a transfer to Dortmund this summer might be too soon for Kozubal despite his talent, to argue that it wouldn’t work because he doesn’t have attacking output seemed a bit on the ridiculous side.
Lastly, addressing the upcoming friendlies that Poland will play at the end of May and start of June. Jan Urban has said that young players won’t be called up for the sake of it, there is no guarantee that Julian Zakrzewski-Hall would accept a call-up from Poland at this stage, and that he’s not sure himself about what Lewandowski plans to do beyond this summer.
To be frank if you’re not going to the World Cup, which obviously Poland aren’t, these friendlies don’t really matter all that much. They will still be watched and reported on by this website, but the really interesting work for Urban and Poland will start again in the autumn with the new format of the Nations League, with the majority of games squeezed into a period of less than two weeks. It will be different, but whether it’ll deliver more appetite for the matches (the alleged aim) remains to be seen. Given that Poland have the opportunity to exact some level of revenge upon Sweden, that could be the most interesting match-up of the autumn. Regardless, there are issues with the national team that Urban has to start to try and iron out starting with these friendlies.
First up would be making a concrete decision on who the final piece in the jigsaw that is Poland’s back three will be. Przemysław Wiśniewski, initially a revelation, has not performed at that level since consistently enough and Tomasz Kędziora is not exactly a future-proof option. Kacper Potulski, yet to receive a call-up, and Jan Ziółkowski seem like the obvious options, but we’ll wait and see. Were Lewandowski to retire from international football then there would be a huge problem at striker too, but this seems like something to discuss in more detail were it actually to transpire, something which as we get further away from the last international break seems less certain.
I’ll be back to discuss Jan Urban’s call-ups for the friendlies, which should be in around ten days time. Until then, hopefully we can all enjoy the end of the season.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments