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I'm not quite sure how it happened but I'm part of this fantastic group of people devoted to world football, delivering you the greatest stories, articles and opinions you'll find in the Internet. Every day. I like to believe that my addition to In Bed With Maradona is as good as anything else there but it's up to you to make that judgment. In several articles about Polish football I tried to show you how colorful is that sport in my country, how serious we take it, how we love it, how many problems we have with it.
Below you can find links to my articles written for In Bed With Maradona.
Women and Polish Football 01/02/2011 (LINK)
The latest affair involving Richard Keys and Andy Gray made me realize two things. First of all, Polish women are slowly taking their fair share in Polish footballing life, and secondly, that we have not had a single problem or issue like those that have been dominating the headlines in the UK. It is not something we may especially be proud of (as it should be normal) and there is still a lot of space to improve but it’s the quality, intelligence and impact of women involved in football in Poland that matters the most.
Women and Polish Football 01/02/2011 (LINK)
The latest affair involving Richard Keys and Andy Gray made me realize two things. First of all, Polish women are slowly taking their fair share in Polish footballing life, and secondly, that we have not had a single problem or issue like those that have been dominating the headlines in the UK. It is not something we may especially be proud of (as it should be normal) and there is still a lot of space to improve but it’s the quality, intelligence and impact of women involved in football in Poland that matters the most.
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From Roman Dabrowski to Kaan Dobra 19/01/2011 (LINK)
Paweł Brożek, Piotr Brożek, Marcin Robak, Kamil Grosicki, Mariusz Pawełek, Arkadiusz Głowacki, Marcin Kus, Michał Żewłakow – all Polish players who made the move to Turkish clubs in the last two transfer windows. The Turkish league may not be the biggest in Europe but the country is well known to many Polish footballers, as their domestic clubs often travel to Alanya and similar destinations to prepare for an upcoming season.
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From Roman Dabrowski to Kaan Dobra 19/01/2011 (LINK)
Paweł Brożek, Piotr Brożek, Marcin Robak, Kamil Grosicki, Mariusz Pawełek, Arkadiusz Głowacki, Marcin Kus, Michał Żewłakow – all Polish players who made the move to Turkish clubs in the last two transfer windows. The Turkish league may not be the biggest in Europe but the country is well known to many Polish footballers, as their domestic clubs often travel to Alanya and similar destinations to prepare for an upcoming season.
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The Polish Year 20/12/2010 (LINK)
In the last 12 months we’ve suffered heavy defeats to Spain and Cameroon on an international level, while our clubs still have the problem of failing to advance past the early rounds in European competition – only Lech managing to buck the trend. Deciding to delve a little deeper, I wanted to take a closer look at 2010.
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The Comeback Complete 10/12/2010 (LINK)
Every football fan has a favorite player and I’m no different. Often people choose the player that scores a lot, or the one that always seems to be on the ball and I can’t argue with that. However, my personal favorite has always been Marcin Wasilewski – a player for whom a tricky winger is like a red flag for a bull.
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Ekstraklasa - The Season So Far 05/12/2010 (LINK)
The Polish league has never really been an attractive one to those in modern Western countries with their modern football. For years, the Ekstraklasa was known only for it’s seismic corruption scandal (that has now been solved, hopefully), the few goalkeepers that made it to a better world and an international team that had their heyday in the 1970′s and 1980’s.
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MotD - Polish Style 30/11/2010 (LINK)
I know, I know, you all dislike Match of the Day. Those ex-pros sitting on sofas and discussing the Premier League games…well, they don’t really know much about Hatem Ben Arfa. Or maybe the problem is that they are all childish, taking football punditry right back to preschool where even a kid can say that Darren Bent ‘took that one well’ or Didier Drogba is ‘unplayable on his day?’
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Dreams, Dutchmen & Despair 11/11/2010 (LINK)
In last 14 seasons in Polish football, Wisla Cracow have finished only once outside the top three. Not only have they won the title 7 times in the last 12 years, they’ve also shown strength in European competition by famously beating AC Parma, Schalke 04 (both in 2003), Real Zaragoza (2001), and most recently FC Barcelona (2009) in qualification in a year that saw the Catalonians lift the trophy.
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They could be Spain... 26/10/2010 (LINK)
Not all of us are interested in the national youth teams of our countries – of course we cheer them on when they have a chance to win something, but the general view is that scouts and club coaches should really be the ones keeping an eye on the potential on view. There’s nothing inherently bad in that approach, generally speaking pressure and attention are the last things our young players need.
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Why the next Podolski will not get away 13/10/2010 (LINK)
Meet the man who convinced Ludovic Obraniak (Lille), Sebastian Boenisch (Werder Bremen) and Adam Matuszczyk (1. FC Köln) to play under the Polish flag. Meet the man who invented scouting for the Polish Football Association.
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Arsenal: Why Fabianski isn't working 27/09/2010 (LINK)
If you met him on the street, you wouldn’t know he is the man that taught goalkeeping to Artur Boruc (Fiorentina), Łukasz Fabiański (Arsenal), Wojciech Kowalewski (Sibir), Jan Mucha (Everton), Wojciech Szczęsny (also Arsenal) and his father Maciej (former Polonia Warsaw), Arkadiusz Malarz (Larissa), Łukasz Załuska (Celtic) among many others. He is not that tall, barely looks like a goalkeeper, with a moustache that makes him seem more electrician than legend.
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Boniek. The Saviour of Football 18/09/2010 (LINK)
To every follower that knows a thing or two about football, Zbigniew Boniek is the person to connect with Poland when asked. Not only fans do this. When (rarely) some big club plays against a Polish team, the coach goes to the press conference and is asked one of the most useless questions there is: ‘How many Polish footballers do You know?’
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If Only Fulham Would Come Back 04/09/2010 (LINK)
Leo Beenhakker may be brave enough to walk around (as he did) and tell everyone willing to listen that we have some great talents in Poland. He said this so many times that many of us believed it may be true, but then he got sacked after some truly horrible games as the Polish national coach. Now Poland has new manager and all we can see is how talent is wasted – with the best example being Paweł Brożek, the Wisła Kraków striker.
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The Special One. Two. 21/08/2010 (LINK)
Every country has its own Jose Mourinho. A big mouth, but a great tactician. A team builder, trophy winner and risk taker. Do the media create this image or does the ‘Mourinho’ do that himself? Never mind, I’m sure you get the point. Poland has its own ‘Mourinho’, but you have to wonder, how does a person with such a nickname struggle to find a job for more than a year in a league so willing to change managers.
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The Club of Madmen 14/08/2010 (LINK)
In the recent years we have had many ‘mad’ owners in the Ekstraklasa. Some were more corrupted than African governments, some liked to change managers more often than their socks, and some opted not to pay players when they were playing badly. We still have few of them, but here is the tale of one club and a decade of pain for the fans.
