Podolski Didn’t Cheer After His Goals Against Poland. Do We Care?

@ Tomasz
Well, I certainly saw SOME complaining about Podolski’s choice. *coughs* Even on this page.

@ Pawel
Dude, only some Polish fans make a fuzz about this subject. Do you see this kind of discussion about Ibrahimovic or Neuville? Or about, for example, the Swiss team in general? You really should let this go. From the outside the rage about Podolski really looks petty.

Podolski doesnt need you to advoctate his token of respect to the Polish fans. Considder it a offer from Podolski freely given. If you dont accept, that is your right.

Perhaps heritage is not as black and white as you think or hope? Consdidder than Podolski may considder himself of mixed heritage.

It may not have anything to do with the Polish people at alll but is perhaps the way he chooses to honor his family history. I like this theory. You can at least agree that it is important to honor and respect your famliy.

Posted from  United States

Podolski should have chosen Poland or at least been straight forward in his desicion.
Im Canadian but my first language is polish and my parents are polish . If his parents didnt install polish virtue in him then its thier fault. I would rather play for poland than germany any day if i had multinationality of plish and german.

Sorry,

Lukas’ Dad played for Polska so his excuse about Pawel Janas overlooking him is rubbish it sickens Me he plays for the enemy could have waited and it sickens Me that Miroslav picked the enemy because he wanted to play under Rudi Voller as for Him bein 100% german hahah His Wife,His Twin Sons and Himself all speak Polish

@Danussz

yesterday Podolski gave an Interview in our local cologne yellow press about the topic that a polish politician wanted to force podolski to give away his polish passport and citizenship

His answer was that´s a good joke i never had and don not have and don´t want to get a polsih passport or citizenship I have only one passport

In a different interview he said i was born in poland and have ahuge family there and like the people and the country and want to show respect for the country.

To make it a little bit clearer:

He is a german that´s why he plays for the german national team but his heritage is polish and he still has a family there that´s why he cares in some ways Perhabs if he couldn´t make it into the german team or the polsih team were a little bit more clever he could play for poland but as he said before his natural choice was germany. he clearly wishes poland the polish people and the polish team all the best but not against germany on the football field

I can not underestand what´s wrong with such a position

okay , i agree that he should have been sad that he scored against his own country
but he didn’t choose to play for germany
a few years ago , the previous poland coach didn’t want podolski on the team
the coach didn’t see him as anything special
so the german team began to want him
and eventually podolski chose the german team
just thought you should know

I’m not quite sure what this discussion is about, actually? If Mr Podolski feels like celebrating after he scored a goal that’s first and foremost his own choice. If - for whatever reason - he does not feel like celebrating, it is his choice just as well. And I really cannot see why Mr Podolski should need to justify the way he personally feels about that to either the Polish or the german fans (or newspapers, for that matter. Journalists do sometimes have a tendency to ask rather dumb questions…).

As people have said, he is german, he chose to play football for Germany. He obviously takes that task seriously, considering that he scored twice in a match against a country that he apparently still feels emotionally attached to. That should be enough for both sides. Mr Podolski’s emotions on the matter are of no interest to anyone except him and his family and friends, and I find inquiring on the matter rather intrusive.

I felt Podolski was a traitor for a long time but my understanding now is that he actually did want to play for Poland but he didn’t receive any offers. Thus he was forced to play for Germany. Poland turned him down, making it OUR mistake not his. That’s just one of many stories I have heard, who knows if it true or not? Can you imagine our team if we had him on it? Maybe our dream team would have been Podoloski-Smolarkek just like Germany has Podolski-Klose now. Oh well.

In all sports talent will gravitate to money and winning. I do not know Podolski’s heart but I hope national pride drove his decisions. I hope he understands the great heritage he has inherited from his Polish ancestors. Winning is nice, better than losing!! Winning does not increase my love and passion for Poland, losing does not diminish it. I wish all athletes had that, it is better than all the money and winning.
@Tomasz: Losing at the hands of one we would like to call our own is why Tomasz feels different about his reactions. Genuine or not Podolski seemed to feel as awkward as Tomasz. Those who disagree with our genuine response confuses me. I’m proud of him, but can’t feel happy for him in that moment is all. I wish National teams could be STO PROCENT(100%), they are not.

Posted from  United States

PODOLKI IS THE BEST PLAYER FOR GERMANY AND HE WONT DO HALF AS GOOD IF HE PLAYED WITH POLAND AS THEY DO NOT PLAY WELL AS A TEAM>>>….

PODOLSKI IS ” SIKK< THE BEST PLAYA 4 GERMANY. HE SHUD SCORE A COUPLE AGIASNT AUSTRIA

I don’t know what is true and what isn’t, but I know that Poldi has said he chose to play for Germany because that is where the offer came from. He said that he received no offers from Poland, but then received them from Germany so that’s where he went. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s what he said.

I do have to say something here though tomasz. I can understand your frustration. I am neither German nor Polish and I was a little off-put by the situation. I understand that he feels torn because he’s Polish/German. I understand that people with dual heritage (I am of dual heritage myself) feel a pull to both of their nationalities, but the bottom line is that he plays for Germany not Poland. For me, the issue is that if you can’t enjoy your victories and scoring goals against every team, especially when you’ve been as off form as Poldi has been, then perhaps you need to re-evaluate your priorities.

Posted from  United States

I agree completely tomasz. I understand wanting to be proud of your hertiage. No one is saying he can’t be proud of his Polish-German heritage. Embrace it. Love it. Speak both languages. Teach your children to speak both languages. Great. But when your job means scoring for Germany, then score for Germany and when you’ve looked as awful as you have before this then you should at least show some kind of sign that you’re ecstatic you found the back of the net for as often as you’ve missed until that point.

I could care less about how many people love Podolski. I could care less about how many people love Klose. I could care less how many people love any individual player on any national team. Your job as a national team player is to get the job done. Score goals for the country you’re playing for and keep the other team from scoring on your keeper. When you accomplish that then celebration is in order. No matter who your playing against.

Yeah, it’s great that he feels attached to both countries. Great, he’s proud of his heritage. Good for him. Klose would’ve pulled out the salto because he, I’m sure like most people, would’ve been glad that his slump was over.

Just my thoughts though.

Posted from  United States

We (Germany) had our time for nationalism 60 years ago. Now it’s your turn.
This post is a ridiculous piece of crap, and this blog’s censorship also.

Posted from  Australia

“Look at Hiddink, he was all over the place when Russia defeated Holland. That’s an honest reaction; he made a decision and he’s sticking to it. I haven’t heard any Dutch people complaining about it or offending Hiddink for it.”
Besides some death threats from his own people - oranje fans.

Posted from  Australia

Podolski’s reaction almost made it seem like he felt he did something wrong. If scoring against Poland was wrong, then he shouldn’t have done it, or even had played in that game. As far as soccer goes, celebrate the goal. I doubt he would have been smiling if Poland won, or even scored a goal. So celebrate, you scored a goal at the Euros. Quite a feat.

@tomasz: I do understand that you are apparently annoyed with the TV commentators and journalists who made this (rather small and entirely private matter) a big deal. But that has nothing to do with Podolski now, has it? Be annoyed at the journos, not at a football player who can’t help but feel how he feels. And yet you write something like (quoting from above):

“Come on Poldi, you scored for your country in an opening game of Euros; go and enjoy yourself.”

Basically, you tell him how to feel, don’t you? And that, with all due respect, I find a little out of line.

You probably didn’t realize it while writing it but the overall tone (also in some of the comments here) almost implies that it is not possible to love both Germany and Poland at the same time.
I guess Mr. Podolski proves that in fact it is possible ^_^.

I AGREE WITH KASH.
KASH IS THE BEST
HE IS THE 1 U SHUD TLK 2

Mr. Businessman Prinz Poldi. The only reason he plays for Germany is the money. On jest sprzedawczyk. Tajak Miro, I Piotr. They all have Polish girlfriends and not German if they feel that they are German. What type of Mercedes did they get when they made the deal to play for Germany?

I Hope Marcin does not play for Canadian youth squad.

Posted from  United States

kash is gay LOL