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Robert Acquafresca is Robert Murkowski.

March 16th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 15 Comments »

One of the biggest Serie A talents and a member of the Italian youth team has a Polish citizenship. Robert Acquafresca is a son of a Polish emigrant Ewa Murkowska. Now he stands before one of the most difficult decisions of his life- which country to play for?

That’s a huge surprise, I’ve never heard about Acquafresca in the context of the Polish national team. He’s a 20 year old Cagliari striker (co-owned by Inter) who scored five goals this season (two this weekend). He plays for the Italian youth team alongside Villareal’s Giuseppe Rossi. He scored five goals in the recent youth Euro qualifying campaign. He is still eligible to play for Poland as he has never played for the adult Italian team. If he is to play for us he must be called up till the 11th of September- the day of his 21st birthday. If you ask me, his CV looks impressive. Bring him in Leo!

Now, the question is whether the player wants to play with the Polish eagle on his chest. He was raised in Italy and played for the Italian U17, U18, U19 and U20 squads. He doesn’t speak Polish. He is widely considered as a candidate for a future Italian nr 9. To put it simple, he has a chance to be a Squadra Azzura player in the future. What are his links with Poland? He visited our country regularly for Christmas, Easter and summer holidays as a kid. Not enough it seems. What can we offer? A chance to play at the Euro this year and a regular place in the squad for the next ten years. And, of course, the incessant love of the Polish nation provided he scores against Germany. It’s a matter of choice between a small fish in a big pond and a big fish in a small pond scenario.
The player is confused, he has never considered playing for Poland before. He has already been reached by Bobo Kaczmarek, our assistant coach, and Zibi Boniek, Polish Serie A legend. Another assistant coach, Dariusz Dziekanowski, watched him perform this weekend. Robert’s mother, Ewa, doesn’t want to put any pressure on her son. It’s going to be a very hard decision for the kid; no hard feelings if he chooses Italy.

To be honest, I’m not a big Serie A fan (Primera Division and Premiership man here) and I haven’t been able to watch Acquafresca live. Anyone here to share their opinion on him? Zibi Boniek is heralding the Cagliari youngster as the new, improved version of Pippo Inzaghi. He also states that ha can’t see a player of his potential in Poland. Leo says that he’s a talented striker but we still have to observe him. Do we have the time?

A small portion of Acquafresca’s skills is to be found here.

Tags: Acquafresca, Beenhakker, Boniek, Group A, Poland

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Comments

By dmac | March 16th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

This guys looks great… seems to be able to pick his corners very well. But I don’t think he would accept playing for Poland. I mean he was raised in Italy, played for all those Italian UXX teams, and doesn’t speak Polish. And if he knows that he will eventually play for Italy on their national team I doubt him coming over here… unless his mom strongly influences him (which I don’t see that happening).

Posted from United States

By KamilPL | March 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

Sadly, I have to agree with dmac. He learned how to play in Italy, Robert “Freshwater” is great player, I hope he will choose Poland

btw, Leo found somebody in UK, but he didn’t tell him name Polish press.

Posted from United Kingdom

By dmac | March 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Yeah I heard something briefly about the guy playing in the UK. Do you have more info on that? Like if he is eventually going to be announced for the team or anything?

Posted from United States

By KamilPL | March 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

I read some comments fore some articles on polish websites, lot of people are writing about 18 years old Lukas Jutkiewicz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Jutkiewicz

I’m happy that Leo is looking for players in diffrent countries. Sadly we lost Szetela

Posted from United Kingdom

By dmac | March 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

Don’t see too much info on Jutkiewicz to see how well he plays. Also according to the wikipeida article he already played for us once. I thought it was going to be somebody totally new, but all is well.

Also Szetela… he scored two goals against us when we played against the USA, lol. His wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Szetela

“For a while, Szetela, who has a Polish passport and speaks Polish, was hesitating, as his parents wanted him to play for Poland. However, after former coach of Polish national team, Pawel Janas, stated publicly that “in Poland we have 200 players like Szetela” [1], Danny changed his mind.”

wow… Janas must have been a shitty coach.

Posted from United States

By tomasz | March 17th, 2008 at 5:17 am

Yeah, I also read something about Leo finding a new player in England. My money is on Jutkiewicz. I’ve never seen him play, but it can’t be a coincidence that Everton decided to buy him. At the same time, I don’t think that he is considered to be a candidate for Euro; Leo is already looking for players for the next qualifying campaign. We must reach those players as soon as possible and establish a bond between them and a national team. There will be more and more players of Polish origin raised abroad as children of our 80s emigrants are growing up. We should follow the example of the Turkish FA in Germany, they managed to convince the Altintop twins to play for Turkey. In the meantime we lost Klose, Podolski, Trochowski, Sinkiewicz and now Boenish from Werder also seems destined to choose Germany. Szetela is just a scandalous example of Janas’ approach and his lack of competence. Good luck for Danny.

Posted from Poland

By tomasz | March 17th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Hope he chooses the land of the eagle!! the article has it wrong – he can speak polish. He also is quoted as saying (translation from polish article) “Poland is the country of my mother, i am 90% decided.” Sounds VERY promising…

Posted from United Kingdom

By tomasz | March 17th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

He may speak a bit Polish but Rafal Stec from Gazeta Wyborcza interviewed him in Italian. I have a feeling he’ll choose Italy.

Posted from Poland

By Marcin | March 17th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

he is 90% decided for Italy.

By Alessio | March 17th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

Actually, all the articles I’ve read (in Italian) says he speaks full Polish.

Posted from United States

By tomasz | March 18th, 2008 at 4:16 am

That’s my mistake then. He just probably feels more condident speaking Italian.

Posted from Poland