Robert Lewandowski Ready To Leave Poland.

June 17th, 2009 | by: tomasz |

Robert Lewandowski openly stated that he wants to leave Lech Poznan this summer. He must have a great offer on the table if he decides to make info like this public. Or is he just making a youngster’s mistake?

Lewy is the best young striker in the Polish Ekstraklasa that I’ve seen for a long time. Surely, Pawel Brozek was tipped for stardom at an early age, but he only started realizing his potential at 23. Lewy is only 20 years old and he’s already Ekstraklasa’s third scorer and an important member of the national team. Apart from Semir Stilic and Brozek, he’s the best that our league has to offer to potential buyers. Is he making a right choice to apply for the transfer request? I’m not entirely convinced. Usually, I’m in favour of Polish players leaving the domestic league as soon as possible. The sooner they get transferred the more time they have to further develop. Just imagine if Magic Zurawski was given a green light after a heroic Uefa Cup campaign for Wisla in the 2002/2003 season. He could have easily become a Serie A or Primera Division level striker. I don’t think he learnt much in Glasgow two years later. It may also be the last transfer window for Brozek to make any sort of impact abroad. But Lewandowski? Is he really ready to compete in the Bundesliga or any other top league? He claims that he doesn’t feel inferior to any players that he played against on the international stage. Moreover, Kuba Blaszczykowski claims that Lewy would have easily become a starting striker for Dortmund. I’m not as confident as Lewy or Kuba. If you have a look at Polish strikers who gained some success abroad, they are usually players who spent more than one successful season in Poland (Wichniarek, Jelen, Rasiak, Saganowski, Mieciel). It’s hard to find a success story after only a short spell of flourishing on the Ekstraklasa pitches. The broken career of Radoslaw Matusiak is the best example here, but don’t forget about Andrzej Niedzielan’s very average spell at NEC Nijmegen, Dawid Janczyk’s huge problems at CSKA Moscow or even Grzegorz “the Sausage” Piechna’s demise at Torpedo Moscow. Clearly, Lewandowski has bigger potential than all those “failures”, but leaving Poland after only one good season would be a huge risk. Another argument in favour of Lewy’s stay is the fact that he plays for one of the best organized clubs in Poland, Lech Poznan. They will take part in the European League next season and fight for the Polish championship, that’s a huge challenge. And Lewy can take an active part in all that as a leader of Lech’s striking force. That’s not a situation where one hands in a transfer request.

Ideally, a good club would buy Lewy this summer and loan him back to Lech for one more season. Our starlet wouldn’t waste time on the bench and return to his owner as a better player. Dawid Janczyk lately said that you may improve your game by training with great players only for the first couple of months, after that you miss the games. I don’t want Lewy to miss any of the games next season.

These were only theoretical considerations. Lewandowski’s transfer is unlikely to happen this summer. Lech’s owner, Jacek Rutkowski, admitted that they plan only to sell one top player, either Hernan Rengifo or Semir Stilic. Lewy is not for sale and was given an unrealistic 5M price tag. Dortmund, who were very seriously interested in Lewy, already acquired a striker (Dymitar Rangelow from Energie Cottbus).

Other news: We’ve got a Pole in Serie A! Legia sold Blazej Augustyn to Catania. He must have done something right on loan at Rimini. Chances of playing? I have absolutely no idea.

Tags: Brozek, Group A, Lech Poznan, Poland, Robert Lewandowski, zurawski

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Comments

By kacinski | June 17th, 2009 at 10:55 am

well, I think a transfer wouldn’t be a bad thing, however it depends where. If he were to accept a transfer to the Premiership or Serie A that would be stupid, since he wouldn’t get any playing time. However if he went to a half-decent belgium team or even the league in the Netherlands, that would be a pretty good deal.

Posted from United States

By a | June 17th, 2009 at 11:45 am

I have mixed feeling about Robert Lewandowski’s move abroad. I’m confident that he will succeed and continue to get better. However, its hard to ignore the terrible EK failures of the past. I wish him the best of luck. He’s a smart kid, he will make the correct decision.

To add to what was being discussed in the last post. Scouting abroad is a priority. However, the PZPN should put greater importance on identifying talent in our country first. It seems like guys that go through the ranks usually never become anything special. Not a lot of them stick around. Talk about picking names out of a hat to begin with. Then we see guys that were never given a shot for the national team early in their careers become better players when its all said and done. Case in point, Robert Lewandowski. He was only discovered when Beenhakker noticed him. He played one game for the u21 team and that was it. I’m sure that if they put their efforts at evaluating our talent better and focusing their resources properly we would not have to convince anyone to play for us. Is Artur Lenartowski another example?

There must be something to Blazej Augustyn. He’s been around a few big clubs early. Could this be a case of potential unrealized? Let’s see how he fares in the Serie A.

By zaraza | June 17th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

Augustyn didn’t play much for Rimini since he was injured for most of the season but apparently he showed potential:

“Great discovery, a little ‘cumbersome in tight space, but attentive and fast on the average space. On review, hear talk at length about him.” (from Google Translate)
http://www.goal.com/it/news/5/serie-b/2009/06/06/1309758/promossibocciati-ancona-rimini-pagano-fa-sognare-i-romagnoli

Bolton fans also said he had a lot of potential, and they were disappointed when he rejected a new contract.
Legia was dumb to write him off after one or two mistakes, he could have turned into a great defender for them if they had been patient with him.

Posted from Canada

By zaraza | June 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

No response to my email about Koscielny…. And the Polish media still keeps omitting him from their lists of players who could potentially play for Poland.. They list the most obscure players but for some reason ignore someone who has just sold for 1.5 million euros…

Posted from Canada

By Alek | June 17th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

@zaraza

Actually I did see an article on sport.onet.pl a few days ago that mentioned Koscielny and that he is eligible to play for Poland.

By Mateusz | June 18th, 2009 at 2:05 am

One young kid that hasn’t been mentioned for the future is the son of former national team captain Tomasz Waldoch.

http://www.schalke04.de/2353.html

he is a few years away, but plays for Schalke’s Under 17’s..

If he is half the defender his father was he will be great. Tomasz played 74 caps and was often very consistant at a time when we had allot more defenders than we do now of quality such as Hajto, Jacek Bak playing in Lyon/lens, Tomasz Klos at Kaiserslautern, Michal Zewlakow, Tomasz Lapinski, Rzasa at Feyenoord, Jacek Zielinski

Posted from Australia

By Tomek | June 18th, 2009 at 5:33 am

Very, very good. Robert has nothing more to learn in Poland. He’s good enough to succeed in a team like Dortmund.

Posted from Netherlands

By msudzi | June 19th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

When the race started in Poland he was no where to be found, good players step up not back. What has he done for the national team hardly nothing. He surely didnt dominate in Poland like Brozak has a couple goals in the polish league hasnt showed me shit, all the potentail in the world but unproven. Unless he is bored with the boring polish league.

Posted from United States

By zaraza | June 19th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

Alek, maybe he showed up in one list but most Polish fans are still not aware of him. When I type his name into Google news, I get NO results from Polish news sources:
http://news.google.ca/news?um=1&ned=ca&hl=en&q=site%3Apl+%22laurent+koscielny%22
However, there’s a number of Polish articles on Boenisch and Acquafresca, and even Kasmirski who has already said that his Polish connection is fairly distant:
http://news.google.ca/news?um=1&ned=ca&hl=en&q=site%3Apl+%22sebastian+boenisch%22

Mateusz, I agree, Kamil Waldoch is definitely someone to keep an eye on.

msudzi, Lewandowski is not the finished product but he is way ahead of where Brozek was at the same age. Brozek only managed I think 5 goals at his age.

Apparently Portuguese side Vitoria de Setubal want to take Michal Janota on loan. He should go, he would probably get regular playing time.
http://www.fr1908.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3266

Another possible loan move: Augustyn on loan to Reggina in Serie B.
http://www.reggiotv.it/news.php?id=9657
I think he should accept the offer, right now he has little chance of breaking through at Catania since he barely played last season. But if he gets some experience at Reggina, then he’ll be in much better shape to challenge for a place in Serie A.

Posted from Canada

By zaraza | June 19th, 2009 at 9:34 pm

Eurosport claims that Eintracht Frankfurt is offering 2m euros for Jodlowiec:
http://www.eurosport.pl/pilka-nozna/serie-a/2008-2009/jodowiec-do-frankurtu_sto1978990/story.shtml

Fakt claims that Sochaux offered 1.2m euros for Rzezniczak:
http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1993000,14,piec_milionow_zlotych_za_obronce_legii,item.html

West Ham are apparently interested in Malecki:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/westham/5576160/West-Ham-interest-excites-Patryk-Malecki.html

Posted from Canada

By a | June 20th, 2009 at 1:24 pm

http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/publications/uefa/uefamedia/83/97/47/839747_download.pdf an interesting read.

Lech Poznan earned 356,000 euro. Poland earned 680,000 euro as part of the payments to the national associations for clubs involved in the UEFA cup.

Wow, this continues to amaze me. Did you guys hear what Jan Urban said about Blazej Augustyn’s transfer to the Serie A? This douchebag should not be allowed to evaluate talent at all. I think that Urban’s ego is hurting his duties at Legia Warsaw.

By rydzynski | June 20th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Racing de Santander fired their coach today or yesterday. Maybe this is a good thing for Smolarek…hope so

By a | June 21st, 2009 at 2:24 pm

“Anderlecht are tracking Polish striker Dawid Janczyk (22), who is currently on loan at Lokeren from CSKA Moscow.”

However, I can’t confirm the source.

By zaraza | June 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm

The disrespectful comments towards Augustyn are puzzling to me. I mean, I’ve never seen him play, but the fact that Bolton, Rimini, Catania all saw potential in Augustyn and wanted to keep him should say something… Napoli were also keeping tabs on him according to Italian reports a few months ago. So why did he struggle at Legia, was it an attitude/discipline problem?

I’m not sure a Belgian club, even Anderlecht, would be able to buy Janczyk… it was mentioned a while ago that CSKA Moscow refuse to let him go for less than what they paid for him.

AC Milan have invited a 10 year old from northern Poland for a 7 day trial. This kid, Kacper Chodyna, was born in May 1999 but usually plays with kids born in 1994 and 1995 because he’s so far ahead of his peers.
http://ligowiec.net/news/24446-10-latek-z-dalna-jedzie-na-testy-do-ac-milan.html

Posted from Canada

By Tomek | June 22nd, 2009 at 1:27 am

msudzi, what are you talking about? He scored consistenly in both halves of the ekstraklasa, 14 goals in total. Plus 4 goals in Lech’s UEFA cup run.
And 3 goals for Poland (in 9 apps). While only being 20 years old, a beginner in football terms.

Your hero Brozek might have scored more in the ekstraklasa (19 goals), he only scored 1 in Wisla’s UEFA cup run. And he has the same amount of goals as Robert, but he needed more apps (16). Also he’s already 26 years old, so he’s currently or close to his prime.

Now I’m not saying Brozek is a bad player, but Lewy looks much more promising to me.

Posted from Netherlands

By zaraza | June 22nd, 2009 at 2:27 am

http://www.sports.pl/reprezentacja/artykul.asp?Artykul=51833
Beenhakker still hasn’t talked to Obraniak about representing Poland… Lato isn’t doing anything either to convince him to play for us. What on earth are those clowns getting paid for?

Posted from Canada

By Tomek | June 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 am

Stupid Beenhakker. I’m confident he won’t even go to Greece, or pull out another list of random players out of his ass.

Posted from Netherlands

By chester | June 22nd, 2009 at 9:58 am

I swear if this shithead doesn’t call up Obraniak and he doesn’t get the boot I probably will stop watching the nt matches.

By Witold | June 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 am

More and more Belgium newspapers send Janczyk to Anderlecht

By a | June 24th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Bravo to Mr. Lato for seriously talking about implementing the 6+5 rule. I would even take it a step further and make it mandatory to have two footballers in the lineup under the age of 21. That would force teams to focus on their young players more. I would prefer to watch the younger players with more upside play than a bunch of has-beens. That is how you start producing talent. You never know one of the kids might turn into something special if given the chance to play regularly. The EK has been notorious over the years at not allowing the kids to make mistakes and learning from them at that level. If you think about it, if they can’t play at the EK level when they are young then there really is no hope of them becoming something special later on. Then maybe if they move abroad and start playing against men it wouldn’t be such a rough transition. Considering how weak the scouting of talent is in Poland, what do they have to lose.

By Tomek | June 24th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

Yup, Lato has been pretty decent so far, no idea way many Polish fans are complaining about him despite him not doing anything bad yet.

BTW off topic but USA beat the European champions Spain. Need I say anything more?

Posted from Netherlands

By adas | June 25th, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Yes, you can ask why Poland doesn’t show that kind of heart when they play.

By Tomek | June 25th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

They do. Once a year/2 years. Last time was winning against the Czechs, and before against Portugal.

Posted from Netherlands

By Paradowski | June 25th, 2009 at 4:00 pm

South Africa 0-1 BRAZIL

Didn’t see it, but read South Africa played a tough game, maybe too cautious, against Brazil and had chances to win it. This makes the S. Africa – Poland friendly seem not too bad. (unless you saw it of course, as the players looked like they didn’t care or try at times).

Posted from United States

By adas | June 25th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

I saw it, and to say South Africa deserved the win wouldn’t be a lie. They outshot Brazil, and had the better chances. They just couldn’t get a good result from their shots. Brazil stole it late off a free kick. Its probably the best that South Africa ever played, and they were frustrating Brazil non-stop. It was a really good game.

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