Szczęsny comes out of retirement to save Barcelona from goalkeeping crisis

Following the injury of their first choice keeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Barcelona desperately needed a world class goalkeeper to fill the big shoes left by Ter Stegen. And that shoe was filled by an unexpected player, Wojciech Szczęsny who recently announced his retirement after his 252nd game for Juventus.

To the Footballing world, he is no stranger to big games but would he be the one to save Barcelona from this crisis. Here’s what to look forward to after his sudden move to Catalonian club.

An impressive resume

Starting his youth career in Legia Warsaw, going through the Arsenal youth set-up, he made 132 appearances for the Gunners, Between which he played for Brentford where he played 28 games and AS Roma on loan where he replaced Allison Becker after his move to Liverpool, he played 72 games for AS Roma in the two seasons he was at the Italian club.

The next move in his club career was his most important yet, on 19 july 2017, Szczęsny signed for Juventus for 12  million initial fee. Although he was initially signed as a backup for Gianluigi Buffon but after the retirement of their legend, Juventus needed someone to fill the shoes left by Buffon, which he was able to do, just that he made 252 appearances for Juventus across 7 years in Turin.

He was capped 84 times for his country between 2009-2024. He represented his country in two world cups(2018 and 2022)

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Inspired to come out of retirement

After signing for the club he gave his initial thoughts through mundo deprotivo. He said that he was very proud to be playing for Barcelona and he wouldn’t come out of retirement for any other club. He felt the love of the fans in the first couple of days in the Catalan club.

Although he initially had doubts about joining the club, the club president as well as his fellow Polish teammate Robert Lewandowski, were able to convince him to be back playing football. He seems to be more than just ready for the challenge. It is nice to see a player, being inspired to player for your club just out of passion and love for  the club.

It’s a very proud moment. I was honestly ready for retirement and I was happy there so I wouldn’t do this for anyone else.

– Wojciech Szczęsny

Is he the right man for Barcelona?

It is natural to see questions being raised about considering to be a goalkeeper for one of the biggest football clubs in the world, that too after seeing the first choice goalkeeper being out injured, isn’t the best scenario when he joins a new club. But Szczęsny is no stranger to big games.

Throughout his career, he faced many top clubs in the world so he has proved that he can handle the pressure. Playing for Barcelona is always a big task but Szczęsny is more than capable of taking care of the helm.

Why Szczesny can be blessing in disguise

Barça fans have every reason to have doubts about their new goalkeeper considering that their no. 1 Ter Stegen have been in between their posts for almost 10 years now. But still there is some positives to look into, for the last few seasons the goalkeeper has been receiving a fair share of criticisms and deservedly so, his performances in big games hasn’t been the best to say the least.

Just recently in the champions league, Barcelona went down to 10 men against Monaco after he played a lose pass to Eric García which led him to grabs Minamino from going through on goal, thus receiving the red card Leading to Barça losing 2-1.

After the match Ter Stegen faced many criticisms and fans even started to bring up his previous blunders. The fans were angry about the fact that they were playing very good in all the other aspects of the game and were probably going to win the game.

Considering Barcelona’s failure in the champions league in the last few years, it isn’t surprising to see some fans pointing finger to the goalkeeper that was there in practically in every game. It is fair to assume that some change might actually be for the better.

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