Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny’s recent retirement may be cut short. Multiple reports are now linking him to a move to Barcelona to be an emergency replacement for the injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Barcelona were hit with a blow when ter Stegen injured his knee in their match against Villarreal while claiming a cross. With ter Stegen going down, Barcelona’s goalkeeping corps are down to Inaki Pena and Diego Kochen. Given Hansi Flick’s front foot attacking style, it’s important to have a keeper that he can trust between the sticks because Barcelona are going to give up shots just because of how they play.
Without ter Stegen, someone who can single-handedly win games for Barcelona, it makes sense that they’d look to dip into the free agency market. The German has been a strong presence in net but now could miss the season pushing Barcelona to pursue getting Szczesny out of retirement. The former Juventus man announced his retirement less than a month ago in a surprising move considering that he’s only 34, which is relatively young in goalkeeper years.
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Juventus moved into their next era of goalkeeping by signing Michele Di Gregorio which left Szczesny with limited options. Already speaking out against going to Saudi Arabia, and with top clubs in the world having their keeping corps set, that’s what sent Szczesny to retirement.
“I have no shortage of money in my life. I prefer cool challenges and defending the Juventus goal is the coolest challenge I can give myself,” Szczesny said in an interview with TVP last summer. “I know that I am and will be a Juventus player unless they don’t want me here. I am attached to this club and I respect their decisions.”
Taking that into account, what’s a better challenge than stepping in at Barcelona with a chance to win La Liga, the Champions League and more? It’s a perfect mesh of desires and adding Szczesny will help lessen the blow of losing ter Stegen. A keeper who will save most of the shots that he’s supposed to save and a few that he isn’t expected to, Szczesny won’t be someone expected to win Barcelona games on his own, but with their high powered attack he also doesn’t need to. What he is, is a player who is no stranger to playing games at the highest level and competing for the biggest trophies in club football.
Barcelona are perfect in La Liga play scoring 22 goals in six matches played only allowing five. That provides plenty of cushion for whoever is in defense but Champions League is when Szczesny will need to be at his best. It’s a competition that he has plenty of experience in while also getting the opportunity to show Juventus that he still has it as well. The situation couldn’t have developed better for the Polish keeper, now he’ll just need to perform.
