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Why Polish footballers are shining in Serie A?

From Piątek to Szczęsny, the Italian championship is increasingly full of talents from Poland

Why Polish footballers are shining in Serie A? From Piątek to Szczęsny, the Italian championship is increasingly full of talents from Poland

The first tendency, when going abroad for any kind of experience, is to find someone who comes from our own country. Spirit of survival, lack of some uses and customs, simple convenience, call it what you want. This phenomenon is something instinctive, it is a similar fact must also have happened in Genoa, Sampdoria bank.

Quasi sicuramente, once he arrived in Liguria, Kownacki immediately sought the company of his compatriots Linetty and Bereszyński, and the same goes for Milik: the first phone number asked, perhaps, was that of Zielinski. Separate personal relationships, probably there was a word of mouth, because the number of Poles in Serie A, in recent years, has increased considerably.

 

Piątek in the spotlight, but the colony is even fuller

The Poles, lately, have returned to occupy the front pages of national newspapers especially thanks to the Piątek's explotion: the striker had already enchanted in the first half of the championship with Genoa, then his move into a more blazoned team like Milan he did nothing but increase his fame. At the moment, the number 19 rossonero is definitely the most popular Polish in Serie A (against Empoli scored its eighteenth season goal). It is the novelty, the first phase of falling in love, probably the most beautiful. But the colony coming from Eastern Europe certainly does not stop at the Pistolero.

Other giant names: Szczęsny from this season sturdily defends the Bianconeri posts after collecting Buffon's legacy, Milik and Zielinski are two holders of Ancelotti's Napoli, with whom they permanently occupy second place in the standings. Three players in different ways, three Polish jewels on which the big Serie A have decided to invest a lot. From one department to another: they also like the Polish defenders, to the Italian teams. Once there was captain Glik in the center of the rearguard of Turin, but today we console ourselves with Thiago Cionek (SPAL) and Salomon (Frosinone). Well also the full-back front, with Jaroszyński (1994 class of Chievo) and the aforementioned Bereszyński to defend the category.

And again: the Bologna goalkeeper is Skorupski, while in Verona there is Stępiński who is trying to stop the long reign of Sergio Pellissier. The other offensive reserve of a hypothetical Italian-Polish formation could be Teodorczyk, who among other things recently found his first goal in Serie A with the Udinese shirt. Close the list Reca (left-back, Atalanta), Drągowski (goalkeeper, Empoli, on loan from Fiorentina) and Walukiewicz (right-back), just bought by Cagliari during the winter market window.  We instead greeted Kownacki in the market in January 2019: he went to look for luck at the Düsseldorf.

 

Why so many Polish players in Serie A

Reasoning for clichés is wrong, but in these cases we often hear about some general characteristics that players of other nationalities have in common. And so the Brazilians are all fancy and fantasy but have little desire to apply, while the Argentineans give everything to the shirt. Then there are also the Uruguayans and their famous garra charrúa. Ok, but the Poles? 

To answer this question, I decided to address a Polish friend of mine by asking him what was the minimum common multiple of his nationality. In short, according to him, the Poles are generally like soldiers, ready to receive orders and to sacrifice themselves for the common cause. A total, methodical application, perhaps also influenced by the Catholic education that many of them have received since childhood.

The reasons of the many Polish players in Serie A can be partly found in these common characteristics, which make them certainly interesting to the eyes of any coach. The reasons for these multiple arrivals, however, must also be sought elsewhere. Compared to the companies of the other major European championships, at the moment the Italians have less economic strength. The younger talents, with rare exceptions, are "opted" almost immediately by huge clubs for disproportionate figures (see Real Madrid with Vinicius Jr), and this happens especially for some areas of the world (South America, Belgium and Portugal, for example).

 

And the discourse is also true (perhaps above all) for the lower-middle-class teams, who are thus forced to tack on other fertile land, as also explained by Il Post in a recent article. One of these is certainly represented by Poland, which in recent years has made more modern models and facilities thanks to the 2012 European Championship. The last player to get from Ekstraklasa in Serie A was Piątek, a purchase that proved to be decidedly guessed by Genoa.

Waiting to discover the name of the next Polish to fall madly in love, in the meantime those already present in Serie A are having a lot of fun: on the twenty-fifth day of the championship, they have scored 46 goals. The Italian teams, meanwhile, enjoy their talents and continue to look around. With the binoculars always facing East, of course.