34 year old Polish international goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is a very well known name in both the English and the Italian domestic games, and across his four club career he has certainly tasted good success in the game of football.
Having started his club career at Legia Warsaw’s Academy, in 2006 he made the switch to Arsenal, progressing through their system to make his debut for them back in January 2009. Having quickly established himself as their No 1 after a loan spell out with Brentford for game experience, he went on to make over 150 appearances for the London club in his almost a decade with them.
He helped the side to two FA Cup final wins, a Community Shield and a League Cup runners up medal. In the 2013/14 Premier League campaign, he was the joint winner of the Golden Glove award – sharing it with Petr Cech.
Having fallen out of favour at the club, he spent the remaining two years out on loan in Serie A with As Roma, and in those two years he won enough plaudits and impressed plenty and Juventus picked up his services in 2017 for a £10 million transfer fee.
He proved to be a great bit of business for The Old Lady, and although his first season at the club saw him play second fiddle to the legendary Gianluigi Buffon, he impressed when called upon and when the Italian stalwart hung up his own gloves, the 84 capped international stopper made the spot his own and went on to make well over 200 starting appearances for them across all competitions – 252 games in total.
In earlier this month, it was confirmed that both he and Juventus had agreed to mutually terminate the remainder of his contract, and we now have confirmation of his decision to retire from the professional game.
His spell at Juve saw greater success as well, three Serie A titles, three Coppa Italia’s and two Supercoppa Italiana winners medals adorn his trophy cabinet, and he arguably should have won more major honours in reality.
His 84 Poland caps include playing at four European Championships and two World Cups.
“I didn’t just realise my dreams, I’ve arrived where my imagination wouldn’t even dare to take me. I played the game at the highest level with the best players in history without ever feeling inferior. Everything that I have and everything that I am I owe to the beautiful game of football.”
He went on to explain that although his body was ready for more challenges, his ‘heart is not there anymore’ so he would simply prefer to use his energies on other projects and spend far greater time with his family.
Whether or not he gets itchy hands and unretires remains to be seen, but even retiring early his career spans 18 years and he is just being honest with himself.
