Barcelona’s Szczesny Eyes Glory After Surprise Return to Football
From Marbella to the Copa Final: Szczesny’s Storybook Season Keeps Rolling
At the start of the season, nobody — not even Wojciech Szczesny himself — would’ve imagined this. He had packed up his gloves, moved to Marbella, and looked content trading pre-match drills for golf swings. The plan was to step away. Quietly. Maybe for good.
Now? He could lift his second trophy as a Barcelona player this Saturday in Seville, when the team faces Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. There’s something about the path that’s both chaotic and perfectly timed, as if it couldn’t have unfolded any other way.
He doesn’t fit the mold of a typical modern goalkeeper — or modern athlete, really. The headlines haven’t only been about clean sheets or reflex saves. They’ve also followed his quirks: meditation, off-the-cuff interviews, and yes, the occasional cigarette. But those things don’t overshadow what he’s doing on the field. If anything, they’ve somehow added to it.
“It might turn out to be one of the best stories,” he told ESPN. “We’ll talk again at the end of May. Maybe then I’ll know for sure.”
Whether or not this is his last chapter isn’t entirely clear. Barça’s sporting director Deco mentioned that there’ve already been talks about extending his contract past the summer. That might mean competing with Marc-André ter Stegen once he returns from injury — but it doesn’t seem like Szczesny is focused on next season just yet.
Right now, he’s got his eyes on finishing strong. The Spanish Supercopa is already in the bag. The UEFA Champions League semifinal against Inter Milan looms, and LaLiga’s still within reach. Five matches to go. Four points ahead. It’s tight — but not impossible.
“We’re in everything,” Szczesny said. “This is the fun part. You start to feel it now.”
He had already retired, remember. It took a call from Robert Lewandowski to get things moving. Then came Deco. Then came everything else.
At the time of his retirement, he said his body still felt up to the challenge — but his heart wasn’t quite there anymore. Watching Barça’s fresh, ambitious squad lit a spark. Players like Lamine Yamal, Pedri, and Raphinha gave him reason to reconsider.
“At first it was… strange. Too fast. But I looked at this team and thought: if they go far and I stayed in Marbella, I’d never forgive myself.”
His re-entry wasn’t smooth. He sat on the bench for 14 matches. Then finally debuted against Barbastro in January. A red card followed soon after — and a couple of shaky moments in a Champions League thriller against Benfica. Coach Hansi Flick backed him publicly, silencing the usual speculation about Iñaki Peña taking over.
From there, something shifted. Barcelona kicked off 2025 with a 24-game unbeaten streak. Szczesny played in 22 of them. Had they avoided defeat to Borussia Dortmund last week, he would’ve tied Johan Cruyff for the third-longest debut unbeaten run in club history.
Now 25 matches in, he’s recorded 13 clean sheets. A few months ago, some questioned whether he could function behind Barça’s dangerously high defensive line. That conversation’s gone quiet.
“This is different. Very aggressive style. High risk, high reward. You’ll mess up. I got sent off in my third match. That’s just what happens. But you adapt, or you don’t.”
Fans chant “Szczesny fumador” — smoker Szczesny — which, oddly, has become an affectionate nickname. Even at his birthday party, Anna Lewandowska snapped a picture of him wearing a hat with “fumador” scribbled beneath the brim. He jokes about it, shrugs it off, but doesn’t hide it. Nor does he recommend it.
“It’s a bad habit. I shouldn’t. I know that. But it’s who I am. I can’t pretend.”
His teammates seem to respect that blunt honesty. Pedri calls him funny. Szczesny doesn’t quite understand why. “I don’t know. If I tried to explain my humor, it’d sound like stand-up. Also, I don’t think Pedri speaks that much English,” he quipped in a presser.
What might surprise people is how calm he looks on the pitch. “He never seems rattled,” said Eric García. “It’s reassuring.”
That composure comes from meditation — a practice he began while on loan at AS Roma. Those were hard days, with his Arsenal future in doubt. It stuck, though. Now it’s routine.
“Ter Stegen’s kid thought I was sleeping once,” he recalled. “I just sit with my eyes closed. Everyone’s moving around, blasting music, and I’m still. That’s how I get ready.”
Come Saturday, that’ll likely be the scene again: Lamine Yamal blasting Morad, Iñigo Martínez dancing, Lewandowski singing Ozuna. And Szczesny — calm, eyes shut, breathing through it all.
“Every story has an end,” he posted when he retired last summer. “But every ending is a new beginning.” He didn’t know what was coming — or how soon it would arrive. Now, he’s just riding it, one match at a time.
