Wojciech Szczesny announces retirement

Wojciech Szczesny has announced his retirement from football at the age of 34.

The Poland international looked set to join Saudi club Al Nassr but when the deal collapsed he decided to terminate his contract with Juventus by mutual consent.

In becoming a free agent, the goalkeeper alerted a number of clubs to his availability but he’s decided the time has come to draw a line under a professional career that started at Arsenal and included loan spells with Brentford and Roma before seven years in Turin.

Szczesny was part of Arsenal squads that won FA Cups in 2013/14 and 2014/15 and later caught the tail-end of Juventus’ dominance of Italian football where he won three Serie A titles and three Coppa Italias. He also earned 84 caps for his country.

While European honours evaded the Pole, the fact he became a fixture at the Old Lady – a club renowned for their defensive prowess – suggests Arsene Wenger was right to predict big things.

“We have identified Wojciech as a future great, great goalkeeper,” said the Frenchman in 2009.

That Wenger was happy to make such a bold statement was all the more impressive given Szczesny’s career nearly ended before it began after a freak accident in the Arsenal gym left him with two broken arms when he was only 17.

He recovered to make his debut in the League Cup in 2009 and after half a season at Brentford returned to the Emirates for the 2010/11 campaign to challenge Lukasz Fabianski and Manuel Almunia for the number one shirt.

To say his first few months between the sticks were eventful is an understatement, they included the famous 2-1 win over Barcelona, a horrible (and costly) cock-up in the final of the League Cup against Birmingham and a draw at Newcastle after the Gunners squandered a 4-0 half-time advantage.

Despite the initial roller coaster ride, Wenger liked what he saw and kept faith with the teenager who played every minute of the 2011/12 campaign. In fact, despite Szczesny (and his dad) occasionally testing the manager’s patience, he remained the Frenchman’s preferred keeper until January 2015 when a ridiculous decision to smoke in the showers after an error-laden performance at Southampton led to a big fine and relegation to the bench.

Ironically, having watched Arsenal win the FA Cup in 2013/14 from the sidelines because he was Wenger’s first-choice keeper, his ill-discipline led to a run in the competition from the fourth round of the 14/15 edition and he kept a clean sheet in the final as the Gunners beat Aston Villa 4-0 at Wembley. It was his final appearance for Arsenal.

After Arsenal recruited Petr Cech from Chelsea, Szczesny joined AS Roma on loan for the 2015/16 season. He proved to be a success in the Italian capital and extended his stay by a further year before joining Juventus for €12.2 million. He was initially in and out of the side as the great Gianluigi Buffon wound down his career but made at least 28 appearances in Serie A in six consecutive seasons between 2018 and 2024. The high point came in 2019/20 when he was voted Italy’s goalkeeper of the year alongside winning the title.

When it became clear that Szczesny was going to leave the Allianz Stadium this summer, there were plenty of Arsenal fans hoping he’d return to the Emirates in a backup capacity. Whether he’d have been a good fit for Mikel Arteta’s non-negotiable era is up for debate, but he’d certainly have been popular given his history of mercilessly trolling Sp*rs.

 

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