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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Shower smokes for everyone today
I wish I’d known we were going for that homage before I broke both my arms in the gym this morning…
Apparently the broken arms story is a myth.
It’s not a myth – https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/szczesny-s-horror-injury-revealed-by-wenger-2163486.html
Apologies Andrew. I should never have doubted 😔
He’s still my all-time favourite Arsenal GK (didn’t see the best of Seaman).
Oh man… Seaman was a beast. Not only my favourite Arsenal goalkeeper, but easily my favourite goalkeeper of all time.
Yeah he was. My best Arsenal memories are from the David Seaman era.
It will always be Pat Jennings for me. I guess just because he was the 1st Arsenal goalkeeper I remember. But Seaman was a beast.
Always had a soft spot for Jimmy Rimmer myself 😜
Has to be Jack Kelsey for me. I remember his debut at Highbury against Charlton in 1951 like it was yesterday. 🙂
Unfortunately, first time I saw Seaman, it was the Ronaldinho’s long distance humiliation.
For some weird reason it’s Alex Manninger for me.
Great keeper.
And very funny video ‘it happened again…’!
I love to see that ex Arsenal players are still massive gooners.
Santi, Theo, Podolski, Szcz… didn’t exactly play through the most glorious time in our history.
But the club embedded itself in their hearts and they are still die hard to this day.
Lovely to see.
If we win the league or the CL, former players who refer to the club as “they” like Adebayor, Nasri, Gallas, RVP will compete with Ian Wright.
Loved him. We should have kept him and not brought in Cech. He could still do a job for us as a reserve keeper.
I suspect wages would have been an issue as a reserve but would have enjoyed having him back.
Surprised you guys didn’t get some Oasis puns in the article. Based on the names of Wojciech’s kids, something tells me he’s a fan. Anyway, Some Might Say he should’ve stayed at Arsenal for his whole career. He might have never left if he weren’t such a fan of Cigarettes and Alcohol. I was sad to see him go, but I guess you just have to Roll With It. Don’t Look Back in Anger, I say. It’s sad to see him retire, but I suppose nobody can Live Forever. I hope he stays in football and doesn’t Slide Away into… Read more »
Cigs yes, booze – no, not really but I see what you did here 😉 He’s a very special personality but always professional when it came to performing on the pitch. Also never realised the Oasis thing 🤣
He was like a wonderwall in goal.
He’s definitely prime Sunday team goalkeeper though. Just see him warming up with a fag in his mouth and a bottle of beer instead of a water bottle
Chesney is class. Oasis are shit
Whatever
Blur all day long
Enough of that mancunian City-loving horseshite, this is a Blur and Bowie and Pink Floyd and Zeppelin town and yes @blogs, Phil Collins too.
So I can definitely say Szczesny always performed pretty well Under Pressure even if he did occasionally Have a Cigar and dump his Ashes to Ashes in the shower.
That said I appreciate how after that accident he made such a great career for himself Against All Odds, so even if him leaving Arsenal left me rather Comfortably Numb at the time I still have A Whole Lotta Love for him.
We never should’ve let him go. Cech was already finished when we brought him in. Curiously there’s an info circulating the Polish media, that Wojtek was really close to joining us this summer. Reportedly he didn’t quite like the role Arteta had for him and the wife was another reason 😉 All in all, he did what he wanted and the way he wanted. As always.
Old man chez would been ideal but as you say probably wouldn’t play into the team ethos.
Going to be hard to get a decent backup keeper
Given my name is Wojciech too, and the fact I live in English-speaking country, I will be forever grateful to Szczesny for putting name ‘Wojciech’ on the map. At least this is the case for Arsenal fans, and everyone else he rattled over the years 😉 There are just not that many well-known Wojciechs out there! I will never forget how at one of the Arseblog book signings in Dublin, I asked Mr Blogs if I need to spell my name, and Andrew just said ‘nah, it’s alright’, and proceeded to perfectly spell my name in the book! Felt very… Read more »
I remember that!
Lovely stuff Voycheck!
😁😁😅
Thing with Polish names are the consonant clusters.😀
Stopped most things, bit of a loon, worthy heir to Mad Jens. Still rings odd that smoking was the last straw, I’m sure we’ve tolerated far worse professionalism issues. Anyway, congrats to him on a well above average career.
I don’t think it was the smoking.
Watch that goal again. See the way he flaps inaccurately like he can’t really see the ball? Then, once it’s in, he sits down and starts sucking on his water bottle while looking like he’s nursing a thumping headache.
That, for me, is a guy still massively hungover from a New Year pissup, for whom the pre-game cold shower and gallon of lucozade is wearing off.
Wenger would *never* have forgiven that.
Continue to soar to greater heights, Szczesney.
Blessings ❤️🙏🏾
Keep his number in the rolodex this year, Sr. Arteta.
How quickly time slips away. There he was a young and promising keeper in the best London team. We, Polish supporters,loved the Szczęsny, Fabiański,Podolski and (of polish origin) Kościelny contignent ! I also think replacing him with Petr Czech wasn’t the best decision . Thanks for some truly amazing memories of that era. Greetings from Poland.AW