Wojciech Szczesny must have the feeling that he lives in a dream.
Last August, the former goalkeeper of Arsenal withdrew from football at the age of 34 and perhaps prepared to consume the season of Champions League content on MailOnline.
Now he is preparing in the semi -final for Barcelona – after answering their desperate plea for him to resolve their goalkeeper crisis of the beaches and golf courses of Marbella in October.
Szczesny does all this on his own eccentric terms -he still chain skirts in the changing rooms, even though he puts him into trouble with Arsene Wener in Arsenal, and helps to write texts for his Ukrainian pop star -woman Marina Lunkoo.
The best part is that he has only lost one match. The former Poles Stopper has won 22 of the 26 games in which he played, with 13 clean sheets being kept, so that Barcelona's ride to a potential four -fold under manager Hansi Flick is fueled.
He already has the Spanish cup and super cup under his belt, leads their leadership to the LaLiga title and will try to close Inter Milan in the semi-final of the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
All this must be a surprise and with some envy for Arsenal fans, who knew Szczesny as a sympathetic, solid, but not worldwide-knocking keeper. Not someone on course for a quad because they had trouble making the Champions League.
And when he retired in August after he left Juventus, it seemed that his long-term dream of winning Europe's Premier competition was extinguished. How quickly things change.
'We will see if it is one of the best [football stories ever]”The 35-year-old told ESPN. “It's interesting. It can be one of the best. We will see when we talk at the end of May. '
This unlikely story began when Barcelona's first choice kept Marc-Andre ter Stegen in October a lame knee injury in a 5-1 routing Villarreal routes.
The German was depicted in a wheelchair after the game and the cruel realization hit the fan base in the face like a wet fish: he is a gonner. Months later he recently returned to the team.
They had loyal deputy Inaki Pena – who indeed held his place for a few months after Szczesny had signed – only needed an experienced stock market through the door. That's how they called the former Arsenal -man.
“At first I didn't know, it was so fast, too random,” he told ESPN. 'But I looked at the Barcelona team and I thought: can this team do something special this season? Yes. Will I be able to live with myself if I say no and they do something big? No.
“If I saw this Barcelona team from my bank in Marbella, knowing that I could be part of it, I wouldn't forgive myself.”
He had been on the golf course when Ter Stegen suffered his blow. Old friend Robert Lewandowski tested the waters with the first phone call before Hands-on Sports director Deco made the pipe dream much more real.
Only weeks earlier, Szczesny had explained his pension by claiming that his body still feels ready for challenges, but my heart is no longer there. '
Well, he quickly got that heart rate back. Within 36 days of retirement, he was announced as the newest star of the Blaugrana. “Visca El Barca (Long Live Barca!)” He told fans in a video message. So far a lack of enthusiasm.
Do not expect that he will follow the usual rules. Football clubs usually have a strict idea of ​​the fabrics they want their players to consume.
Wenger forbade Ketchup in Arsenal, Paolo di Canio took an ax to ice cream with drinks in Sunderland, and Paul Le Guen forbade Monster Munch at Rangers.
But smoking? You can't stop Szczesny. “There are things that I don't change in my personal life and it's no one of the business when I smoke,” he told Mundo Deportivo earlier this season after criticism from Spanish experts.
'I believe it has no influence on what I do on the field, I work twice as hard.
'If someone thinks I will change the way I am in my personal life, they can think again because I am who I am. I have been that way all my life. '
Since then he has admitted that it is a 'very negative' habit and others have advised not not to do it, but that has not stopped him. Fans now Chant 'Szczesny fumador' (smoker szczesny) after being seen that one was scammed in the dressing room after a 4-0 destruction of Real Madrid in October.
By his side on this crazy journey is his wife Marina, whom he married in 2016. She is a Ukrainian pop star who has worked with James Arthur. Marina moved to Poland two years old.
It turns out that Szczesny, who plays the guitar and piano, sometimes helps her to write texts. He wore the words to her song 'I do' in 2017.
“One evening I was bored, I listened to a melody composed by my wife and started writing some lines,” he said.
'Then I sent it to Marina as a surprise for her. I thought she would just blow it away, but she said it is cool.
“She tried to take it up, then we have made some changes, but the texts are mine!”
Marina had some success after he claimed the best debut album, while her duet with Arthur on 'Back from the Edge' received a certified double platinum from the Polish Society of Phonographic Industry.
Perhaps, however, she wants to hire another writer next to her husband. After she did not represent Poles in 2003 during the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, her best performing album in her adult career reached a peak of the 50th in the Polish charts.
She is clearly a popular personality, with her 1.1 million followers on Instagram alignment on her reports about their family life, holidays and updates about her music companies.
The duo has two children, Liam and Noelia, which led to speculation about him as an Oasis fan. Little Liam was even a fan of Real Madrid before his father drew for their Catalan rivals, although Szczny convinced him to rearrange his loyalty.
'When we played a super final, he supported Barca, so maybe he will start to repent. He has no choice, “he said.
In addition to his sounding success at Barca, there have been low moments.
January was difficult. He was sent to the Spanish Super Cup final for a wild challenge at Kylian Mbappe and a week later made two Howlers in a 5-4 victory over Benfica during his first Champions League start for the club.
But he proves that there is still living in the old gloves. Szczesny gives an average of a goal a game, a benchmark that could most dream of.
Meditation keeps him sharp. '[Ter Stegen’s son] I thought I slept once, “he said.
'Because I literally sit in a very relaxed position with my eyes closed and everything. It is a bit chaotic for a game, as it is always. Everyone is changed. This talk, this one is, I don't know, headphones, and I'm just there. And it looks like I'm sleeping. '
He has been so impressive that Barcelona wants him to stay after the summer.
'We are very happy with him and the role he plays in our campaign. He will certainly stay with us next season, “Deco said.
He hopes to write history before that time.