Robert Lewandowski has announced he will not play for Poland again under the current manager, after losing the captaincy, but a report has claimed that might not prove the unpopular decision that many might have expected.
Poland coach Michal Probierz made the decision to replace Lewandowski as national team captain with Piotr Zielinski, with the Polish football federation stating: ‘The coach personally informed Robert Lewandowski, the entire team and the training staff of his decision.’
However, Lewandowski’s response via social media was swift.
’Considering the circumstances and the loss of trust in the Polish national team coach, I have decided to step back from playing for the Polish national team as long as he remains the coach,’ Lewandowski said.
’I hope I will have the chance to play again for the best fans in the world.’
As the greatest player his side has to offer to the world with a huge goal tally across the game and the trophies to match, the casual observer might see his absence as a bitter blow to Poland’s fortunes.
Yet a report from Polish outlet Onet has suggested that the rest of the playing squad had ‘already had enough of his swagger’ and that had the captaincy been decided by popular vote, it would not have ended up with Lewandowski.
Things seem to have come to a head in March when Poland laboured to a 2-0 win over minnows Malta with Lewandowski on the bench due to his fitness.
Reports claim he would however ‘storm into the locker room’ after the game and berate both players and coaching staff, before publicly voicing his criticisms, stating he would not ‘sugarcoat’ the state of play.
He had criticised the lack of young players in the squad at the time, hinting that there were perhaps either no pathways for youngsters, or not enough quality was coming through from the youth teams to improve the side going forward.
’Look, we have matches with Lithuania and Malta, and there should be five 18, 19, 20-year-olds at the training camp,’ he said.
’And apart from Kacper Urbanski, there probably weren’t any. This also shows that we have what we have. We have to focus on this material, develop it and get the most out of it.’
There had already been suggestions that the former captain was saving himself for Barcelona’s title run-in, and he later withdrew from the June camp, too.
Yet he was still present for Friday’s game against Moldova, when Kamil Grosicki bid farewell to the national team after 95 appearances.
Another Polish legend in Zbigniew Boniek didn’t react to well to seeing Lewandowski still on the scenes despite insisting he couldn’t feature for his side, and the former Juventus icon didn’t mince his words.
’If you are the captain of the team, you are responsible for it. It is not just about taking the team out and putting on the armband,’ the former Polish FA president said.
’I think that coming to Grosicki’s farewell match was an image parachute.’
Lewandowski is not with the current Poland squad, with the Barcelona player citing physical and mental exhaustion after a long season as the reason for his absence.
’Returning from injury, I told coach Probierz that I did not feel good physically, but especially mentally,’ Lewandowski told Polish media earlier this week, when asked about his decision.
The 36-year-old is Poland’s highest goal scorer with 85 goals for his country in a record 158 appearances, and had held the captaincy since 2014.
Probierz replaced the sacked Fernando Santos as Poland manager in 2023, taking them to Euro 2024 where his side were the first team to be eliminated.
The PZPN said Probierz will respond to questions on the situation in a press conference on Monday.
Poland defeated Moldova 2-0 in a friendly on Friday and are away to Finland in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday, taking them top of their group, though Netherlands have played one fewer game.
Source: dailymail.co.uk/sports
