Wojciech Szczesny, 34, is Barcelona’s choice to replace the injured Ter Stegen, who will be out for the season after undergoing surgery on Monday to tear his patellar tendon. The Polish goalkeeper, who retired after the last European Championship in Germany, has agreed a contract with the Catalan club and will be paid “a low salary, between two and three million euros,” according to sources from the sporting management. Szczesny, however, is still waiting to resolve the situation with his former club, Juventus. An issue, in any case, that Barcelona is confident will be resolved. In fact, Barça’s communications department hopes to announce Szczesny’s signing on Thursday.
When Juventus closed the signing of Di Gregorio last summer, Szczesny not only understood that his time at the Vecchia Signora was over: he wanted to retire. A situation that was not looked upon with disapproval by the Turin club, which was looking to reduce its wage bill and the Pole was one of the highest-paid players. Therefore, when the goalkeeper, who did not want to be Di Gregorio’s backup, suggested the idea of terminating his contract that ended in 2025 at Juve, they agreed to pay him six million. “Today, my body still feels ready for the challenges, but my heart is not there. I feel that it is time to devote all my attention to my family. That is why I have decided to retire from professional football,” Szczesny justified his decision.
He was not deceiving. He did not want to listen to offers from Qatar and took refuge with his family in Marbella. But the unthinkable happened: Ter Stegen’s knee creaked against Villarreal and Barcelona needed to find a goalkeeper who was unemployed. “Of those who were without a team, Szczesny was the one who was not most interested. Last year he had played many games for Juventus and had a very good Euro Cup with his national team,” explain the Barcelona sports department. And faced with the offer from Barcelona, Szczesny understood that it was a good opportunity to postpone his retirement. First, however, he has to agree with Juventus on compensation of around two million euros.
The Pole, who had arrived at Juventus to replace the Buffon legend, played a total of seven seasons at the Vecchia Signora: 233 goals conceded in 252 games. Before that, he had played for Roma (95 in 81), Arsenal (194 in 181) and Brentford (29 in 28). “I left Warsaw, my city, in June 2006 to go to Arsenal with a dream: to live off football. I didn’t know that it would be the beginning of the adventure of my life. I didn’t know that I would play for the biggest clubs in the world and that I would represent my national team 84 times,” he said on social media the day he announced his retirement.
Barcelona were looking for an experienced goalkeeper to replace Ter Stegen. “It’s not that we don’t trust Iñaki Peña,” the club said. However, Barça did not want to take any risks. “Our other two options are very young players,” the same sources explained, referring to Diego Kochen (18 years old) and Ander Astralaga (20).
The idea of the Barça sports department is to meet with Hansi Flick on Thursday to discuss the signing of Szczesny. And once his release clause with Juventus has been settled, the goalkeeper will undergo a medical in Barcelona. According to one of the people in charge of the sports department, Szczesny is an economical and reliable solution for Barça to replace Ter Stegen. The Pole is backed by his CV.
