Is Jagiellonia Bialystok going to become the ‘second Leicester City’? The Yellow and Red are back in 1st position!
Jagiellonia Bialystok’s performance was not the greatest last season as they battled against relegation, finally finishing safely in 11th position. What was the reason? Jagiellonia did an amazing job the year before during the 2014-15 season, finishing in third and gaining a place in the Europa League.
They came narrowly close to becoming Champions of Poland, but Legia Warsaw took their dreams away. In one of the last games of the season, the referee had blown his whistle when Jagiellonia’s player accidentally touched the ball in the last seconds of the game. Legia Warsaw’s footballer Orlando Sa scored and Jagiellonia lost 1-0 and the dream of becoming champions ended. Upon analysis of the game, many experts found the referee should not have done that.
During the Europa League campaign last season, Jagiellonia qualified to the second round, but unfortunately the team lost to Omonia Nicosia 1-0. As the club is small, their key players had caught the attention of bigger and richer clubs and the offers were too much to turn down. Losing Patryk Tuszynski and Nika Dzalamidze to Caykur Rizespor, Michal Pazdan to Legia Warsaw and Maciej Gaios to Lech Poznan had severely weakened the team. New signings had been made but struggled to settle into the team.
This season is different. The Ekstraklasa table looks very surprising. Jagiellonia Bialystok have spent a long time in first position, so can this season be different from the others and they win the championship? If Jagiellonia hold on to win their first Ekstraklasa, it will be their greatest achievement in their history. Currently they share top spot with Lechia Gdansk with both teams on 36 points and six points ahead of the rest of the teams, but with the rest of the season to play another team can still spoil the party.
Jagiellonia will need to be careful for the remainder of the season, with many mistakes being made by the referee. The coach, Michal Probierz has begun to argue with the referees each time a mistake is made, which cause the team problems as the season continues. On the 4th of December Jagiellonia played a home game against Lech Poznan. A win would mean going back into first, but they not only did they need to play their opponents, but they had to face the referee as well. He accused Jacek Goralski of fouling Tomasz Kedziora; the decision was wrong. It was the other way round. After this free kick, Lech Poznan’s player, Pauluus Arajuuri scored to put the visitors ahead. However, Jagiellonia showed their spirit and won 2-1 returned to the top of the League.
Will they have a chance to become the Polish version of Leicester City’s story? Only time will tell.
Meet Jacek Goralski, a new star of the Polish national team
Jacek Goralski, 24, plays in midfield for Jagiellonia Bialystok. He joined the team last season and made an instant impression on the fans. His teammates and fans have started calling Goralski ‘Piranha’ or ‘Pit-bull’ due to his style of play. His rise at club level was rewarded when he was called up to Poland’s national squad for the World Cup qualifying games against Slovenia and Romania.
Goralski made his debut during Poland’s 1-1 draw against Slovenia, where he made an impression on the commentators, fans and most importantly the manager, Adam Nawalka. Goralski received his first full cap when he started in the next qualifier against Romania. Poland won 3-0 and Goralski showed his potential playing alongside more experienced teammates such as Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak. Goralski showed his dominance in tackling and game awareness.
Jagiellonia’s midfielder is a very tenacious player. Once he approaches the ball, he won’t let anybody take it away from him. Goralski recently said, “when I play, I try not to kick the opponent and I look and focus on the ball only. If I hurt him somehow, I apologise straight away. That’s never my purpose”.
Nicknames used by his teammates and fans make him laugh, but he is just taking it with a pinch of salt.
“Those nicknames were created during my time at Wisla Plock, so I got used to them. However, I am not going to lie, I prefer when they call me ‘Goral’ (a nickname created out of his last name)” says the Jagiellonia Bialystok’s midfielder.
How did it all start? Football doesn’t run in the Goralski family, but he always enjoyed playing with his friends. His family, wanting to encourage this enjoyment took him and his brother to a football academy.
“When I was eight years old, my father took me and my brother for our first training session. We loved it; I had always been thinking that football is something that I want to do in my life. My brother ended his football experience at age 15, but I have decided to continue it and here I am” Goralski speaking about his first experience in football.
Goralski has constantly had to work hard, with many people saying at five foot six inches he was too short for football. This never stopped his determination to play; it only gave him more resolve to prove these people wrong and in doing so inspiring the next generation. Whilst at Wisla Plock, Goralski received encouragement from the manager who firmly believed height didn’t matter.
Under this support, Goralski grew as a player and now could become a key player in Poland’s national team.
Santa Claus in a football kit! Players try to provide the perfect Christmas for poor kids
Christmas is meant to be a happy and exciting day for everybody. We usually celebrate it with our loved ones, enjoying the lovely time when the whole family have been finally put together. Unfortunately, not everybody can be as lucky as we are. There are many families, who can not provide a proper Christmas for their children. Simply due to the lack of money.
‘The Noble Package’ is a very famous project in Poland. Every year, around Christmas time, people prepare a parcel for one family that they have chosen. It became a really popular thing amongst athletes as well. The Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski, takes part in this project every year.
Lewandowski says “Helping with this project has become something normal for us, we do it every year. I hope, that those receiving gifts will be the beginning of a new, better life. I believe that ‘The Noble Package’ project is an act of kindness that will be spread all over the world. I am extremely happy that we can be involved in this.”
Polish National Team became the first group of donors in the 16th edition of ‘The Noble Package’, this is how footballers want to inspire other Polish people to help families living in poverty. This year they prepared their parcel for a single woman, who is raising three kids on her own. Amongst the gifts they could receive items that are really needed, such as food, clothes or cleaning supplies.
One of her sons was dreaming about a scarf saying POLAND. Footballers made his dream come true and gave him a scarf with signatures of the whole Polish squad. Also, they have decided to put an additional gift in the parcel, a medal. Players wanted to show the family respect and tell the mother of three that they really appreciated her courage. Although the situation is very hard, she does not give up and she is fighting for a better future for her and her children.
Grzegorz Krychowiak tried to wind everybody up recently. He did very well to be honest! I believed this myself. What is the story? Krychowiak, Paris Saint-Germain’s midfielder has posted a photo with his girlfriend a couple of days ago. In the description he was asking his fans to give them three female and three male names to help them.
Fans and the media thought that his girlfriend Celia Jaunat is expecting a baby, so they started to congratulate the young couple. The footballer explained everything a few days later, he wanted his fans to pick names, so he can choose two kids to get help from him and his girlfriend. People could not complain, Krychowiak’s intentions were good and nobody blames him for this little misunderstanding. How could we? That was actually a very good trick, he was trying to make everybody pay attention to this project.
It is great that those guys are trying to make something good for other people and they are using their fame as a tool in spreading kindness. Thanks to their actions more people will be spending this Christmas with their faith in humanity back.
Cristiano Ronaldo – sharing is caring
Cristiano Ronaldo’s childhood was not easy. His father was an alcoholic which caused his early death. CR7’s brother Hugo was also a drug addict. When Ronaldo first started earning money, he provided his brother professional treatment that could help to fight his addiction. We can easily say that Ronaldo has been growing up in poverty and had to face many problems as a child. Maybe these sad experiences had an influence on beginning his charity activities.
We might love or hate Ronaldo, but we all have to agree, this man is really open-handed. Rumours say that the Portuguese striker playing for Real Madrid earns around 20 million euros a year. That is a massive amount of money. However, he spends a lot of his salary on helping charity organisations, mostly ones that look after seriously ill children. He is also well-known for contacting families of these kids individually.
One of the most popular examples is the story of a young Polish Real Madrid fan, Dawid Pawlaczyk. The 14-year old boy was hit by a car while riding his bike. After the accident, doctors claimed that his chances to survive were really low. Dawid’s parents were truly devastated. He was in a coma for over three months. His parents had never given up hope that their son would wake up. Always putting the football on the television in his room. One day, when Real Madrid was playing and his idol, Ronaldo scored a goal, Dawid has finally woke up. One of the Polish newspapers, Fakt, decided to share this incredible story with Ronaldo. He got back to them immediately, claiming that he is willing to meet this young lad. Thanks to the newspaper and his agent, Jorge Mendes, Dawid Pawlaczyk’s dreams of meeting his idol came true. Ronaldo invited the young fan and his parents to Madrid. He paid for all the travel costs and gave them VIP tickets, so they could watch Real Madrid playing Borussia Dortmund at Santiago Bernabeu, from one of the best seats in the stadium. Ronaldo and Dawid met face-to-face after the game finished, Real Madrid’s forward was asking many questions about the boy’s current condition and invited him to see another game. CR7 also gave him the football kit he wore during the game.
Not a long time after he has changed Dawid’s life, Ronaldo surprised again. He was asked to donate his signed shoes and ball, so parents can raise money and pay for 10-months old Erik Ortiz Cruz’s brain surgery. They received them all, plus additional Real Madrid’s gadgets. There was another surprise though. Ronaldo has decided to cover all the costs of Erik’s surgery.
He can be seen as an arrogant and self-confident man, but there is only one thing he has for sure, it’s called empathy. CR7 is unable to ignore people being suffering and that show what kind of person Cristiano Ronaldo really is.
Top 5 of sex scandals in football in 2000’s
Young, rich and handsome- football players all well known for having an ability to sleep with whoever they want. They usually have the most beautiful wives or girlfriends. Apparently that is not enough and they want to keep on trying new things. Sometimes hooking up with a random beauty seems to be boring for them. Footballers need more of an excitement- so they decide to hire escorts or.. steal their colleagues’ women. That is the short list of the most interesting and surprising stories regarding to football players being cheaters.
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BAYERN MUNICH
Former Bayern’s players- Oliver Kahn and Steffan Effenberg have been both cheating on his wives, so nothing like that can shock football fans from Munich. Those two former players are good examples, but current Bayern Munich is not any better. The biggest scandal was involving French midfielder- Franck Ribery and an underage prostitute- Zahia Dehar. Once he even sent a charter to pick her up. At that time Ribery was married and having sex with a prostitute, who did not turn 18 yet ruined his image. However, Bayern Munich got used to this sort of scandals and Franck Ribery did not face any serious consequences.
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Cristiano Ronaldo
Young Portuguese player is the sex symbol for many women in the entire world. He can pick any girl he wants and there is no chance she will refuse. One of his targets was Paris Hilton. He met her on his holidays spent in Los Angeles and they landed in bed same night. Apparently Ronaldo did not enjoy time spent with Paris, because they never met each other again. Maybe his expectations were a bit too high! CR7 is well known for having fun with prostitutes. When Cristiano was playing for Manchester United, him and his friends were inviting girls to his mansion and organising “sex parties”. However, his long-term relationship with Irina Shayk build his image up.
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Brazilian Ronaldo
Let’s stick to “Ronaldo” name. Il Fenomeno also likes to pay girls for having fun with them from time to time. The worst “faux pas” he made was back in 2008. He left his girlfriend alone at home, found 3 prostitutes and took them to the hotel room. He did not expect one thing. When he started getting rid off their clothes it turned that all of them are.. MEN! A massive argument started- “prostitutes” wanted money for keeping the silence, but Ronaldo refused giving them any money, so they spread the story.
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John Terry
His reputation has been permamently damaged and John Terry will never be able to fix it. Back in 2005 when Terry was engaged with Toni Poole already, he was caught by reporters on “having fun” with a 17-year old girl in his car. His wifey forgave him, but instead of improving, John started an affair with his teammate- Wayne Bridge’s fiancée just after captain tied his knot with Toni.
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James Pearson, Tom Hopper and Adam Smith
Those 3 young lads will be always regretting this massive mistake they made. When the team was visiting Bangkok, they have decided to know the “Thai culture” a bit better and they invited prostitutes to come over. The orgy has been recorded on one of the phones and unfortunately for them it went viral somehow. We were able to hear in the video how players were racially abusing which made the case even worse for them.
These sex scandals are nothing new- it has always been an issue and I do not think there is any way to make them stop. The stories we know are probably just a small percentage of what is happening in silence.
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