The battle for the European title starts on 11 June with a year delay. In the coming period, Voetbalzone will be highlighting a player every week who you should pay attention to during EURO 2020 or who has a special story. The second episode focuses on Kacper Kozlowski, who will experience his first European Championship at the age of seventeen. That’s a small miracle, given that he was involved in a car accident eighteen months ago and was sidelined for six months.
By Chris Meijer
As always, Kacper Kozlowski got into the car on January 10, 2020 with his young teammates Maciej Zurawski, Oskar Kalenik and Marcel Wedrychowski on the way to Pogon Szczecin’s practice. The then sixteen-year-old attacking midfielder was without a doubt the greatest talent of the foursome that was in the white Skoda at the time. A few months earlier, he had made his debut at the age of fifteen in the Ekstraklasa, the highest level of Polish football. On that day, at a crossroads in the drizzly Szczecin, Kozlowski’s promising career seemed to come to an end with a bang.
The driver of the white Skoda was surprised by an SUV that suddenly appeared from a side street. The car of the players of Pogon Szczecin hit the side of Hyundai, leaving little of the front. Kozlowski, who was sitting next to the driver, got off the worst. He had to stay in the hospital for observation for several days, where a broken pelvis and three broken vertebrae in his lower back were found. Although it became clear that his injuries were not threatening to his career, a somewhat complicated rehabilitation awaited. He had to wear a special corset for weeks, which would heal the fractures in his back.
“After the accident I was a bit depressed and had moments when I had doubts. But it got better every day. I think this could happen to anyone, ”said Kozlowski in conversation with Super Express. Opposite Goal he spoke of a ‘difficult time in his life’. “I couldn’t train for almost six months, the worst thing that can happen as a young player. But the moment I could start training individually again, I got the feeling that I was getting things back on track and everything was going in the right direction. I focus on the here and now, not the past. It’s not nice that I missed a number of games. But to be honest, I’ve been working harder than ever since then. Maybe it will help me mentally in the future. ”
Kozlowski has provisionally played 24 official matches in Pogon Szczecin’s main squad.
Kozlowski returned to the field in preparation for this season and is now experiencing his breakthrough year, having initially started with the second team. That breakthrough has been predicted since he entered Pogon Szczecin at the age of thirteen. Kozlowski chose not to play in a club until the age of ten, because until then he liked playing football with friends on the street. At his first club, Baltyk Koszalin, they immediately realized that Kozlowski had special talent. During practice, he was put against a team of six with one teammate to make sure it was a fair game. Kozlowski was that far ahead of his teammates. After three years, Kozlowski turned out to be no longer tenable for Baltyk Koszalin, who saw Pogon Szczecin win Lech Poznan in the battle for his pearl.
“He entered the youth academy with confidence. Not arrogant or obnoxious, in that respect he is well balanced. He’s not exaggerating. It helps him on the field. For example, he is not afraid to dribble or solve it in some other way. You often see young footballers with qualities, but most players cannot use them during matches. Their minds take care of this, they intuitively opt for easier solutions. Kacper doesn’t have that, his head is connected to his feet. He just knows he’s good. Such a boy is born once every few years. So far I have never dealt with such a talented footballer. Don’t think that these words affect him, because he can handle sounds from the outside world, expectations and pressures just fine. It even motivates him to work even harder ”, said youth coach Patryk Dabrowski about Kozlowski in conversation with Sport.pl. Kozlowski grew within two years to his debut in the first team of Pogon Szczecin.
At fifteen years, seven months and three days, he became the youngest player ever in the Ekstraklasa in the match against Cracovia on 19 May 2019, although that record has now been broken by Kacper Urbanski who already made his debut at fifteen years, three months and fourteen days. made for Lechia Gdansk. Before the car accident in January 2020, Kozlowski then played three more times as a substitute for Pogon Szczecin, but this season trainer Kosta Runjaichem used him in fourteen of the total twenty games he played as a starting player. Typically as one of two attacking midfielders in his 4-1-4-1 system. “From an early age, Cristiano Ronaldo has been my idol. But lately I have also started looking at Paul Pogba more and more, I think he is a good player. I think I can give the team more as an offensive midfielder, but I can also do my job defensively. ”
“I work on both the offensive and defensive aspects of my game,” said Kozlowski in an interview with Goal. “But I feel better in a forward role. I am a player who takes risks and likes to get into a one-on-one situation. I would still like to improve my long shots and maybe my choices in certain situations. It feels no different for me to play at the first now, I approach the matches the same as in the youth. It gives a great feeling to play with such good players at this level, I have learned to make choices much faster on the field. For now I would like to give something back to Pogon. Then I want to play abroad and get more chances with the national team of Poland. ”
The question is whether Kozlowski will still play for Pogon Szczecin after this summer. Polish national coach Paulo Sousa surprised by calling him up for the Polish national team for the first time in March, despite the fact that he was not always a basic player in the number three of the last Ekstraklasa season. Kozlowski made his debut in the World Cup qualifying match against Andorra (3-0 win) for Poland and surprisingly enough, Sousa also got a place in the final European Championship selection, in which, for example, 83-time international Kamil Grosicki is missing. “Of course it was a difficult decision,” said Sousa. “Kamil has a lot of experience and has contributed a lot to the national team. However, we are looking at a different development path for this team. It’s not about age, but about quality. And Kacper has enormous potential. ”
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The European Championship selection of Poland.
Kozlowski’s name has already been associated with Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Torino and Saint-Étienne. If it is up to Jaroslaw Mrcozek, president of Pogon Szczecin, Kozlowski will also play in Poland next season. “There are many offers for it Koziolek. But we have a good relationship with his agent and parents, ”Mrcozek told him Sport.pl. “They know that you have to build a career calmly. If we send him to a club in the west now and get some money for it, his talent could be lost. He is a sensitive boy and has a lot of support from our trainer. ”
Interest in Kozlowski could just multiply if he makes minutes at the European Championship. If that is the case, the attacking midfielder will be the youngest player ever at a European Championship at seventeen years old. That is currently Jetro Willems, who was 18 years and 71 days old during the match between the Netherlands and Denmark at the European Championship 2012. If that record is out of the books, the title of youngest ever goalscorer (now Johan Vonlanthen with 18 years and 141 days) at a European Championship is still within reach. Still, the spotlights in Poland – which will face Spain, Sweden and Slovakia in the group stage – will not be on Kozlowski during the European Championship, as Robert Lewandowski has the best striker in the world at its disposal. With Kozlowski, there seems to be a top talent ready to take over from Lewandowski in the long run.
Episode 1: The Dilemma of the Man Who Once Got £ 125,000 to His Gambling Grandpa
Episode 2: The heir to the ‘clown in the sweatpants’ who mirrors Van der Sar
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