The biggest success of the year in Polish sport: the reign of Iga Swicztek
Exploitation of Iga Switchtek, who won 68 matches in a season and broke the record. The Warsaw native won 6 tournaments and her most valuable scalp was, of course, Roland Garros and the WTA Finals, after which she returned to the world tennis leader, overtaking eternal rival Aryna Sabalenka.
1. Iga Schwetek and Hubert Hurkac were surprised! “I don't know how he does it”
The biggest success of the year in Polish football: Lech Poznan in the quarter-finals of the Conference League
Although last year was poor, almost forgettable for the Polish national team, club football performed well, both in spring and autumn. Leh came to the fore, defeating Bodo Glimt in February and IF Djurgardens in March to reach the quarter-finals of the Conference League. In the battle for the semi-finals, “Kolezhorts” had to concede the superiority of Fiorentina, who went to the final, where they narrowly lost against Lukasz Fabianski's West Ham.
In history, Leh has never reached the quarter-finals of European competitions. It was a similar success to the 1990/1991 season, when it reached the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, then the European Champions Club Cup.
Match of the year: Legia – Aston Villa 3:2
It was football poetry. With good pace, drama and perseverance of the people of Warsaw. The Premier League team made up for the defeat twice, but after Ernest Mucci's second goal, the Ekstraklasa team, which was then in the third ten leagues in the UEFA rankings, came out victorious.
Thanks to this victory, among other things, Ekstraklasa climbed to the 20th place in the above ranking and surpassed Croatia, which was out of our reach for a long time.
The worst match of the year: Moldova – Poland 3:2
One of the biggest shames in the history of the Polish national team. On June 20, Fernando Santos' players were leading 2-0 after the first half, but in the second half they played without aggressiveness and lost 2-3. It was not the first time that Santos failed to get into the minds of the players who had gone on holiday in Chisinau. It was an even greater embarrassment than the memorable 0-1 against Slovakia at the Silesian Stadium at the end of the disastrous 2010 World Cup qualifiers, or the 2-3 against Northern Ireland in the same qualifiers when we lost, among others. After Artur Boruch's shot, Michał Żewłakow cleared the ball.
Quote of the Year: Antony Piecznik and “You'll Have to Go to the Coffin”
“In general, Polish football is in such a state that if another scandal like this breaks out, we will either have to go to the coffin and it will all fall apart, or everything will burn” – Antoni Piecznik, commenting on Polsat Sport Robert Lewandowski's September interview for Eleven Sports. So far, nothing has worked, but nothing has fallen apart either.
Embarrassment of the year: The Fernando Santos flop and the PZPN testimonials
Fernando Santos and his decline in the Polish national team
Once again we have lost faith in foreign magic. At first, everything was like a fairy tale: we hired a famous and titled trainer. It quickly became clear that he could not reach an agreement with the players, he could not manage the bonus scandal in which Lukasz Skorufski and Robert Lewandowski publicly accused each other, and most importantly, he did not allow it. Any young player has a debut. In addition, he was too far from the extra-class matches and too cold, so he appeared there only out of necessity and very rarely.
Scandals surrounding the Polish Football Association
In terms of communication, it started by warming the image of Fernando Santos, then vulnerable to failure and tarnished after the bonus scandal. Then the avalanche started. The football hit of the year was “Zizuzi zizuzaj” by Miroslav Stasiak, convicted of corruption, at the party of the Polish Football Association before the match against Moldova in Chisinau.
When the scandal of taking Stasiak to the official delegation broke, the Polish Football Association was further immersed in the suicidal communication that it was the idea of ”one of our sponsors”. This led to an avalanche of protests from these sponsors, with some wanting to cut ties immediately, and probably all kicking themselves before continuing.
Then came the famous interview of President Cesari Kulesa, who declared on RMF FM that “there should be vodka at dinner, but not everyone should drink it. There are those who don't.” “Gazeta Wyborcza” described how wine culture was replaced by vodka culture in PZPN. This image was complemented by the description of Tomasz Wlodarczyk from Mechik, how a clever union, with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, transported the “Sea of Vodka” to the World Cup, in a country where its consumption is prohibited.
The union was hit by the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of its longtime spokesman and manager, Jakub Kwiatkowski.
Each time, President Cesari Kulesa's reaction was straight out of “Goodfellas”: “I'm sorry, but I didn't know anything about that. Stasiak? I don't know this man at all.” It is interesting that the head of the largest and richest union never knows anything about it.
dramas of the year
The fight for the life of David Kubak's wife
When Mrs. Marta Kubaka's heart refused to cooperate, not only Poland, but the world ski jumping community held its breath. David Kubak had to stop his career to be with his wife and daughters. Fortunately, Mrs. Marta recovered enough for her husband to return to jumping.
Prof. Janusz Filipiak
One of the most serious businessmen ever to appear in Polish sport suffered a stroke on September 30, hours before Krakow's players were to play an away match against ŁKS. Emergency resuscitation did not help much. The Krakow president and owner of Comarch's main shareholder was in critical condition. Without oxygen for a long time, his brain could not function properly. On December 17, even worse news came that the professor had died. This is a blow to Polish football and domestic business. The professor's family, led by his wife Elzbieta Filipiak, is doing everything to ensure that both the club and the company develop without any obstacles.
Surprise of the year: the promotion of the Polish hockey team to the elite world championship
When it seemed that the best years of Polish hockey were long behind, coach Robert Kalaber's players fell into the shadows. At the IA Division World Championship held in Nottingham, they defeated the Italians and Koreans and entered the elite. Their previous such success was in 2001, when they overcame tournament hosts France in the promotion race under coach Victor Pisci.
The best scorer of the tournament, Christian Dziubinski, was nominated as the best athlete of the year in the plebiscite of “Przegląd Sportowy” and “Polsat Sport”. This is the first such distinction for a hockey player since Mariusz Cherkawski.
Unshakable of the Year: Bartosz Zmarzlik
He became world champion for the fourth time, winning the particularly exciting Speedway Grand Prix 2023 series. He is only one title away from the best in history in this regard, Tony Rikardsson (the Swede won five of them).
Bartosz has shown extraordinary resilience on his way to his latest success. During the sixth round of the competition – the Swedish Grand Prix, he fell and hit the barrier hard, for which he was disqualified from the race. In addition, he only finished third in the semi-finals, which ended his streak of eight consecutive finals. As if that wasn't enough, the Pole was disqualified from the Danish Grand Prix for not having the race sponsor's logo on his overalls.
The decision caused a lot of backlash, and speedway drivers showed solidarity. His most dangerous rival, Frederik Lindgren, especially supported Bartosz, even though he took advantage of the Pole's exclusion. Zmarzlik was also defended by Martin Vakulik and Leon Madsen. Exclusion from the Green Table did not destroy Bartos. At the last edition of the Grand Prix in Toruń, Bartosz showed his class and supported the competition in the final, winning his fourth world championship title.