After a week filled with speculations, FC Barcelona finally announced the signing of Wojciech Szczesny earlier today, with the goalkeeper arriving as an emergency replacement for the injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The 34-year-old shot-stopper was convinced to come out of retirement to join Barcelona and has signed a short-term contract until the end of the current season.
Szczesny on whether he will be the first-choice goalkeeper
Before the transfer was finalised, a lot of speculations floated around claiming that Szczesny had set a condition that he would join Barcelona only if he would be the regular starter ahead of Inaki Pena.
However, the 34-year-old dismissed those notions during an interview with Foot Truck (h/t SPORT) today, stating that he is only there to help the team and is not worried about whether he will be the first-choice or the backup.
“I have no guarantee that I will be number one in goal. I’m not number one today. And I won’t be number one next week either because I still need some time,” he said.
Continuing, the former Poland international added: “In football, there are no guarantees to play in the first team. First, you have to fight for a starting place, and then you have to keep it.”
Szczesny also confirmed that he had held no conversations about his role with manager Hansi Flick as of yet, saying:
“I haven’t had any conversations with Hansi Flick about my role in the team. Barça just told me clearly that they need my help, and I think I can help them. That’s the end of it.”
The veteran goalkeeper made it clear that he wants no misunderstandings about his true role in the Barça dressing room and that he is there to support Inaki Pena.
“Barça asked me to help them and I will do it, but the coach will decide if my experience will be on or off the pitch,” he said.
“It could also be that I lose in the duel for the starting goalkeeper’s job. I’ll say more: if I lose and Iñaki Peña plays brilliantly, I won’t even be sad.”
On his fitness level and debut
Szczesny may have signed for Barcelona today, but the goalkeeper insisted that he is still unclear as to when he will make his debut as he needs some time to be match-ready.
“Honestly, I have no idea because I don’t know how long it will take me to get back in goal,” he said when asked about his debut.
“Physically I am not in bad shape, but I will need time to get into the rhythm of the dressing room and to get my eyes used to the speed of the ball. This is often the biggest problem after a break from football,” he added.
However, Szczesny did add that he had done some preparatory work with a goalkeeping coach from Juventus not long ago, although admitted to not having trained with the ball since last month.
“I had a work session with the Juventus goalkeeping coach, who came to see me first for a week in Warsaw and then for two weeks in Marbella. So I could say that I went through a three-week preparation period,” the Barcelona new signing remarked.
“It’s true that in September I didn’t train with the ball,” he concluded.
