Portuguese footballers lure fans and destroy defences in Poland

Portuguese footballers lure fans and destroy defences in Poland

In a special feature Polish journalist Marcin Ostrowski explains to PortuGOAL why his home country has become something of an Eldorado for Portuguese footballers.

Marcin also runs the rule over how the sizeable contingent of players who have made the journey from Portugal to Poland have been performing this season. 

 

For many years, the Portuguese language could be heard on the pitches and in the dressing rooms of Polish football clubs, but it was almost exclusively its Brazilian dialect. Like in most football loving countries, Polish managers and chairmen admired players from the nation of the five-time world champions and were eager to import their share of Brazilian talent. It provided varying degrees of success. The crazy project of Antoni Ptak, then Pogoń Szczecin's chairman, to build a team consisting solely of Brazilian players, ended with relegation of the recognised club. On more positive note, individual Brazilian players were often key figures in Polish clubs and Roger Guerreiro, who played for Legia Warsaw between 2006 and 2009, was even capped by Poland 25 times, including at Euro 2008 where he scored the only Polish goal in the tournament.

Relative financial stability of Polish clubs in recent years and troubled economies in many European countries has resulted in an influx of footballers, who were considered beyond the reach of Ekstraklasa teams just a couple of seasons ago. Among them is a not very numerous, but interesting Portuguese contingent. Most of them came to Poland from Cyprus, when around 2013 Aphrodite’s Island ceased to be financial Eldorado for foreign players. Of course they weren’t players who could earn a place in squads of top Portuguese clubs or in the strongest European leagues, but with an increasing number of smaller Primeira Liga clubs struggling to make ends meet, offers from the Polish Ekstraklasa started to become an interesting option.

 

No winners in shootout of the Portuguese strikers

Last week gave Polish fans an opportunity to watch two games between Legia Warszawa and Śląsk Wrocław, clubs who employ the most popular Portuguese players in Ekstraklasa. In the first of these clashes, a domestic cup quarter-final second leg in Warsaw, spectators could see as many as five Portuguese players, four of them in starting line-ups - significantly more than in this season’s Clássico between FC Porto and Benfica. Sadly, this game wasn’t the best advertisement of Portuguese players, despite involving two forwards fighting for the Polish Golden Boot and a third, who would have joined the race if he had not lost autumn because of injury.

Legia striker Orlando Sá - the most famous of Polish based Portuguese - had an anonymous game and was substituted in the half time. Sá was Legia’s extremely effective and a somewhat frustrated “super sub” in Autumn, continually starting games from the bench despite scoring regularly (for more about Orlando Sá’s situation visit this article). After the sale of Miroslav Radović to China in February, Sá became Legia’s undisputed number nine, but many fans have come to the opinion that he was better in his ‘joker on the bench’ role. It definitely doesn’t suit the ambitions of a striker who is considered a potential member of Portugal’s squad.

Legia’s starting line-up also included Dossa Junior, a 28-year-old central defender who was born in Lisbon but plays for Cyprus after a successful four seasons at AEL Limassol. Dossa Junior is an important presence in Legia’s backline but against Śląsk he was very lucky to escape being sent off. The third Portuguese in the home team that evening was Hélio Pinto, who only played the last eight minutes of the extra time. Pinto was brought from APOEL Nicosia with a reputation of a midfielder, who can play both as a number ten and in a more defensive position, but he hasn’t convinced in either of those roles so far.

 

Brothers have “Passion” but lack cold blood

Even if Legia’s Portuguese players were unconvincing against Śląsk, they couldn’t match the “achievement” of Śląsk Wrocław's Paixão twins. Marco Paixão scored 21 goals for Śląsk last season and when he got injured his brother Flávio replaced him so successfully that before the Thursday game he was Ekstraklasa top scorer with 13 goals in 22 games. Despite this impressive league record, both Portuguese forwards were thwarted by Legia goalkeeper Dusan Kuciak in the penalty shootout, causing Śląsk’s elimination from the cup. Fans reacted immediately, suggesting that the likeable brothers can’t handle the pressure in decisive moments. Football statisticians were scratching their heads trying to find out if ever before in the history of Polish football had both twin brothers missed penalties in the same shootout, while one of Twitter users sarcastically joked that if all Portuguese footballers took penalties like the Paixão twins, England would have reached the semi-finals of major tournaments twice in the 2000s.

 

Marco makes up for his penalty miss with a league goal but Śląsk lose again

Less than 70 hours after the 120 minutes of the cup tie in Warsaw, Śląsk and Legia met again to play a league game in Wrocław. Śląsk started this game in 4th place, five points behind league leaders Legia, hoping to reduce the gap. After the cup exit, the Lower Silesia club needs to finish this season in 3rd to qualify for the Europa League. Both Paixão twins played in their usual positions: Marco as a striker, Flavio - still the league’s top goalscorer - on the right wing, as has always been the case since his brother came back from injury. Legia quickly scored two goals after corner kicks and seemed to control the game, when Marco Paixão’s header just before half time revived Śląsk’s hopes and extended the drama of the game until the end. It finished 1-2, however, leaving Śląsk in fourth but now eight points behind Legia.

There wasn’t much Portuguese impact on the Legia victory though. Norwegian manager Henning Berg likes to rotate his squad constantly and on Sunday he only fielded Portuguese midfielder Hélio Pinto, who was substituted shortly after half time. Orlando Sá spent the whole 90 minutes on bench. Dossa Junior was not even in the match squad.

 

Portuguese trio plays role in Saturday sensation

Legia v Śląsk can be considered an authentic Portuguese derby in the Polish Ekstraklasa nowadays, but one cannot ignore the achievement of modest Zawisza Bydgoszcz as the league’s bottom club surprisingly won at the ground of much higher esteemed Wisła Kraków. Zawisza’s form was disastrous on autumn but a good start to spring has revived fans’ hopes that with large slice of luck, Ekstraklasa can save themselves from relegation. The Portuguese trio of André, Mica and Alvarinho - who scored the only goal - played their fair share in what definitely was the most surprising result of the weekend in Polish football. These players may be anonymous for most Portuguese football fans, but they are slowly building their reputation in Poland.

 

Portuguese players in Polish Ekstraklasa (as of 8 March) listed in order of number of league games in 2014/15

Flavio Paixão (right winger/striker, Śląsk Wrocław) - 23 games, 13 goals

André (centre back, Zawisza Bydgoszcz) - 19 games, 1 goal

Alvarinho (left winger, Zawisza Bydgoszcz) - 19 games, 3 goals

Hélio Pinto (central midfield, Legia Warsaw) - 17 games, 1 goal

Orlando Sá (striker, Legia Warsaw) - 15 games, 10 goals

Dossa Junior (centre back, Legia Warsaw) - 8 games, 3 goals

Mica (central midfield, Zawisza Bydgoszcz) - 7 games, 1 goal

Marco Paixão (striker, Śląsk Wrocław) - 6 games, 3 goals

 

By Marcin Ostrowski

Our thanks to Marcin Ostrowski. For more from Marcin follow him on Twitter @seixalense.