Bartłomiej Drągowski: The heir to the number one shirt at Borussia Dortmund?
Who is Bartłomiej Drągowski?
Born in the Polish city of Białystok, Bartłomiej Drągowski was exposed to the world of football from an early age. His father, Dariusz Drągowski had spent a good portion of his career with local side Jagiellonia Białystok; the very same club his son Bartłomiej began his footballing career with.
Drągowski rose through the ranks of the club and eventually made his first team debut for them in the Polish Ekstraklasa at the age of 16. In his first full season of professional football, he was named the best keeper in the Polish top flight, which eventually resulted in comparisons to some of Poland’s former greats. Polish goalkeeping legend Jan Tomaszewski was quick to heap praise on Drągowski after his first full season:
"“Can Drągowski be the second [Jan] Tomaszewski? Of course he can! He has great potential and I hope he will be a great goalkeeper. In some regards he is better than me at his age.” – Jan Tomaszewski, UEFA"
For the next two seasons, Drągowski’s status as the new Polish golden boy grew, and after a total of 69 appearances for his hometown club, his current side ACF Fiorentina came calling. Drągowski joined the Viola with much anticipation surrounding his move both back in his homeland, as well as in Italy. His first years with the club were far from easy, however. The Polish born keeper initially found himself third choice behind the likes of Ciprian Tătărușanu and Luca Lezzerini, and then eventually also picked up a knee injury just on the cusp of when he was expected to play the number two role between the sticks. The injury kept him out for a total of ten weeks, a trying period for a player so young and in need of game time. In an interview for Łączy Nas Piłka, Drągowski detailed the frustration of these first years, and the impact they had on his motivation to move forward with his career:
"“It’s hard to come to terms with sitting on the bench, but the coach always makes the decisions and you have to come to terms with it, though it is hard sometimes. I gave the absolute maximum from myself at every practice. It’s obvious that everyone has their weaker moments… Sometimes it was hard to train, and I found myself fighting with myself and the reality of the situation I found myself in.”"
It was clear that with the current hierarchy at Fiorentina, Drągowski’s talent wasn’t being allowed to unravel and grow. A breakthrough finally came in January of 2019, when the Polish born keeper sealed a loan move to fellow Serie A side Empoli. Empoli was a familiar place for Polish talent to develop, with compatriots Łukasz Skorupski and Piotr Zieliński both plying their trade at the club in the years preceding to Drągowski’s arrival. For Drągowski, his time at Empoli was a lifeline that finally allowed him to develop the talent that was so evident from the start.
"“Playing for Empoli is medicine for me, something that helps me rebuild myself and grow from game to game. I know that with every consecutive game I will be better. I will feel better on the pitch, though I think that after such a long period without game time I don’t look that bad. I don’t take note of bad performances and I know I will spend this loan spell in the best way possible.”"
Drągowski’s words would come to fruition. As a result of his hard work and impressive loan spell at Empoli, he was finally given his long awaited breakthrough at Fiorentina as their first choice keeper. Despite his initial struggles however, Drągowski’s time in Italy definitely helped him grow and expand his horizons on what it meant to play the role of a keeper.
"“I definitely didn’t expect so much tactics to go into playing keeper in every game [prior to my move to Italy]. In Poland, I was there to make saves, and thats all. From opening the game and even moving with the defensive line, there wasn’t much of a focus us on that in Poland. Here they really focus on keeping the proper distance between yourself and the defense.”"
His growth and development of his game has been extremely noticeable this season, with the Polish shot stopper impressing with Fiorentina, often keeping his team in the game in unexpected circumstances. Of note, he was part of a famous 3-0 win against Juventus this December, putting in very important saves against the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo after mistakes made by teammates led to clear cut opportunities, proving his maturity and ability to read the game and make decisive decisions to bail his team out of threatening situations. Performances such as this have given the player further acclaim, with former Italy international and Fiorentina keeper Emiliano Viviano comparing him to compatriot Łukasz Fabiański.