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hi guys, so just as i promised, i translated the whole thing, first part comes now cause i just finished it and then i’ll get to the second part, enjoy! x

*When he was 3 he was even sleeping with a football*

*He’s open and always smiling*

*He was open to people, he was funny*

*I would hope for every coach to have such player*

*looking through the pictures* “Long time ago…”

Kazimierz Piszczek, Łukasz’s dad: We were watching a game, Borussia Dortmund against Juventus Turin in the final in 1997, Andi Möller played there back then, they won the cup, Łukasz was out shopping with his mom later after this, he saw a jersey with Andi Möller’s name, he wanted it so bad his mom had to buy it for him

Janusz Kowalski, coach of Gwarek Zabrze: He was on a tournament, the polish national team was on a tournament in Korea, and they were coming back from this tournament, the next day we had a game in the polish championships with ŁKS Łódź, Łukasz just comes to the meeting and says “Coach, I’m gonna play” “But aren’t you tired after the journey, the tournament?” “No no I’m gonna play!” and we were playing against ŁKS and I asked “Was there anybody from ŁKS on that tournament?” “Yes, there were two players” “Are they playing?” “No they’re resting”

Czesław Michniewicz, coach of Zagłębie Lubin 2006-2007: He played as a winger for me, later, because it was necessary, also in the attack but I remember when he started playing for me, I came back home and my 4-year-old son, Mateusz asks me “Dad, do we have another brother?” and I asked him “Why, son?” and he says “Because you said on TV today that Łukasz Piszczek is your son!” and I said “No son there’s just you and Kuba” and it stayed this way. I remember Łukasz as a quiet boy when I worked in Zagłębie Lubin, now the memories are coming back, we were on a training camp with Pogoń Szczecin in Pogorzelica, Łukasz Piszczek had amazing results in endurance and speed tests, when professor Chmura did the tests in January in Zagłębie Lubin, he said that there must’ve been something wrong with the device and we gotta ask Piszczek to come and do the tests again, Piszczek was devastated when he found out he has to do it all over again. It turned out the professor has examined thousands of players and has never met one who’d be this fast and had great endurance results. Łukasz was an exception, he was often used as an example of how a professional footballer should look like. And it was a proof later on, a few years passed, he left Zagłębie Lubin and the career in the Bundesliga and change of position for side back, you could see how good he really was.

Arne Friedrich: He definitely put on muscle when he came to Berlin, he was very good friends with Jaroslav Drobny, Czech player, and you know I just watched them in the gym all the time, they were battling who can lift heavier weights and in the beginning you’re right Łukasz was a little skinny, whatever, but it’s normal most of the players start off like skinny and then they grow and establish a better body and now he’s very good in shape, even my time, 2009 or 2008 or 2010 when we used to play here for Berlin he was really in very very good shape he was strong and he still is and I think this is very important for players too because of all the injuries and as a defender you have to be stable on the field, and he really worked hard for that, with Jaroslav Drobny, in battle.

*Polish BVB fans watching the game against Stuttgart* “How will it end?” “2:0” 2:0? 3:1! 2:1! 2:1? I say 2:1 too. Okay we’ll see. So he stays in BVB for a very very long time. It would be the best if Kuba came back and they could play together. Yes Kuba, his friend. This was the best ride side playing for BVB. …” and Lewandowski” “Lewandowski not anymore…” “That would be hard, for him to come back”

People like him, just like they liked Kuba, he’s just a great man and … ‘they’re all normal, …’ ‘normal”…

‘Yes, 1:0! That was fast.’

No, Piszczu is just, like the people here, normal, does his thing… ‘and he’s ours!’ ‘exactly, and he’s ours’

Michał (has been living in Germany for the past 30 years, BVB fan) It was like this, there was always this dream of having a polish player in bvb, and we’ve been waiting for that for a long time and then finally Ebi Smolarek came and it was already great we thought it couldn’t get better, and then at some point there were 3 of them and they won so many titles, it was so amazing, just incredible.

As for now, there’s sadly only Piszczu left but maybe Kuba will be back in the summer and stay

*Stuttagrt scores* ‘Unbelievable!’

*BVB scores 2:1* ‘And? Who said it’ll be like this?’ *high fives*

2:1, my prediction! Mine too!

3:1, 3:1!

You said 2:0? No I said 2:1,

***

R: The centre of the city. It’s here. Can you agree with this?

Ł: Well for me, when it’s Saturday or Sunday or Friday when we have a game then definitely, it’s for sure the centre of events here in Dortmund

R: Even in a “normal” week when there’s nothing happening when you played an away game, cause we were here yesterday already, there’s lots of people just walking around the stadium, the fan shop, there’s even this place where you can get fries or something and it’s open as usual and in the actual city centre there’s just mostly shopping, right?

Ł; I mean you know, of course ever since they made this fan shop there’s a lot more going on around the stadium during the week but there’s a fan shop in the city as well and… it’s hard for me to say what it looks like now cause I’m not there too often cause it’s this time when you know we have training and games and I haven’t been in the city for a long time now.

R: it’s really narrow, isn’t it? A bit tight for two teams?’

Ł: It is and you know I think that’s the time when the rivals can already feel the atmosphere of this stadium cause we’re standing here, there are the kids as well , so when some substitute player tries to get through then it can be tight, but then those lights aren’t on like this, it’s a little darker…

R: And you can hear the Sudtribüne already?”

Ł: And then you walk out on the pitch in the stadium that is definitely impressive for the opponents.

R: Can you remember the first time you walked out?

Ł; I mean the first time I walked out here was when i played with Hertha and it was really impressive and I just thought to myself ‘damn, wouldn’t it be cool to play for BVB someday, but it was just you know just talking’

R: Yeah of course I get it you were playing for Hertha at that time, although I’ve heard that when you were a little boy you had…’

Ł: Yeah I had… R: You had this one shirt Ł: Yes, one from Andi Möller

R: How did you get it?’

Ł: I’m pretty sure I got it somewhere on a market, it was the time when BVB won the Champions League, they were doing good in the Champions League and then after that success…

R: I’ve heard you were nagging at your parents to get you this

Ł: Yes, I did, but it was my only BVB jersey cause I was a Manchester United fan and I had a lot more Beckham jerseys, you could say he was kind of my idol when I was a child

R: And this is your bench or is it for the rivals or…

Ł: This is our bench

R: This is yours, you’re not really attached to that bench right

Ł: I mean there was a time this season when I was attached to it pretty strongly but this is just a story of how you get injured, somebody else takes your place plays really well and the coach doesn’t really have much to change, we were winning, we were pretty much on the 2nd place all the time

R: But you were working hard and there were the effects of that

Ł: Yeah I was working calmly, the coach actually got me to understand that once I’m on the level he wants me to be on then I’ll get my minutes and that’s what happened since this round I’ve been playing everything and hope it stays this way.

R: I’m curious about your opinion on the Südtribune, cause that’s this one, right, and when you’re playing a game in the Bundesliga there are no chairs it’s just like a wall of people, but when you’re playing Champions League then the chairs must be there, am I right?

Ł: Yes, they’re there and the capacity lowers a bit but…

R: is there a difference or it’s not that visible?

Ł: No you can’t really see it, you can’t really see it but you can see exactly how many there are, I don’t even know how many exactly now but you really cannot notice anything and the support is the same so….

R: But you pretty much know every Bundesliga stadium, you’ve played in most of them, but this is the most impressive tribune?

Ł: Ha, I can’t say it’s not!

R: Exactly, but you know I just did it this way cause for me it is

Ł: I mean there’s a cool atmosphere in Hamburg, we were in Gladbach not so long ago and it was nice as well, but the stadiums in Germany are in general really good and the most important is the fans actually come to see the games, that’s the main reason why it’s so great to play in those stadiums, cause of course it’s a great atmosphere when the stadium is full

***

R: You’re not afraid of the rain right

Ł: It’ll ruin my hair

R: Yeah the hair, Tomek Rząsa once said it was fascinating to watch you do your hair, that you had some special paste and this whole process took long but…

Ł; What long, what is he talking about…

R: Really? Then you can clarify this!

Ł: No I’m not gonna clarify anything, he knows what he knows, I know what I know and that’s it

R: No, but he said he was gonna buy this paste from you so..

Ł: Ah, see!

R: And here after a victory you go to thank the fans or just do it from the middle or…

Ł: No, we always go here somewhere around sixteenth meter, and then we have some fun with the fans, they organize all of this and especially when we won against Schalke 3:2 at home then we were celebrating quite a lot with the fans, and then after that we just go around the pitch to thank all the fans

R: We were watching a BVB game yesterday with BVB fans and we started talking about Großkreutz cause he played yesterday too for Stuttgart, and we were talking about this famous quote of his how he said he’d give his child away if he was a Schalke fan

Ł: Quite an unfortunate quote…

R: Yes, but you know what they said, they were sitting there and said ‘we’d do the same’’

Ł: No… this is just…

R: Showing off a little?

Ł: No, but you know sports is sports but family is the most important after all

***

R: So you haven’t been to the museum yet?

Ł: I’ve been here a few times but never had the time to watch it all carefully

R: I’m just wondering if there are some things you here you were a part of, cause there’s of course a lot…

Ł: The championships, those should be here I guess, the 2011 and 2012 ones.

R: Oh that’s the DFB-Pokal, right?

Ł: I’ve been in the final twice lately but couldn’t win.

R: Yeah, winning against Bayern in the final is always a thing right?

Ł: And we won 5-2 back then!

R: This is for winning the Bundesliga?

Ł: Yes, I got that twice with BVB

R: Ohh this is… *pointing at the Champions League trophy*

Ł: Sadly I couldn’t hold this one

R: This is the reason why you first got into BVB right?

Ł: Exactly, this was season 1996/1997…

R: Yes the final was in 1997, with Juventus

Ł: 3:1, you can remember some of the younger players names, right?

R: You were 12 back then, this was some first games, well maybe not first but you were sleeping with a football weren’t you?

Ł: Yeah it happened a few times…

R: Just looking at that Cup, can you remember that final?

Ł: I can, I mean I haven’t really seen the game…

R: Oh you didn’t see it?

Ł: I just saw the goal we lost…

R: But you didn’t watch it because you don’t like going back to losses or you just generally don’t watch games too often?

Ł: Actually out of all those finals we played I didn’t really see any of them, no matter if we won or lost, but the league games I happen to watch them quite often to analyse them, game after game, and after this final it’s usually some free time and you don’t really go back to that, doesn’t matter if you win or lose but maybe I’ll come back to that after this season, when we get the DFB-Pokal

***

R: And this one I can’t really…

Ł: Maybe there was a women’s team here…

***

Ł: This was a game in Munich, when Klopp’s glasses got broken, a story similar to the one that happened now in Liverpool

R: Are you still in touch with Klopp or…

Ł: I mean we text sometime but it’s not really often

Ł: There it is, do you see it, there’s Piszczek written there!

R: Yes! Is that a squad from some certain game? Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Perisic, Kehl, Gundogan, Lewandowski, and Kuba on the right side!

Ł: From the DFB-Pokal final? Yes it might be this one

***

Ł: There’s Rybnik, 43.

R: What year will that be? 1971.

Ł: See, Ruch won 2:1 in 1971

***

Ł: Look there’s a fan with a Piszczek jersey I found him there

R: Where?

Ł: There, on the picture, you can’t see it yet. Next to Reus

R: Oh there he is

Ł: Found this one…

R: Yes, Piszczu, *to the camera man* there’s Piszczek, see?

Ł: Yeah, one in a million

Ł: In December, guys from my club from Goczałkowice came here, and they said they weren’t really going to games but once they saw how it looks here they wanted to be here every week

R: See, there’s the answer why there are so many people coming here, it’s just a different thing

R: That’s the same game? Against Juve?

Ł: *pointing at the picture* ‘I was somewhere…. There!

part 2 coming soon