“There is pain in my heart. Money isn’t everything.” Zaksa’s legend ahead of the Champions League final

A year ago in Verona, she won with Itas 3-1 and became the second Polish club in history to win the European Cup. Now Zaksa can save the trophy. It is still great, despite the fact that after last year’s success, she lost Benjamin Toniutti, Jakub Kochanowski and Paweł Zatorski, as well as the coach and a few months later president Sebastian Widerski.

he played in Kędzierzyn-Koźle in 1996-2003, with Mostostal he won five Polish championship titles, and finished third and fourth. The former attacker of the Polish national team closely follows what is happening in Zaks. The former president of the Polish Volleyball Federation knows what and how she did, that despite many changes, it has not lost its quality.

Łukasz Jachimiak: At the beginning there will be a quote from before last year’s Champions League final. “Zaksa is perhaps the best team in Europe this season, and thus in the world. It is a pity that this team will cease to exist in a moment, that the players will leave. But let them win the Champions League together at the end, the regret will be less.” Who said that?

Pawel Papke: Of course, I remember those are my words.

We all thought so, we were all worried and no one expected Zaks to keep his level after so many changes. And yet, if it wins the Champions League final, it will even exceed the result from last year, because it will have a triple crown.

– That’s right, then there was the Polish Cup, the Champions League was won and there was Poland’s runner-up. And now Zaksa can win anything. You can see that he knew how to arrange all these bricks. He lost three very important players, the coach left, and he found great replacements. First of all, the transfer turned out to be excellent. Janusz filled the gap after the departure of Toniutti, a guy who seemed to be an irreplaceable man. It turned out that a Pole can also. The Pole invented the Pole, brought him in and Marcin played a fantastic season.

You have to remember that before coming to Zaksa, Janusz was already known in the league, but things were different for him. He became great in Zaksa. It helped that he played with other good volleyball players. He integrated himself into a team with highly skilled volleyball players, thanks to which he showed his potential himself. As a man working in the Polish Volleyball Federation, I am very happy that we have a volleyball player who can calmly play our team for the next few years.

Janusz was a great replacement for Toniutti, which was not obvious, but it also seemed that it would be very difficult to replace Jakub Kochanowski and Paweł Zatorski.

– To conclude with Janusz, I think that he fitted in perfectly, because there were no changes on the wings. , Semeniuk and guaranteed the highest offensive and defensive potential. Of course, Norbert Huber replaced Kochanowski very well, and Erik Shoji confirmed that he is a very good libero and, as you can see, filled the gap after.

A year ago, probably everyone would agree that Toniutti is better than Janusz, Kochanowski is better than Huber, and Zatorski is better than Shoji. How do you see these rivalries today?

– You can definitely put equal signs here. Players who came to a better team benefited. They raised their abilities, their class grew. And those who went to the team that are struggling have lost.

Kochanowski and Zatorski left for Resovia, which, as it failed, continues to fail.

– In Resovia there was no idea for either the players, the coach or the president – it is not for me to judge. In any case, class volleyball players, outstanding representatives of Poland, suddenly got lost there. For various reasons – health, mental, the fact that they did not fit into a given set of players, that bringing six or seven new volleyball players at the same time is not the best idea to build a collective. And most of all, you need to know the players. The biggest problem is that Polish clubs are managed by people who do not fully know the players. They think that they will buy someone and that someone will definitely play well with them. You have to know the psyche, know the person from the private side. This is the most important. Sebastian Świderski privately knows all players, all coaches and managers. This is his great advantage over other bosses, also often good ones. Especially for those who are not of volleyball.

But now Świderski is already the head of PZPS, and since January the president of Zaksa has been Piotr Szpaczek. In a moment, Semeniuk will leave Perugia, there will be a change of coach and you will have to react to the problem again. It may not be as hot as it was last year, but the new CEO needs to find a replacement for a key player.

– Yes, he is a key player. It will be very difficult to replace it. I do not want to exaggerate by saying that he is already an outstanding volleyball player, but definitely great and still with potential for development. Evidence of the move to Perugia, one of the richest and best clubs in the world. There are volleyball players presenting only the championship class. It will definitely be difficult to replace and I don’t know what Zaksa’s idea is. But let’s go back to Sebastian Świderski. Of course, he is no longer in the club’s governing bodies, but he is a resident of Kędzierzyn and I think that the new president can count on his support, on a hint of a possible solution. From what I can see, the idea for a new team will also be there. Is it at the same, highest level? Let’s face it, financing will be important here. You have to collect a lot of money from sponsors to be able to compete at the same level as Zaksa does.

Let us emphasize that Zaksa is on top, although financially it is not the strongest in Poland, let alone talking about Europe.

– That’s right, top clubs from Russia and Italy have budgets three times bigger. Of course, Russian clubs are now suspended due to the war in Ukraine, and very good, they are still transferring players there. And, as I read, Sam Deroo [ostatnio grał w Resovii] he is going to play there, which is sad news. Coming back to Zaksa – yes, it is not the richest club in Poland, and even more so in Europe, so the greater the respect for what the guys do on the pitch and what the management team does, having a budget two or three times lower than that of the biggest foreign rivals and a few million smaller than some Polish clubs.

Some, i.e. Resovia, Jastrzębski and another club?

– And, of course, Spark.

It’s hard to believe that there wasn’t a lot of financial shortness of breath there, looking at the composition.

– And then please call the president of this club and talk to him about how the team is being built. Please do not ask me about it, it is not proper for me to talk about the problems of that club.

We are back to Zaksa – what are your chances in the LM final against Trentino?

– A year ago I was a bit skeptical, and now I estimate the chances of 50-50. It is a pity that Huber will not play. This is a huge weakness. But in the fourth game of the final against Jastrzębski, the boys managed, Janusz came up with a different tactic, he played a completely different game, surprising the boys from Jastrzębski. May Trentino not run out of offensive strength. But I believe it will be okay. Especially that hundreds of fans from Kędzierzyn and all over Poland go to Ljubljana. The support for Zaksa will be huge and we will also be cheering her on to win another title [Imoco Volley Conegliano z Polką w składzie zagra z VakifBankiem Stambuł].

I want to make sure – by saying that Marcin Janusz came up with tactics for the last match of the PlusLiga final, you did not want to stick a pin to the coach of Gheorghe Cretu?

– No no no! For sure everything was analyzed by the coaching staff. Additionally, Janusz’s analytical skills were added.

Do you think that the change of Cretu to Tuomas Sammelvuo will be for Zaksa with benefit, at a loss, or will simply be kept the same level on the bench?

– This is a sad story, because I know that the coach had a proposal from the club for a significant raise, but it turned out that he is another man fixated on funds from Russia. Due to the war in Ukraine, this plan fell to him, and in the meantime Sebastian decided to contract another coach. I am not surprised – when a coach leads the best team of a strong Polish league, when he gets both proposals for a raise, but rejects them, the club’s authorities cannot wait for the season to end. Another trainer was signed, very good.

And it was Świderski who brought Sammelvuo? After all, since January, he is no longer the president of Zaksy.

– The talks started in December. The new president completed them with the new coach. On the other hand, Sebastian, while combining work as the president with work as the president of Zaksy, made serious, good proposals to the trainer Cretu. Unfortunately, the coach had a different plan for his life. Now he would have to deal with it somehow. And he will manage, because he is a very good trainer, a really professional. On the other hand, there is pain in my heart that a man comes to work with the best Polish team, that he is given a hand, and already in the middle of the season, after four months, he thinks about more money in Russia and does not look at the fact that there is someone here for him. helped. Underestimating the Polish league and Polish volleyball hurts. Cash is not everything.