IT’S ROMANTIC, BUT I LIKE A ZERO TO HERO STORY
‘WE HAVE TO FORGET LAST SEASON AND FOCUS ON NOW’
ALL footballers crave status and Lukasz Fabianski gets his in part from the number on the breast of his training top. Written in white on classic West Ham claret, it is a simple number. One.
Goalkeeping is an uncertain business. Just ask Liverpool’s Loris Karius. A year ago he was setting out on a road that was to lead to a Champions League final. Now he is preparing to begin his own personal repair job at Besiktas in Turkey.
Fabianski’s extremes have not been as wild. Indeed, his last four years have been rather steady, 150 appearances at Swansea City.
But after a £7million summer transfer to join Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham rebuild, the 33-year-old returns to Arsenal today, his first English club, feeling that he has finally proved a few people wrong.
There were many who doubted him during his seven years as an understudy in north London, and in his lowest moments he considered heading home to Poland. Now he is back at another London club of repute, he feels vindicated. He is glad he stayed in the Premier League and stuck fast to the path he chose when he left home at 15.
Asked if he has proved a point, Fabianski smiled and said: ‘Yeah! I do, and that’s cool.
‘As an athlete there are always times you are questioned. It’s up to you to prove people wrong and I really enjoy that.
‘I had some high moments at Arsenal but I had some low, low days too. And yeah I definitely thought about going home. When you are having a bad time many different thoughts cross your mind. So of course I had those thoughts. But I didn’t give in.’
West Ham have conceded six goals in losing at Liverpool and at home to Bournemouth this season but Fabianski has been the best of Pellegrini’s new signings so far. That probably says as much about the team as it does about him and he knows what lies ahead if two defeats become three today.
Last year he watched a documentary about West Ham’s final season at Upton Park so he knows what is expected at the club.
‘There are some memories still fresh in the supporters’ minds from last season,’ he said. ‘We need to erase those and focus on what is in front of us. This is a new manager and new players. We just hope the fans will be patient and keep faith.’
FABIANSKI was a talented basketball player, and remembers the famous USA Dream Team of the 1992 Olympics and it is appropriate to what some West Ham supporters want from their side. Results, success, expression. All at once, and soon.
‘We had different expectations of the first two games but it’s obvious that we need time and need work,’ smiled Fabianski. ‘We should not panic. With the work we have done already we will see the style improve. It will be attractive and effective and I think it will bring results.
‘But the first goal we conceded against Bournemouth brought back memories from last season and that affected us. We need to forget how it was before and focus on now.’
Fabianski never wanted to be a flamboyant superstar and does not want to be one now, as Sky Sports know to their cost.
Before last season they asked every Premier League player to do an individual walk-up to camera, to be used when introducing team line-ups on live match days. Ideally, it would include a signature gesture, a dance or goal celebration.
‘I wouldn’t do it,’ said Fabianski, laughing. ‘It’s an American thing isn’t it? I just don’t like it. It’s not me. Trying to be something I am not. I just stopped and said to them, “I am OK thank you” and I finished my session. This season I have done something for them. But it is something in between that I am comfortable with.’
Do not think Fabianski is dull company or difficult, though. Those who know him and work with him say the opposite is true. But he is happy in his own company and now he is back in London will perhaps miss the long bike rides he used to take along the Gower peninsula during his time at Swansea, if not the cows that sometimes used to block his drive to work.
Speaking in an interview in the Polish version of Esquire last year, he was forthright on the trappings of sporting fame.
‘People watch me because I am a footballer, not because I wear a nice watch,’ he told the magazine. ‘What top players do on social media is their business but it can be perceived as showing off wealth. I saw a lot of players who made fame and money and quickly get lost.’
Pressed on the subject this week, Fabianski was a little more cautious. ‘You are going to ask me who those players are and no, no... I can’t say,’ he said.
‘But that’s my personal approach to social media and money and it’s the way I see life. I am from a very humble working-class family and was told that whatever circumstances I find myself in I must stay the same person, be myself.
‘I will never show off any wealth as life can take those things back and if I do something against what I believe in I would not feel comfortable. I focus on the work and am as normal as I can be in a football world that can be a bit crazy.’
Fabianski arrived in England at 22 and was thrown into an Arsenal dressing room containing forceful figures such as Jens Lehmann, Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor.
He was young, unmarried and living in London so how hard was it to stick to those homegrown philosophies? ‘ There are always challenges and temptations but I am really close to my parents and my dad is, gee... he is just crazy about hard work,’ he replied. ‘He was always on at me. Even in the summer holidays in Poland. One day I would be chilling at home and he would say, “Why are you not running or training? Don’t just sit in front of the TV”.
‘So that has helped me with perspective a lot. He was a builder and then a taxi driver. My mum works in customs. Good jobs, a simple life.’
Fabianski is married now, to Anna, and has a young son. He is clearly very happy and it is rare to sit with such an accommodating and open footballer.
He clearly has an open mind, too. On seeing a documentary by the American rock band the Foo Fighters during his time at Arsenal, he became fixated by the energetic figure of the drummer, Taylor Hawkins. Before long, Anna had bought him a drum kit.
‘You could see how much the drummer was in the zone, that he didn’t even know what was happening around him,’ he said. ‘He was just smashing it and I was like, “Wow, that’s so cool...” and I thought that could be me.
‘The kit hasn’t been used that much yet because of our little one. The drums make SO much noise.’
AS WELL as documentaries, Fabianski likes films. In particular the
Rocky films. They remind him that you can get where you want if you really try hard enough. He knows that is a bit of a twee old notion but doesn’t care.
‘I like the “zero to hero” story or whatever you call it,’ he said. ‘It means something to me. It may sound romantic but I like it when people have been through tough times or when there were people who stopped believing in you and you prove them wrong.’
Fabianski grew up in the small Polish town of Slubice on the border with Germany. At 15 he chose football over high school and played for Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw, winning the league once before earning his move to Arsenal.
‘I was very young when I came,’ he said. ‘My English was not great but you find inner strength to cope. After a bad game or mistake it took me a while to get through it and I needed the help of friends and family and some psychology.
‘But after a while I had some people at Arsenal who really understood me and who helped me understand myself better too.
‘Working with them helped me overcome things and be a better player. These things happen for a reason, that’s how I look at it. It all helped me get to where I am now.’
Talking to Fabianski, it is apparent he suspects the reason for his modest progress at Arsenal was simply because he probably wasn’t quite good enough at the time. Now he knows that he is.
Last season, only Stoke City’s Jack Butland made more saves, even if Fabianski could not save Swansea from relegation. On leaving, he wrote a letter to Swansea fans and signed off in Welsh.
If things go well on the field, West Ham may have a ready made favourite in their midst.
‘I don’t know the whole history of the club,’ he admitted. ‘But from that movie I could sense the passion the fans have. They believe this club is one of the biggest and think we should be playing for more than mid-table.
‘As a new player you really should know the kind of club it is and the type of fans. So I will learn.
‘Looking back now I appreciate all that has happened. The thing I am proud of most is that I stuck to my beliefs. I believed hard work would get me somewhere and I think it got me somewhere pretty cool.’