The First Barcelona Coach's Unexpected Discovery: Szczesny Wanted to be a Midfielder, But Then We Made a Bet...Carlos Volcano

Rutkowski was the first coach of Szczesny when he was just a young player at Agrykola in Warsaw.

The self-confessed Barca fan told AS: “Szczesny was destined to play for Barcelona one day. Yes, you could say it was his dream.

"I started to love Barça because of Johan Cruyff. In fact, I always try to make my teams play like that, taking the ball from the goalkeeper. Szczesny has that way of playing in his soul.”

Rutkowski added, “He was the youngest in the team, but the tallest. And he had the longest arms . I tried to get him to play in goal at first, but he didn’t want to, so we made a funny bet: I told him that if he looked good in goalkeeping gear, he would have to play there. He agreed.

"When I got to the dressing room and he was dressed, we knew that would be his position . And it couldn’t have gone better for him.”