Athletico 100 years: Nowak and Piekarski, the Poles

Of the great duos in history, none arrived causing as much excitement as the Poles Nowak It is Piekarski. At the beginning of 1996, through the action of legendary businessman Juan Figer, the two 21-year-olds received a welcome from many hundreds of fans in Baixada.

In a city with more than 300 thousand people of Polish descent, always with their interpreter Tyska in tow, their lives became one big poprawinythe famous Polish extended party.

In the first Atletiba match in Baixada, they were expelled after “getting into trouble” with rival players – that night, I met them at a gas station and had a beer with Piekarski.

When both were called up to Polska on the eve of an important game, CAP, in order not to lose them, chartered a helicopter to take them off the Baixada pitch in a scene of great plastic beauty.

The impact of the Polish duo went beyond the fields. In August of that year, when two male giraffes from Poland arrived at the Curitiba Zoo, they were named Nowak and Piekarski.

The giraffe Piekarski stayed at the zoo for many years and left descendants, while Nowak was transferred to Minas Gerais, along with the female born in 1994, still unnamed.

On the field, the duo with opposite temperaments also gave something to talk about. Mariusz Piekarski he was more worldly and a great figure. With hair like Jerry Lee Lewis, he became an enthusiast of all-you-can-eat steakhouses. He knew how to play and had an unlikely career.

I imagine him today talking about advantages in traditional Polish milk bars: “So I married Miss Brazil, Paulo Rink was my best man, and then I became Flamengo’s number 10 to play alongside Romário…”.

All true, as was the fact that he was already married in Poland and had to pay bail to avoid being arrested for bigamy.

Krzysztof Nowak He was sober on and off the field. A complete steering wheel, with an international player’s ball. He was an absolute starter with all the coaches at CAP.

He scored memorable matches and important goals, such as the victory against Corinthians in the Copa do Brasil in 1997, and the equalizer in the supernatural 5-2 victory over the Coxes, among other magical moments. He became a crowd favorite.

At the end of 1997, he was traded to German club Wolfsburg and also became an idol there. In 2001, however, Nowak discovered that he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disease that killed him at the age of 29.

Before that, he created a foundation to encourage research and care for people suffering from the same illness. Since then, the Polish star has been canonized by the red and black fans and from the heaven of midfielders Saint Nowak intercedes on our behalf in difficult times.