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Łukasz Piszczek: He should live high
Photo: FILIP SINGER / POOL / EPA
The surprise of Łukasz Piszczek's tears was apparently great for his coach Edin Terzić.
It's not like you can't cry too.
He just couldn't believe, said Terzić, that Piszczek, who had run up and down the outside lane so often in the DFB Cup final, still had fluid in his body.
"I was very surprised that there was something else," Terzic said.
Łukasz Piszczek, 36 years old in June, fell into a fountain of youth again for one night. He was one of the main responsible for the 4-1 final victory over RB Leipzig. In the front Marco Reus, Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland did their magic, in the back Piszczek ran everything away. "Piszu is my hero, my very personal hero," said BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke at the end of the game on the "ARD" microphone.
At the end of this cup evening, the tireless Piszczek had to be carried - and the Dortmund teammates not only carried it, they carried it again and again into the Berlin night sky. They cheered him up. Piszczek stops at BVB in the summer, after eleven years in the Dortmund jersey. It was his third cup victory after 2012 and 2017, he was German champion twice under Jürgen Klopp in the golden years of BVB and was in the 2013 Champions League final.
But the last pictures, the moments from Berlin, will remain: the tears and the cheers - or, as Piszczek was the first to be sent to the award ceremony by his teammates, wearing the jersey of the long-term injured Marcel Schmelzer. “I think that will stay in my head for a long time. When I extended my contract, I said that I still wanted to win something with Borussia Dortmund. Today a dream has come true, ”said Piszczek.
It's not over yet with Piszczek, he will probably play twice in the Bundesliga, against Mainz 05 and Bayer Leverkusen it's about the Champions League.
BVB can now reach the premier class again on their own, the right-back also has a share in this, the Leipzig game was his sixth consecutive appearance across all competitions and Dortmund's sixth competitive win in a row.
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Piszczek: The trophy in hand, the Schmelzer jersey over the chest
Photo: Pool / Getty Images
Actually a nice series at the end of a great career, but perhaps not a good sign for BVB that Piszczek is still difficult to replace at 35 years of age.
In the future, however, the club will have to do without him, without his mileage, his concentration on the defensive and the many flanks, Piszczek has prepared 64 competitive game goals in 381 BVB appearances so far.
Now he will go back home to Poland, he wants to join his youth club LKS Goczalkowice again.
"You don't even know how broken I am"
That has nothing to do with professional football, said the national player recently, he just wanted to have fun with old friends.
The body is at the end of its power.
"You don't even know how broken I am," said Piszczek recently.
At least on cup night you couldn't see a broken Piszczek.
But it's true: this season, Piszczek only had 900 minutes of play.
Often he was a reservist, sometimes injured, he seemed written off.
It was not actually intended that he would still be part of the Dortmund team.
The club signed Mateu Morey, 21, a great talent for the right back position two years ago, and Thomas Meunier, 29, another player for Piszczek's position at Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
And the Belgian was certainly not planned as a back-up.
But Morey was seriously injured, Meunier was last on the bench, Piszczek was preferred.
And he is currently helping to save BVB on the home straight the season.
"How important it was cannot be put into words at all"
In the summer of 2010 he came to Dortmund on a free transfer from Hertha BSC, where he had played many games as a striker.
With moderate success, he scored seven goals in 87 competitive games.
Piszczek came as a 25-year-old who had just been relegated to the second division with the Berliners.
Five years before that, at just 20 years old, he and his team were involved in match-fixing in Poland, and Piszczek later reported himself to be involved.
Piszczek also got to know the dark side of the football business early on.
But he also grew in this business.
At the beginning at BVB as a player under Klopp, who consistently used him on the right back and made a top player in the position.
Real Madrid are said to have once dealt with a Piszczek transfer.
In the years that followed, Piszczek matured more and more into a footballer that you look up to - a figure that you can identify with.
When he's gone, BVB won't just miss his legs on the right back, not just the footballer Piszczek.
He resigns as one of the greats in the club's history.
He didn't want to highlight anyone, said coach Terzić after winning the cup, but then he did.
"Łukasz emptied the tank completely, pulled out everything in terms of performance and emotion to win this trophy," he said.
"How important he was for Borussia Dortmund cannot be put into words at all."
To remain silent about him instead of paying tribute to him would not have done Łukasz Piszczek justice either.