Summary: Hapoel Haifa - Hapoel Beer Sheva 1:0 (Sport1)
Four years ago Patrick Kalimela provided a quote in a journalist interview that accompanies him to this day.
"I set high goals for myself and want to go far. If I only play in the Polish first league, I'd rather not play at all."
ambition?
arrogance?
Overconfidence?
Enthusiasm of a 20-year-old boy?
Everything from everything.
There was only one problem.
At the time this sentence was spoken, Klima did not even have a single goal in the Polish First League.
The day after the interview was published, his coach Iranyush Mamrot took him to a personal conversation: "Even if that's what you think, don't say such things. Such sentences remain and people live by them."
How right he was.
Kalimela is only 24 years old, but his career is full of stories.
A star child who lost direction.
A young, arrogant and problematic actor who managed to reset himself and straighten up.
He was part of two huge transitions that were not well timed, stigmas of a flop and a sour one were attached to him.
All these references in life led him to Hapoel Beer Sheva, in one of the intriguing transactions of the transfer window.
It's a pretty broad cliché, but a player with such a profile doesn't come to Israel if something doesn't go wrong along the way.
Eliniv Breda has a lot of attacking players on the roster, but he was looking for someone special to run with.
Did he find the sparkle he was looking for?
Such a player does not come to Israel if something does not go wrong along the way.
Kalimela (photo: official website, the official website of Hapoel Beer Sheva)
Calimela's story should be told from the beginning.
He was born in the small village of Kalna located in the Lower Silesian region of southwestern Poland, not far from the Czech border.
In a place with a few hundred residents where everyone knows everyone anyway, his family was especially well known.
The grandfather, the father and also Patrick were nicknamed Satan - "people in whom the devil lives".
The father, a former footballer who became an army man, is a tough and strict type.
As he spoke, Patrick felt a chill creep through his entire body.
Patrick was considered an uplifter at a young age.
He was a selfish striker who never understood why you should cook if you can score yourself, scored in bunches and held himself a star.
At the age of 16, Legia Warsaw laid her hand on him.
The boy from the village left alone for the big city - it was several sizes bigger than him.
Belgium he was even shifted to be a right back, but that wasn't the problem.
Away from the stern father, Patrick has unburdened himself.
He used to hang out with his teammates in the apartments of the Legia reserve team players, was seen in nightclubs, drank alcohol, ate McDonald's and sweets every day, and in the end, after a series of incidents and when his duty was to record the highest fat percentages in the team, he was thrown out of the club in disgrace .
Kalimela previously spoke openly about the experience, but in his defense claimed that Belgium saw him as a scapegoat and blamed all the problems on him: "I felt insecure. I didn't know how I would be received in the dressing room. As a boy from the village, I was under tremendous pressure. It didn't work out, but not only Because of me. They didn't treat me fairly. It's true that we went out quite a bit and were caught in a night club, but Belgium claimed I was drunk and that wasn't true. They didn't talk about the fact that there were 12 of us there. At the time I thought I knew everything and that I could do what I wanted."
When Legia decided to release him, the father was called to come pick him up and sign the release of the contract.
It was the first and only time he visited his son in Warsaw.
"Think about what you really want to do in life," he told him during the eight and a half hour train ride.
Patrik will not forget this conversation for the rest of his life: "He opened up and told me about his childhood and mistakes he made in life. He wasn't angry because I was thrown in Malgia, but because of the decisions I made in Warsaw. When I lived there, I didn't have to be afraid of him. Maybe I felt too free ".
Many believed he would retire at a young age.
Kalimela in the young Polish uniform (Photo: GettyImages, James Williamson)
When Patrick returned to the village, he heard everyone whispering.
Many believed that he was done with football, but on the advice of his parents, Kalimela postponed going back to school and concentrated on training.
At the same time, he obtained the phone numbers of coaches, called and offered himself, asked to come to be tested.
That's how he found himself landing in Bigilonia Bialystok.
After impressing in the youth team with 19 goals in half a season and making appearances in the seniors, he was sent on loan to Wigry from the second division.
Kalimela arrived smug, thinking he had come to play every game, get tired and return through the front door.
"When I didn't play, I was frustrated. I was a troubled kid who thought he deserved everything. I was suspended twice and that gave me motivation to work. I realized that if I didn't play in Vigri, I would never return to Gilonia."
He finished the season with 13 goals and returned, but the problems continued.
In fact, Kalimla went through a long process of resetting which was mainly signed by Iranius Mamrot.
Coach Yagilonia was a kind of second father to Kalimela, a mentor and especially a mental coach.
He taught him how to talk to the media, forgave him for outbursts and even tried to explain to him how to invest the money in real estate. Nevertheless, we are talking about a player who, two weeks after signing a professional contract, bought himself a Mercedes. Mamort said in the past that he never needed to work mentally with An actor like he did with Kalimela: "My patience paid off."
Mamort understood Patrick's heart.
He recognized the problem immediately - a player who does not know how to handle compliments.
More than once, Mamoru claimed that when Calimela thinks too much about the future, he goes off the rails.
His mission was to keep it on track.
"The beginning with him was difficult. He took every word I said to him as a personal attack on him. Over time, he improved his behavior. He progressed a lot as a player. In a year and a half he made a huge leap professionally and mentally and that makes me happy," said the coach.
"When I came back, I thought I was a great talent, but I played badly and I was disappointed. The frustration drained all my energy. I tried hard to prove myself. The coach had patience with me. I wasn't easy, if I didn't like something, I immediately ran to speak."
Kalimela worked his way into the Jagiellonia squad and impressed with seven goals in the first half of the 2019/20 season, until Celtic came and paid £3.5 million for him. A sum that the Scottish Empire is not afraid to spend on young talents. , claimed that Gilonia compromised for a low amount: "In a year or two, Patrick will be as good as Lautro Martins.
He improved a lot because they let him play." On the other hand, in Poland and Scotland they raised an eyebrow for a different reason. They thought the move came too soon. Too much money for a player who gave a good six months in total.
Celtic quickly recognized that this was an unprepared player.
Not physical enough and tactically immature.
He had a hard time in training, players took balls from him easily and pretty quickly there were questions as to whether this was a player who could meet the requirements.
To Kalimela's credit, he understood exactly what the requirements were.
He took advantage of the shutdown of the league with the outbreak of the corona virus to lift weights and get physically stronger.
This helped him win quite a few compliments for his work ethic and investment.
Unlike in the past, he did not complain when he did not get playing minutes and knew how to praise in interviews the success of Odson Edouard who played before him.
In practice, Celtic did not really believe in the Pole and sometimes even midfielder Ryan Christie was preferred over him as a fake striker.
"He's fast, he's strong, a bit deceptive in light of his size," said Killian Sheridan, ex-Krayat Shmona who played with Klimla in Poland, at the time.
"He's someone who doesn't give the defensive players too much time, he presses, can do the dirty work and that's something different that you don't see from the first moment. In terms of work ethic and the way he trains, he fits Celtic and hence it depends on him if he meets the requirements."
Bottom line, he didn't live up to them.
When Celtic received an offer from the New York Red Bulls that covered the investment, they didn't think twice.
"Celtic didn't know how to use him properly. He left when he was seen as a wrong recruit," wrote Athletic after the move to New York.
The Englishman Kevin Thelwell, the sporting director of the New York Red Bulls who has since moved to the same position at Everton, signed the deal.
Thelwell claimed to have followed Kalimela back when he was sporting director at Wolves.
He saw him as a potential one who could match Patson Dhaka in terms of entering the box and scoring goals.
Kalimela arrived in New York as a Designated Player - one of three players an MLS team can sign outside the salary cap.
This spot is reserved for special players and is called in the USA: "David Beckham Law".
"Perceived as a wrong recruitment".
Kalimela with Alhamid at Celtic (Photo: GettyImages, James Williamson)
Such a transition naturally entails huge expectations.
Americans, practical as they are, look at the bottom line.
A striker needs to score goals.
Designated Player should be wow.
If you don't do it, eventually they will bring someone who will do it better.
Kalimela actually scored eight goals in his first season in MLS, but the general feeling is that it was too few and too sporadic.
"He doesn't find himself alone on the edge, neither in a diamond formation nor as one of two strikers. From the moment he arrived, he received mixed reactions. He attracts strikers, clears areas, but this takes him out of a position where he can score regularly," it was written about him.
By and large, they were not seen as a good enough finisher.
The fans did not forget his two huge misses in the first round of the playoffs, which cost the team in the elimination against the Philadelphia Union.
The second year was even less good personally and ended again with an early elimination in the playoffs.
The Red Bulls have decided to add a more senior striker and are about to sign Belgian Dante and Monk from Union Saint-Gilloise in the most expensive deal in the club's history.
The meaning is clear: Kalimela has no more room.
They say they tried to trade him to MLS teams, but couldn't find a buyer.
Beer Sheva jumped at the bargain.
On paper, Beer Sheva is indeed getting a bargain.
"In terms of speed and physicality, he is above our league," analyzes a professional.
"He is not a virtuoso, not the most technical player in the world or a great dribbler, but he is sharp in front of the goal and a player who lives on spaces."
The Polish coach Mamrot said about him in the past: "His secret is speed. They think he only knows how to finish, but he creates spaces for himself and his teammates. He needs to work on the pass and integrate into a style of play that holds the ball. He is someone who needs to be focused on doing what he knows how to do. I know how many conversations I had with him. He understands now that in football you are praised one day and the next day the situation is reversed. He knows he has to work all the time. He must not deviate from the course."
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To the full article
"A player who lives on territories".
Calimela in New York (Photo: GettyImages, James Williamson)
Beer Sheva gets a sober player.
more modest.
Although during the last season, he had an incident with coach Gerhard Strauber (for which he apologized and was not punished), but the stories about the wild child flying on himself remain in the distant past.
"I am ashamed of the things I did, I don't regret it, but the shame remains," Klimla said in an interview in Poland.
"If someone had told me that I would rather sit at home with my fiancee and the dog than go out to a party, I would have thought he was a comedian."
On the other hand, maybe Beer Sheva needs the brash Kalimela, the actor with the papers of the star.
Beer Sheva loves such players: Bozaglo, Jozva, Hatuel and even Shafi.
The audience connects with them.
Berda has a long list of senior attacking players with various qualities, but he has not found the man to connect the front, the goal scorer, the one who can't see with the eyes and brings the numbers - the player Kalimela was before he started wandering.
"It's an unexpected and very interesting transition," they said this week in Poland.
"Certainly, Kalimela also did not believe that at the age of 24 he would arrive in Israel after two huge moves, but Israel can actually be good for him. He had good games in MLS and Beer Sheva at the level of the top teams in Poland. It may be easier for him to blossom again outside of Poland." .
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Israeli soccer
Super League
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Hapoel Beer Sheva
Patrick Kalimela
