{"id":319985,"date":"2025-11-29T05:26:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319985\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T05:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:26:25","slug":"szczesny-reveals-i-played-my-first-year-at-barcelona-to-pay-what-i-owed-juventus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/319985\/","title":{"rendered":"Szczesny reveals: &#8216;I played my first year at Barcelona to pay what I owed Juventus&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>              <a class=\"mg-blog-thumb\" href=\"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/szczesny-reveals-first-year-barcelona-juventus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/juventus-v-us-salernitana-serie-a-tim.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-811575 has-webp\" alt=\"TURIN, ITALY - MAY 12: Wojciech Szczesny of Juventus applauds the fans after the Serie A TIM match between Juventus and US Salernitana at Allianz Stadium on May 12, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino\/Getty Images)\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1200\/800;max-width:1200px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>TURIN, ITALY &#8211; MAY 12: Wojciech Szczesny of Juventus applauds the fans after the Serie A TIM match between Juventus and US Salernitana at Allianz Stadium on May 12, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><\/a>              &#13;<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"152\" data-end=\"337\">Wojciech Szczesny has opened up about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding his move from Juventus to Barcelona, revealing that his first season in Spain was practically unpaid.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"339\" data-end=\"871\">Speaking to GQ Poland, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calciomercato.com\/liste\/szczesny-giocavo-al-barcellona-per-pagare-la-juventus-come-ando-la-rescissione-con-i-bianconeri-e-quanto-pago-il-portiere\/blt7fac31c84e5542f4#cs51d2605de82edd12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">quotes via CalcioMercato<\/a>, the Polish goalkeeper explained that after leaving Juventus, he had even considered retiring from football.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"339\" data-end=\"871\">\u201cThree days before officially announcing my retirement, I told Lewy I didn\u2019t want to play for any club\u2026 unless it was Barcelona,\u201d Szczesny said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1239\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Henrikh-Mkhitaryan-Barcelona-Inter.jpg\" class=\"lazyload lazyload wp-image-887448 size-medium\" alt=\"BARCELONA, SPAIN - APRIL 30: Henrikh Mkhitaryan of FC Internazionale scores a goal past Wojciech Szczesny of FC Barcelona that is later disallowed due to an offside offence during the UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 Semi Final First Leg match between FC Barcelona and FC Internazionale Milano at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on April 30, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images)\"  data- style=\"aspect-ratio:1239\/800;max-width:1200px\"\/>BARCELONA, SPAIN \u2013 APRIL 30: Henrikh Mkhitaryan of FC Internazionale scores a goal past Wojciech Szczesny of FC Barcelona that is later disallowed due to an offside offence during the UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 Semi Final First Leg match between FC Barcelona and FC Internazionale Milano at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on April 30, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"339\" data-end=\"871\">\u201cWhen they called, they probably knew it would be easy to convince me. I hadn\u2019t lost my passion for football, I just wasn\u2019t enthusiastic about the offers from top-ten clubs. It wasn\u2019t about negotiating the price\u2026 I didn\u2019t want to play just for money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Szczesny played for free for a year at Barcelona after leaving Juventus<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"873\" data-end=\"1080\">In fact, Szczesny\u2019s first year at Barcelona was essentially free.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"873\" data-end=\"1080\">\u201cEverything I received financially from the club was exactly what I needed to pay back Juventus for ending my contract early,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fc-barcelona-v-sl-benfica-uefa-c.jpg\" class=\"lazyload lazyload wp-image-876054 has-webp size-medium\" alt=\"BARCELONA, SPAIN - MARCH 11: Wojciech Szczesny of FC Barcelona acknowledges the fans after the UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 Round of 16 Second Leg match between FC Barcelona and SL Benfica at Estadi Ol\u00edmpic Llu\u00eds Companys on March 11, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images) (Formerly Juventus)\"  data- style=\"aspect-ratio:1200\/800;max-width:1200px\"\/>BARCELONA, SPAIN \u2013 MARCH 11: Wojciech Szczesny of FC Barcelona acknowledges the fans after the UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 Round of 16 Second Leg match between FC Barcelona and SL Benfica at Estadi Ol\u00edmpic Llu\u00eds Companys on March 11, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1082\" data-end=\"1429\">Before the move, Szczesny had been demoted to second-choice behind new signing Di Gregorio at Juventus. After seven years and eight trophies with the club, <a href=\"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/official-juventus-szczesny-terminate-contract\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he decided to terminate his contract a year early<\/a>. While there was a clause requiring him to pay \u20ac2 million, that sum matched the salary Barcelona offered him, making the transfer seamless.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1431\" data-end=\"1642\">Szczesny\u2019s candid interview sheds light on the unique path that led him from Juventus disappointment to a new adventure at one of Europe\u2019s biggest clubs, and the personal sacrifices he made to make it happen.<\/p>\n<p>                                &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tPost navigation&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TURIN, ITALY &#8211; MAY 12: Wojciech Szczesny of Juventus applauds the fans after the Serie A TIM match&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-319985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}