 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Jerzy Henryk Dudek | ||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1985–1991 | Górnik Knurów | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1991–1995 | Concordia Knurów | 119 | (0) |
| 1995–1996 | Sokół Tychy | 15 | (0) |
| 1996–2001 | Feyenoord | 139 | (0) |
| 2001–2007 | Liverpool | 127 | (0) |
| 2007–2011 | Real Madrid | 2 | (0) |
| Total | 402 | (0) | |
| International career | |||
| 1998–2009 | Poland | 59 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Jerzy Henryk Dudek (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjɛʐɨ ˈdudɛk]; born 23 March 1973 in Rybnik) is a retired Polish footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
After beginning his career in his home country, he went on to have successful spells in Netherlands and England. He won the UEFA Champions League with Liverpoolin2005, appearing in 186 official games for the club over the course of six seasons. He also spent four years at Real Madrid.
Dudek played 59 times for Poland - the second most-capped player in his position for several years - representing the nation at the 2002 World Cup.
Dudek began playing football at twelve, for Górnik Knurów. Six years later he made his senior debuts, with Concordia Knurów in the third division, where he set a record of 416 minutes without conceding a goal.
Dudek only played one season in the Polish top flight, appearing in roughly half of the matches for Sokół Tychy as the club finished in mid-table, making his debut in the competition against Legia Warsaw.
Dudek left his country in 1996 at the age of 23, joining Feyenoord Rotterdam, but had to wait a year before he made his debut, proceeding to appear in all Eredivisie games for the club in the following four seasons combined. He won his first trophy in 1998–99 – the national championship – along with the following season's Dutch Super Cup, after a 3–2 win against Ajax Amsterdam.
Dudek won the Dutch Golden Shoe award in 2000, becoming the first foreign player to win the award. He played his final game for Feyenoord on 26 August 2001, against Ajax.
Dudek joined LiverpoolinEngland in late August 2001, and immediately replaced Sander Westerveld as coach Gérard Houllier's first-choice. Following a splendid first season where his clean sheets and fine performances helped the club finish second in the Premier League behind double-winners Arsenal, he was nominated alongside Oliver Kahn and Gianluigi Buffon for the UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year award.
The following season, Dudek rebounded spectacularly from a series of poor errors in the league to win the League Cup with a Man of the match performance against Manchester Unitedinthe final.[1][2] Pope John Paul II, who was a goalkeeper in his youth, met personally with Dudek in 2004, telling him that he was a fan of Dudek's and followed Liverpool whenever they played; the player presented the Pope with a souvenir goalkeeper shirt, and would later dedicate Liverpool's UEFA Champions League success to the late pontiff.[3]
Dudek was a catalyst in Liverpool's 2005 Champions League victorious run, performing a double save against A.C. Milan's Andriy Shevchenko at the end of extra timeinthe final, after Liverpool had rallied from a 0–3 deficit to tie the match 3–3. He saved from Andrea Pirlo and Shevchenko in the ensuing penalty shootout, in an eventual 3–2 win: during the shootout, he attempted to distract the Milan players with the "spaghetti legs" tactic that was used by former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar in the 1984 European Cup Final. Being European Cup winners for the fifth time, Liverpool kept the trophy and received the UEFA badge of honour, and as a tribute to Dudek's heroics, a group of Liverpool fans, the Trophy Boyz, recorded a successful novelty single called 'Du the Dudek'; he became the third Polish footballer after Zbigniew Boniek (with Juventus FC) and fellow goalkeeper Józef Młynarczyk (F.C. Porto) to win the Champions League - he also received his second Goalkeeper of the Year nomination.[4]
Dudek lost his starting position to new acquisition Pepe Reinain2005–06, following an arm injury, only making 12 more appearances for the Reds in the following two seasons combined (eight in the league). Despite courting controversy by accusing manager Rafael Benítez of 'treating him like a slave', he insisted that he had no ill feelings towards the club or anyone associated with it and only wanted to leave after failing to make Poland's World Cup squad, but still stayed on for another year at the manager's request.[5] He was voted by fans at a creditable No.36 in the list of 100 Players Who Shook the Kop.[6][7]
34-year old Dudek moved to Real Madrid for 2007–08, but only played in two La Liga matches in four years, due to the presence of Iker Casillas. Nevertheless, his attitude and work ethic earned praise from his fans, teammates, coaching staff and several Spanish journalists; his Man of the match performance in his debut, in the penultimate game of the season against Real Zaragoza was hailed in the Spanish press, despite not being enough to earn selection for Poland's squad for Euro 2008.[8]
InJuande Ramos's first game as Madrid manager, in December 2008, Dudek was handed a rare start in a 3–0 home win against FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, as the club was already qualified from the Champions League group stages. In a match where Madrid's attacking play made headlines, he made several fine saves and exuded an air of calm solidity and confidence, particularly on crosses, earning a clean sheet in the process. This performance earned glowing praise from the manager, who highlighted the goalkeeper's qualities and referred to him as a 'magnificent player'.[9] It would be his last appearance of the season, which also saw a 0–5 aggregate loss against former club Liverpool in the round of 16.
Speculation was rife about Dudek's dissatisfaction with life at Real, and an end-of-season return to Feyenoord where he would work more closely with coach Leo Beenhakker - his former boss at Feyenoord and also at the helm of the Polish national team - was a possibility, but nothing materialised, and with former teammate Jordi Codina leaving to join Getafe CF, the 36-year old eventually accepted a new one-year deal to remain at the club, while also speaking about his contentment.[10]
On 27 October 2009, Dudek saw his first action of the seasoninthe first round of the Copa del Rey, in a 0–4 shock loss against minnows AD Alcorcón, from Segunda División B, with the goalkeeper being one of the few on the losing end to perform well.[11][12][13] He also appeared in the second leg, an insufficient 1–0 home win.
On 10 April 2010, following news of the horrific air crash which claimed the lives of 96 Polish people including president Lech Kaczyński and several top government officials, the players of both Real Madrid and Barcelona agreed, at Dudek's request, to observe a minute's silence for the evening's El Clásico match. His teammates also agreed to wear black armbands for the match.
I had no choice but to fulfill an obligation, and asked the officials to give a minute of silence before the most important match of the season. After an hour I came to the club president Florentino Pérez and director Jorge Valdano and they told me not to worry, and that everything will then be honored. They said, "We know what happened. Sincerest condolences. We are with you."[14]
On 15 July 2010, Dudek accepted another one-year contract to stay with Real Madrid.[15] As manager José Mourinho was appointed, he worked with his fourth coach in as many seasons. On 30 November 2010, he was fined €5,000 for his role in the controversial sendings-off of teammates Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos in the Champions League group stage match against Ajax.[16] He made his first start of the 2010–11 season in the same competition, against AJ Auxerre on 8 December, but after making two impressive saves saw his action terminated after sustaining a jaw injury in a clash with opposing forward Roy Contout just before half-time.[17] He was successfully fitted with an intermaxillary fixation device and was out of action for six weeks before returning to training.[18] He was subsequently praised for his performance by stand-in manager Aitor Karanka.
Dudek was named as a substitute for the 2010–11 Spanish Cup final, a 1–0 win against FC Barcelona. He made his final appearance for the Merengues on 21 May 2011, in a 8–1 home win over UD Almería, and was substituted in the 77th minute to a guard of honour from his Real Madrid team-mates.[19]
Dudek received his first call-up for Poland in 1996 as an unused substitute during an exhibition game against RussiainMoscow, and won his first cap in February 1998 in another friendly, against Israel. He also captained the team once in a friendly against Estonia.
Dudek played nine of the national team's ten 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers as it finished top of its group, and started in the finals in Japan and South Korea, in an eventual group stage exit. He also played in seven of his country's ten qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup, but owing to a lack of appearances at club level during the season, he was dropped from the starting line-up in favour of Artur Boruc and left off the final squad as a result, at which point he had earned 56 caps.
Dudek's omission from the World Cup squad was greeted with shock among Polish fans and media alike, with one newspaper's headline reading 'Has Janas [national team manager] gone mad?!'. During a warm-up match against Colombia, where both Boruc and Tomasz Kuszczak were at fault for each of the goals in a 2–1 defeat, the angered Polish fans started to chant Dudek's name as a reminder of what they perceived as a mistake by Janas to drop him. It is worth noting that the goal Kuszczak conceded, which prompted the chants, was directly from a goal-kick from the opposing goalkeeper Neco Martínez.[20]
Following the World Cup, Dudek returned to the national team to play in two internationals under new boss Beenhakker, a 0–2 friendly defeat in Denmark and a 1–3 UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying defeat against Finland, also away, before being dropped yet again. Despite a period of three years in the wilderness, he always believed that he would return to the national team and, in September 2009 he was called-up to the squad for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Slovakia by interim manager Stefan Majewski: after being on the bench for the first match in Prague, which saw Poland's slim World Cup hopes shattered, Dudek won his 59th cap against the latter on 14 October, in Poland's final competitive game before Euro 2012: in a match which was played in heavy snow and in front of a near-empty Stadion SlaskiinChorzów, he was denied a clean sheet by a Seweryn Gancarczyk own goal, as Poland lost 0–1.
Dudek's status as an icon in Poland played a crucial role in securing the status of joint host nation for the Euro 2012 for his country. Along with his Champions' League opponent Shevchenko of Ukraine, he was a part of the joint delegation and was involved in a presentation with the striker.
Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1995–96||GKS Tychy||Ekstraklasa||15||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||15||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996–97||rowspan="6"|Feyenoord||rowspan="6"|Eredivisie||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||0||0 |- |1997–98||34||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||2||0||36||0 |- |1998–99||34||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||34||0 |- |1999–00||34||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||6||0||40||0 |- |2000–01||34||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||8||0||42||0 |- |2001–02||3||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||3||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001–02||rowspan="6"|Liverpool||rowspan="6"|Premier League||35||0||2||0||0||0||12||0||49||0 |- |2002–03||30||0||2||0||2||0||11||0||45||0 |- |2003–04||30||0||3||0||1||0||4||0||38||0 |- |2004–05||24||0||1||0||6||0||10||0||41||0 |- |2005–06||6||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||6||0 |- |2006–07||2||0||1||0||2||0||1||0||6||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2007–08||rowspan="4"|Real Madrid||rowspan="4"|La Liga||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0||5||0 |- |2008–09||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0||3||0 |- |2009–10||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0||2||0 |- |2010–11||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0||2||0 |- Template:Football player statistics 315||0|||0|||0||0||0||0||0||15||0 Template:Football player statistics 4139||0||0|||0||10||0||16||0||155||0 Template:Football player statistics 4127||0||9||0||11||0||38||0||184||0 Template:Football player statistics 42||0||8||0||0||0||2||0||12||0 Template:Football player statistics 5283||0||17||0||11||0||56||0||367||0 Template:Football player statistics end
Dudek and his wife, Mirella, have one son, Aleksander, and two daughters, Wiktoria and Natalia. His father was a miner and he spoke of himself having taken training to follow in his father's footsteps before his opportunity to play football came along. His brother, Dariusz, is also a footballer.
Dudek refused to wear the '13' jersey for two seasons after arriving at Real Madrid, stating that Polish goalkeepers generally do not use 13; the numbers 1, 12 and 22 are traditionally used. He therefore wore '25' as it was the next best thing while Codina wore '13' until his departure.[21] Dudek wore '13' for the 2009–10 season under Manuel Pellegrini,[22] but was handed back the '25' shirt under Mourinho. In his first season at Liverpool he wore the '12' jersey because Westerveld was still in possession of the '1' squad number.
In 2005, Dudek received the title of the honourable citizen of Knurów, during a charity match called "Jerzy Dudek & Friends." He also made his Polish television debut as an analyst for the 2005 UEFA Super Cup final between Liverpool and PFC CSKA Moscow, which he missed due to injury. In 2006, while on summer vacation in Poland, his home on the Wirral Peninsula was burgled and several valuables and treasured football memorabilia were stolen. Thanks to the efforts of the Merseyside Police Department his collection of shirts, medals and awards was recovered, along with most of his valuables.[23]
Dudek also stated that he would like to start a football academy in Poland with his brother after retiring from football.[24]
Awards
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