Whenever I think about Polish goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, I am always torn between thinking he wasn’t as good as he appeared in his first season at Liverpool and remembering his heroics in Istanbul. Regardless of what happened in his Liverpool career before or after Istanbul he will forever be regarded as a hero to Reds fans for what he did on that special night in May 2005.
Jerzy was born in March 1973 in Rybnik, Poland. He began his career at youth level with Gornik II Knurow where he played for six years until he was eighteen. He began his professional career in 1991 with Polish third division side Concordia Knurow. He was an immediate success in the Polish third division and went on to set a record in the division of going 416 minutes without conceding a goal. In 1995 he moved to another Polish lower division side Sokol Tychy. He only made fifteen appearances for the club during the 1995/96 season before he moved to Holland in 1996 and joined Feyenoord.
It was during his time in Holland that Jerzy really began to make a name for himself in the football world. However before this would happen he had to spend a year on the sidelines before he made his first team debut in the 1997/98 season. He then made the goalkeepers position his own as he made 140 consecutive appearances. The highlight of his first season with Feyenoord was a 2-0 victory over Juventus in the Champions League group stages. After impressing during this season he was picked to make his full debut for the Polish national side in February 1998. Poland failed to qualify for the 1998 World Cup but Jerzy got over this disappointment by having his finest season so far in 1998/99.
Feyenoord had an outstanding season in 1998/99 as they won the Dutch League Championship and the Dutch Super Cup. In the Cup final they beat Ajax at their own stadium 3-2. This was also a great season for Jerzy personally as he was voted the Dutch Goalkeeper of the Year. He went on to retain the award the following season and was described by legendary Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker as “the best goalkeeper I’ve seen in thirty years”.
In August 2001 Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier bombed out the goalkeeper Sander Westerveld after he one howler too many in a defeat to Bolton Wanderers. Despite playing a part in the clubs treble success the season before, Westerveld was never rated that highly by many people and the day after the Bolton game Houllier brought in two new goalkeepers, Chris Kirkland and Jerzy Dudek. Jerzy was very highly rated at the time and in fact had been courted by Arsenal during the summer of 2001. He immediately became the first choice keeper at Anfield and quickly became a fan favourite with some outstanding displays.
During his first season at in Merseyside, 2001/02, Jerzy kept twenty six clean sheets and began to get compared to the great Ray Clemence. He was absolutely brilliant as he helped the Reds to win the UEFA Super Cup and finish second in the Premiership behind Arsenal and ahead of Man Utd. He was nominated for UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year and then capped of a great year by helping Poland reach the 2002 World Cup Finals.
Jerzy’s second season at Liverpool was not as successful as his first one was. Unfortunately he seemed to have problems with his confidence and suffered a terrible loss of form. A series of errors in games eventually culminated in a serious mistake in a 2-1 defeat to Man Utd in the league in December 2002. In one of the biggest howlers ever seen at Anfield, Jerzy allowed a tame header from Jamie Carragher slip through his hands and legs and Diego Forlan slipped in to score. After this mistake Jerzy’s confidence was lower than ever and he immediately lost his place in the side to Chris Kirkland. However the injury prone keeper got himself hurt after a run of fourteen games (and six clean sheets) and Jerzy was back in the side. This time he seemed to have put his poor form behind him and started to play like he had during the previous season. Jerzy was able to avenge the mistake against Man Utd when he was awarded the man of the match in the 2003 League Cup Final victory over our rivals from down the East Lancs. Jerzy rebuilt his reputation in this game by pulling off a string of unbelievable saves and was later described as an octopus in the Guardian newspaper report.
In 2004 Jerzy was invited to meet personally with Pope John Paul II at The Vatican. The pope had been a goalkeeper in Poland during his youth and revealed that he had closely followed Jersy’s career with Liverpool. Jerzy was honoured to present the pontiff with a replica goalkeeper’s jersey.
Jerzy made thirty eight appearances during the 2003/04 season as Liverpool finished in fourth place to qualify for the Champions League. Unfortunately for Gerard Houllier this wasn’t enough for the Liverpool board and the Frenchman was sacked at the end of the season. The new manager Rafa Benitez brought Scott Carson into the first team squad and although Jerzy was usually first choice during the season the goalkeeping duties were occasionally shared between himself, Carson and Kirkland. Despite not always being first choice during the 2004/05 season it was to be the season that took him into Anfield legend.
Jerzy played an important role during the Reds European campaign in 2004/05 and played really well in helping them to reach the 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan in Istanbul. Jerzy had a really good game that night as the Liverpool side wrote themselves into football history. He made an incredible free kick save at full stretch at the very start of the second half. The importance of this save should never be underestimated because if AC Milan had gone 4-0 up the game would most likely have been all over. However his save just about kept Liverpool in the game and gave the hope that led to the incredible comeback a few minutes later. As good as this save was the best was yet to come.
With three minutes left in extra time Jerzy made a double save that I still find hard to believe. This save certainly fits the bill whenever the phrase miracle of Istanbul is uttered. I remember looking away from the TV screen as the cross came in because surely there was no chance that Shevchenko could miss a header from point blank range. I opened my eyes to see the ball had gone behind for a corner. Somehow Jerzy had blocked Shevchenko's header then somehow diverted his follow up shot over the top from only a yard out. After this moment it appeared to be destiny for Liverpool to win the trophy. After coming back from 3-0 down and then Jerzy making this double save there seemed no way that we wouldn’t be taking Old Big Ears back to Anfield for keeps.
The game went to a penalty shoot-out and then Jerzy had another chance to make himself a hero. AC Milan was up first and the Brazilian Serghino was to take the first penalty. Jerzy then started jumping around on the goal line waving his arms and doing a starfish stance. This proved enough to cause a distraction and the penalty was blasted wide. Didi Hamman then stepped up to put the ball in the net. Up next was Pirlo for Milan and once again Jerzy was jumping around like a madman. Once again the tactics worked and he saved the pen. Cisse stepped up to put the Reds 2-0 up in the shoot-out and give us a massive advantage. The next two Milan penalties were scored and after Riise missed, Smicer had knocked his one in to put us just one penalty away from victory. Up stepped Shevchenko and I just knew that he was going to miss. After the save from Jerzy in extra time it was clear from the Ukranian’s eyes that he just felt it wasn’t going to be his night. This was proved correct as Jerzy saved the penalty and sent Liverpool fans all over the world into a celebration that has never been rivaled.
After such incredible heroics this was to prove the final highlight for Jerzy’s Liverpool career. During the summer of 2005 Pepe Reina was brought in and after Jerzy suffered an arm injury in pre-season he never got his place back. It seemed a cruel blow after he had been a hero just a few months earlier, but unfortunately for him Reina is a better goalkeeper and Jerzy had to be sacrificed for the benefit of the club. Jerzy remained at Liverpool for another two seasons but only made another twelve appearances in the first team, mostly in domestic cup games when Rafa decided to rest first team players. This was to have a major effect on Jerzy’s international career as he was left out of the Poland squad for the 2006 World Cup Finals due to his lack of playing time during the 2005/06 season.
Jerzy was released by Liverpool at the end of the 2006/07 season and it was a massive shock to everybody when it was revealed that he would be joining Real Madrid. He had complained previously about being treated like a slave by Rafa and he was clearly unhappy about being the second choice goalkeeper. This made his move to Real Madrid even more of a surprise as it meant he was swopping one bench for another as there was no chance of displacing the outstanding Iker Casillas at the Bernabau.
Jerzy has now been at Real Madrid for two seasons and he has only played eight times so far due to Casillas being possibly the finest goalkeeper in the world. When Real Madrid played Liverpool in the Champions League Jerzy was denied a chance to play at Anfield one more time when he was left on the bench. In the few games when Jerzy has played for Real Madrid he has actually been really good and in a couple of games he was chosen as the man of the match. He has been praised by his team-mates and manager as being a fantastic professional. Jerzy seemed set to return to Feyenoord in the summer of 2009 but elected to remain at Real Madrid.
Jerzy is a massive hero in Poland and he played a big role in securing the countries status as joint hosts for the 2012 European Championships. He was part of the Polish football association’s delegation and he is major ambassador for the country all over the world. He is also an honorary citizen of Knurow where he began his football career.
Jerzy Dudek is still thought of very fondly by Liverpool supporters. His heroics in Istanbul will never be forgotten and neither will his performance to help us beat Man Utd in the 2003 League Cup Final. It was also very much appreciated when he chose to stay one more season at Liverpool despite knowing he would be second choice and lose his international career. He was voted in at number 36 in the series ‘100 Players Who Shook the Kop’.
