Back on the pitch after 252 days

252 days – that’s how long the fans waited to see Salamon on the pitch. On April 8^th, the defender appeared in the league match against Warta Poznań (2:0). A few days later, shortly before Lech faced Fiorentina in the quarterfinals of the Europa Conference League, Salamon was suspended – not only the defender couldn’t compete in matches, but he was also forbidden to train with the squad until UEFA announced the official ruling regarding the results of Salamon’s anti-doping test. In November, the defender finally received the long-awaited decision about the disqualification – the final ruling said that the player was suspended for 8 months, and those 8 months passed on December 14^th. Two days later, Salamon returned to the starting line-up for the away game against Radomiak Radom (2:2).

“How do you do that? You keep on believing and doing your job. Everything that happened 8 months ago was a shock to me. But after the initial consternation and slight depression, I decided I needed to react. I knew that sooner or later I would return, hence I implemented a training routine. I practised every day. And, of course, I believed that when eventually I would get a green light to return, I would be fully ready. That is exactly what happened – I trained perhaps 10 or 11 times with the team throughout the 7,5 months and today I played in a league game. I felt good on the pitch. I did it because I believe I still have a lot ahead of me football-wise. I want to help my team achieve success. I want us to dominate in the spring round,” explained the 32-year-old defender.

For most of the time, Bartosz trained in Italy to stay in shape, and when the time came, the defender was ready to play. “I didn’t feel a difference on the pitch. I admit that even I was surprised about it, but it only shows that if you believe, if you have a positive mindset, prepare yourself and have dreams and goals to strive towards, everything has to work out. I knew that I had to give 300% and today I bore the fruit of the hard work,” highlighted Salamon. He spent the whole 90 minutes on the pitch in his first league appearance following the suspension. “The coach did not outline a plan for my return. He trusted me, which he showed by putting me in the starting line-up. I guess that my performance in the training sessions convinced him to do so. However, all of it loses its relevance because we failed to win the match,” added the defender.

Lech had a two-goal advantage but drew 2:2. The hosts equalized after Jesper Karlstrom was sent off with a red card. Hence, Salamon’s return to the squad was bittersweet. On one hand, the defender could rejoice in being able to play again, but on the other, the team lost league points. “From the perspective of the pitch, I believe we were in control of the match until the red card; even when we gave some space to Radomiak, they didn’t cause problems for us. However, the card changed [the game] a lot, too much. Of course, being one man down benefits the opponent. But we are Lech Poznań and we should be able to play better, even with 10 players. We did score once but the goal was disallowed because of the offside. We could have done better. We moved deeper into the defence, the crosses into our box caused chaos, and pure accidents ended up deciding the final score. We need to take a closer look at how we managed those last few minutes,” analysed Salamon.

“I felt like I was returning to my natural environment and recovering what belongs to me – the football world, the pitch. I am happy that everything’s behind me now. Now I will focus on enjoying my job. A lot of boys dream about playing football; meanwhile, we do it [every day], we love it, and on top of that, it’s our job,” summarized the defender.