Ex-Arsenal striker Podolski joins Górnik Zabrze – Eight and final club of forward’s career?

“For me it is still an option that I will play in Poland at the end of my career, at Górnik Zabrze, ‘my’ club in Poland,” former Arsenal striker Lukas Podolski had already announced in 2016 in an interview on dfb.de. Now the time has come. The 36-year-old will wear the shirt of the Polish first division club in the future. This was officially announced on Tuesday.

Both the club and Podolski already hinted at the impending announcement with short video sequences on social media on Monday. The 2014 World Cup winner thus returns to his roots after the end of his contract with Antalyaspor. He was born in Gliwice, the neighbouring town of Zabrze, on June 4, 1985.

It is not the first time that the club, which finished tenth in the table last season, tried to convince Podolski to move to Poland. There was already contact in 2019, when it was clear that the attacker would leave Vissel Kobe. But he opted for a move to Turkey to Antalyaspor, where he was a regular and directly involved in six goals in 31 league appearances in 2020/21. Now, for the first time in his professional career, he has decided to move back to the country of his birth – possibly to retire there.