A big problem for Industria Kielce. Without solving it, it will be hard to achieve success

Andreas Wolff played better without the armband

This season, Industria's Champions League is going like a cliffhanger. The club hasn't been in such serious danger of being eliminated from the competition after the group stage for many years. There are many reasons for this situation, but perhaps the most important is the lack of a goalkeeper of the right class. In almost every match, the outfield players have to make up for the poor play of their teammates in the "pit".

On a macro scale, this is the result of debts to the team that have been going on for over four years. On a micro scale, this resulted in the loss of one of the two best goalkeepers in the club's history. I am of course talking about last year's sale of Andreas Wolff to THW Kiel. His role was to be taken over by Sandro Meštrić, but neither he nor Bekir Cordalija, who was on the rise, nor Miłosz Wałach were up to the task at all. In December, Klemen Ferlin was supposed to be a lifeline, but it was clear from the start that he had problems with his knees, and now the joints have made themselves known - the Slovenian has been out of action for several weeks and Wałach and Cordalija were left for the matches that decided who would advance from the group, because Meštrić was loaned to Ostrów.

In general, the goalkeeper transfers over the last eight years are not a reason for pride for the Kielce team. After the era of Sławomir Szmal (who ended his career in 2018), Filip Ivic (in Kielce 2016–19) was expected, but the Croatian talent, who arrived at the age of 24, disappointed. Besides, he did not make a career anywhere after leaving. In 2018, another 24-year-old was brought in. The Serb Vladimir Cupara arrived from Ademar Leon as the best goalkeeper in the Spanish league. During the season, he played one really good match in the Champions League – against Paris Saint-Germain (34:24), so he also had to say goodbye to Kielce after a year. At that time, they decided to change the strategy.

For the 2019/20 season, instead of bringing in a goalkeeper on the rise again, they decided to go for a star plus a Pole. Wolff was supposed to be the star, and Mateusz Kornecki the Pole. Initially, this duo was average. While our player performed up to expectations (i.e. played well in the league, average in Europe), the German could not reach his very high level for a long time. He was helped only by... taking away the team captain's armband, which was taken over by Alex Dujshebaev. Wolff could stop thinking about the whole team and focus on his work. The effect came immediately - in the next two seasons there were Champions League finals, in the third, they only lost the quarterfinals on penalties. In these three seasons, Wolff was one of the most important figures in the team.

Klemen Ferlin, Slovenian Act of Desperation

This was already a period of financial difficulties in the team, intensified by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Industria, there was an increasingly feverish search for ways to fill the budget hole. No one was thinking about superpower plans anymore, rather about how to survive. Nedim Remili was sold and it was increasingly mentioned that a similar fate awaited Wolff - the penultimate of the stars for whom quite a lot of money could be taken (the last one was Alex Dujshebaev). Ultimately, Wolff left for Cologne in the summer of 2024, but then (or rather even a few months earlier) Kielce lacked forward-thinking. Even if there were no high-class goalkeepers available on the market and there was a lack of sufficiently large funds in the treasury, it was necessary to take into account not the 2024/25 season, but the next one, and sign a goalkeeper who would guarantee Champions League level. It would be possible to save money for him for a year - even at the expense of other positions. On the other hand - if the treasury was and is almost empty, it is indeed difficult to get any solid reinforcements.

Kielce actually started the current season under the slogan "somehow it will work out" and it was hoped that with three goalkeepers, one would always be in shape. Meanwhile, Meštrić, brought in in 2023, turned out to be a mistake and was sent to Ostrovia until the end of the season. 21-year-old Cordalija, brought in from the Bosnian league in the summer, is said to have talent, but is only taking his first steps in big handball. Besides, he was injured in the autumn. You can't expect miracles from Wałach, who is in Industria mainly for the needs of the "Polish" limit in the Orlen Superliga. Bringing in 35-year-old Ferlin in December was an act of desperation. The Slovenian signed a contract for a year and a half, but he is not a goalkeeper worthy of the top teams in the Champions League either.

In Industria they are counting on Adam Morawski, who is supposed to come from Melsungen in July, to be such a person. The 30-year-old is a kind of "two in one" - as a Pole he will help to meet the quota in the national competitions, and being better than Wałach, he will probably also hit more balls in the Champions League. The problem is that "Loczek" is capricious, he can play great, but also very poorly, and he spent more time on the bench in the two and a half seasons in the Bundesliga. Apart from that, he has never fought for the stakes that Industria is playing for, i.e. the Final Four Champions League. Morawski played in the CL with Wisła Płock, but the peak of dreams was always getting out of the group, and that is a completely different scale of requirements.

Let's hope we're wrong, but there are many indications that next season, instead of an outstanding goalkeeper who meets the club's goals, Industria will once again have two average players.