WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Welcome to today's deep dive. If you're joining 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:06.849 us, it's probably because you're... that specific 00:00:06.849 --> 00:00:09.189 type of person who just wants to be in the know. 00:00:09.390 --> 00:00:11.730 Yeah, the kind of person who loves diving into 00:00:11.730 --> 00:00:14.970 a really dense topic. Exactly. You want to come 00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:16.890 out the other side with a completely new perspective, 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:19.690 but you definitely don't want to spend like three 00:00:19.690 --> 00:00:22.030 weeks reading dry encyclopedias to get there. 00:00:22.190 --> 00:00:24.050 Which is completely understandable. Right. And 00:00:24.050 --> 00:00:25.890 that's exactly what we're doing today. We're 00:00:25.890 --> 00:00:28.410 looking at a comprehensive Wikipedia data set 00:00:28.410 --> 00:00:31.989 that covers over 50 years of history. Specifically, 00:00:32.270 --> 00:00:35.210 we're examining the annual football awards given 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:39.920 And just as a quick fun fact for anyone wondering, 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:42.920 that title literally translates to football. 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:45.159 Football, yeah. Two words. It's a remarkably 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:48.640 rich data set, though I'll admit when you first 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:50.759 open the source material, it just looks like 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:53.439 an incredibly long, somewhat intimidating table 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:56.840 of names, years, and clubs. Yeah, just rows and 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.960 rows of data. Right. It doesn't exactly screen 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:02.759 thrilling narrative at first glance, but when 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:05.280 you really start analyzing the columns and specifically 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:08.319 the progression of the winners over time, it 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:11.540 reveals this incredible story about the evolution 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:14.370 of a sport. That's a pretty bold claim, though. 00:01:14.469 --> 00:01:16.810 I mean, a giant table of names and dates doesn't 00:01:16.810 --> 00:01:18.730 sound like an incredible story right out at the 00:01:18.730 --> 00:01:21.090 gate. True. So how do we get from a magazine's 00:01:21.090 --> 00:01:24.349 annual poll to a sprawling historical narrative? 00:01:24.730 --> 00:01:27.549 Our mission for this deep dive is to unpack exactly 00:01:27.549 --> 00:01:30.489 that. We want to track how a single domestic 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:33.989 journalistic award evolved from recognizing local 00:01:33.989 --> 00:01:37.810 hometown talent into a massive global barometer 00:01:37.810 --> 00:01:40.829 of sporting excellence. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:41.870 --> 00:01:44.489 does this story begin? Because I'm guessing football 00:01:44.489 --> 00:01:46.329 in Poland didn't just magically start in the 00:01:46.329 --> 00:01:49.049 1970s. You're right. It definitely didn't. The 00:01:49.049 --> 00:01:51.849 continuous formalized tradition of the Pekanuna 00:01:51.849 --> 00:01:54.090 plebiscite, which is basically just a massive 00:01:54.090 --> 00:01:56.629 formalized poll voted on by a jury of journalists. 00:01:56.790 --> 00:01:59.709 That began in 1973. Now, the source material 00:01:59.709 --> 00:02:03.109 does point out that before 1973, there were similar 00:02:03.109 --> 00:02:06.329 polls conducted by a Katowice -based weekly newspaper 00:02:06.329 --> 00:02:09.169 called Sport. Sport. Very straightforward name. 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:12.360 Very. And those older polls date back to 1966, 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:16.060 featuring a player named Zygmunt Anksak. And 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:18.199 they included legendary names like Vucimierz 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:21.620 Lubacki and Stanislaw Ushlizio. So why don't 00:02:21.620 --> 00:02:24.900 we start there? Like, why is 1973 the magic number 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:27.560 for this data set? Because those earlier sport 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:30.539 newspaper polls were just less frequent. and 00:02:30.539 --> 00:02:32.680 far less formalized across multiple categories. 00:02:32.919 --> 00:02:35.319 Gotcha. The reason 1973 is our true starting 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:37.659 line and the reason an annual formalized award 00:02:37.659 --> 00:02:40.419 matters so much to historians and analysts is 00:02:40.419 --> 00:02:42.759 because it creates an unbroken data set. Yeah, 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:45.710 that consistency is key. Exactly. When you have 00:02:45.710 --> 00:02:47.849 journalists voting every single year using a 00:02:47.849 --> 00:02:49.990 consistent framework, you can actually start 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:52.569 tracking historical trends. You can see the ebbs 00:02:52.569 --> 00:02:54.770 and flows of a nation's sporting culture, the 00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:57.289 economic shifts, the migration of talent. That 00:02:57.289 --> 00:02:59.349 makes total sense. The unbroken line is what 00:02:59.349 --> 00:03:01.409 lets you actually see the patterns over time. 00:03:01.729 --> 00:03:03.710 Right. So let's step into our time machine and 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:05.990 head back to that inaugural year of the Picanuna 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:09.979 Awards. 1973. The very first player of the year 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:12.219 goes to Kazimierz Dana, a midfielder playing 00:03:12.219 --> 00:03:15.500 for Ligia Warsaw. And the very first newcomer 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:18.620 of the year goes to Marisa Bulzaki. When you 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:20.960 look at these early years, there's a very specific 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.580 flavor to the data, isn't there? What's fascinating 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:26.860 here is the complete domestic insulation of the 00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:29.580 awards in that era. Domestic insulation? Yeah. 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:32.180 If you look at the entirety of the 1970s in this 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:34.960 data set, there's a clear, undeniable pattern. 00:03:35.710 --> 00:03:38.250 Every single winner of the main player of the 00:03:38.250 --> 00:03:40.389 year award was playing for a domestic Polish 00:03:40.389 --> 00:03:42.810 club at the time they won. Wow. Every single 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:45.009 one. Every single one. You've got Dana at Legion 00:03:45.009 --> 00:03:48.469 Warsaw in 73 and 74. Right. Zygmunt Maszyk at 00:03:48.469 --> 00:03:51.979 Ruch Korczow in 75. Henrik Kaspersak at Stalmulek 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:56.620 in 76 and 77. Zigny Boniek at Widju Odu in 78. 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:01.180 And Wojciech Rudi at Zagubi Sosnević in 79. So 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:03.280 if we had this unbroken chain from the 70s, does 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:06.000 it just stay a predictable, pristine list of 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.099 domestic players year after year? You'd think 00:04:08.099 --> 00:04:11.259 so. But the data throws a massive curveball right 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:14.060 at the start of the next decade. We hit 1980, 00:04:14.259 --> 00:04:17.079 and the player of the year column is just blank. 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:20.709 Blank. It simply wasn't awarded. Wait, Blank, 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:22.610 did they cancel the whole ceremony that year? 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:25.829 That's the fascinating part. They didn't. They 00:04:25.829 --> 00:04:28.490 still awarded a Newcomer of the Year to Piotr 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:31.470 Skrobowski from Wissi Sokrakol. Okay. They handed 00:04:31.470 --> 00:04:34.350 out Code to the Year to Hubert Koska from Zombiorki 00:04:34.350 --> 00:04:38.230 Bidem. But the top prize... The absolute pinnacle 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:40.550 of the awards. Yeah. Deliberately left empty. 00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:43.550 Man, that is a serious flex of editorial power. 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:45.930 It really is. When a jury of sports journalists 00:04:45.930 --> 00:04:48.389 withholds the top prize, they aren't just saying 00:04:48.389 --> 00:04:50.810 no one was good. They're sending a deliberate, 00:04:50.949 --> 00:04:53.769 highly publicized message to the entire footballing 00:04:53.769 --> 00:04:55.410 establishment that the standard has completely 00:04:55.410 --> 00:04:58.430 dropped. Exactly. Imagine hosting a massive, 00:04:58.509 --> 00:05:01.509 glitzy awards gala, bringing everyone together 00:05:01.509 --> 00:05:03.550 and then just staring down the audience from 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:05.449 the podium to say, actually, none of you earned 00:05:05.449 --> 00:05:08.350 this. harder next year. It's a fantastic point. 00:05:08.449 --> 00:05:10.310 And it happens more than once in the data set. 00:05:10.410 --> 00:05:13.089 Fast forward to 2003. If you look at the coach 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:16.670 of the year category, it explicitly says not 00:05:16.670 --> 00:05:19.649 awarded. But right next to it, the journalists 00:05:19.649 --> 00:05:22.209 added a note that a distinction was given to 00:05:22.209 --> 00:05:25.329 Joszek Zieliski, who was managing Gornik Shrijna 00:05:25.329 --> 00:05:27.350 at the time. A distinction that's almost worse 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:29.189 than getting nothing. Yeah. It's like getting 00:05:29.189 --> 00:05:31.730 a gold star for participation while they lock 00:05:31.730 --> 00:05:34.759 the actual trophy in a vault. It really is. And 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:37.120 it brings up a crucial point for you as the listener 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.759 to keep in mind when looking at this kind of 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.939 source material. We look at tables and spreadsheets, 00:05:42.939 --> 00:05:45.360 and we tend to think of them as objective scientific 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:48.420 outputs. It's just data, right? Right. It feels 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:51.319 very absolute. But these historical gaps, these 00:05:51.319 --> 00:05:53.860 withheld trophies and passive -aggressive distinctions, 00:05:53.860 --> 00:05:57.360 are a stark reminder that this is a juried award. 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:00.459 These are human beings making highly subjective, 00:06:00.819 --> 00:06:03.459 sometimes very critical decisions about the state 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:05.180 of their sport. Which changes how you read the 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:08.180 whole thing. Exactly. If they feel no one met 00:06:08.180 --> 00:06:10.040 the standard of excellence for the main award 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:13.379 in 1980, or no coach deserved the outright title 00:06:13.379 --> 00:06:16.740 in 2003, they simply withhold it. They protect 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:19.500 the prestige of the award by refusing to hand 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:22.199 it out. It adds so much personality to what would 00:06:22.199 --> 00:06:25.420 otherwise just be a spreadsheet. But moving past 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:27.959 those brilliant little oddities, the data set 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:30.439 also shows how the scope of the awards began 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:33.699 to rapidly expand. Oh, massively. The magazine 00:06:33.699 --> 00:06:35.899 didn't just stick to player and newcomer of the 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:38.360 year. Over the decades, they started aggressively 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:41.069 adding to the trophy cabinet. We see the introduction 00:06:41.069 --> 00:06:44.050 of coach of the year, team of the year, foreigner 00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:47.430 of the year, extra classe player, I -liga player, 00:06:47.709 --> 00:06:50.170 which represents the second tier of Polish football, 00:06:50.449 --> 00:06:53.649 and eventually women's player and women's newcomer 00:06:53.649 --> 00:06:55.629 of the year. The expansion of the categories 00:06:55.629 --> 00:06:58.629 really mirrors the professionalization and the 00:06:58.629 --> 00:07:02.120 widening scope of modern football globally. You 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.120 can't capture the reality of the sport with just 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.279 two awards anymore. No, the game is too complex 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:08.240 now. Right. Take the Coach of the Year category, 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:10.180 for instance. It officially starts appearing 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:12.980 in the data set around 1975, first awarded to 00:07:12.980 --> 00:07:15.100 Leszek Jasierski. And if you want to know who 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:17.639 the true architects, the absolute survivors of 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:19.579 Polish football were over the last few decades, 00:07:19.779 --> 00:07:21.740 you just have to look at the joint record holders 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:23.860 in this specific column. Who are they? Princess 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:27.139 Xmuda and Poe Giannis. They each hold four Coach 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:29.899 of the Year titles. Four each is just wild in 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:31.459 the coaching world. It really is an anomaly. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:33.639 Because managers are usually hired to be fired. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:35.740 Winning it four times means you aren't just having 00:07:35.740 --> 00:07:38.360 a lucky season, you're defining an era. Or in 00:07:38.360 --> 00:07:41.079 their cases, multiple eras. Precisely. Xmuda 00:07:41.079 --> 00:07:43.519 won his first two back -to -back in 1996 and 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:47.160 1997 while managing with Zuorudu. He won again 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:50.240 in 1999, splitting his time between Wissow Krakow 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:53.420 and Lizio Warsaw. Wow. And then he pulls off 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:56.339 a fourth win nearly a decade later in 2008 with 00:07:56.339 --> 00:07:59.180 Lech Posna. You have to constantly adapt your 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:01.459 tactical approach to stay relevant for that long. 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:03.699 Yeah. The game completely changed between 96 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:06.699 and 2008. It really did. Then you have Poe Yiannis, 00:08:06.779 --> 00:08:09.860 who mirrors that kind of longevity. He won back 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:12.139 -to -back in 1994 and 1995 with Lugia Warsaw. 00:08:12.420 --> 00:08:14.660 Okay. And then had his own massive resurgence, 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:17.889 winning in 2004 and 2005. But for those later 00:08:17.889 --> 00:08:20.930 wins, he wasn't managing a club. He was the coach 00:08:20.930 --> 00:08:23.550 of the Poland men's national team. That shows 00:08:23.550 --> 00:08:26.029 an incredible ability to navigate a profession 00:08:26.029 --> 00:08:29.850 that is notoriously unforgiving. Now, speaking 00:08:29.850 --> 00:08:31.810 of these expanding categories, here's where it 00:08:31.810 --> 00:08:33.889 gets really interesting. Oh, yeah. Let's look 00:08:33.889 --> 00:08:35.570 closely at the foreigner of the year category. 00:08:35.809 --> 00:08:39.190 On paper, this is supposed to be for the best 00:08:39.190 --> 00:08:43.120 non -Polish player operating within the Polish 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.759 domestic system, right? A way to honor the international 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:49.159 talent elevating the local weed. But in 2006, 00:08:49.580 --> 00:08:53.799 the data takes a weird turn. The winner of the 00:08:53.799 --> 00:08:55.940 foreigner of the year wasn't a player at all. 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:59.220 No, it wasn't. It was Leo Benhacker, the coach 00:08:59.220 --> 00:09:02.200 of the Poland men's national team. It's a brilliant 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:04.720 little loophole that journalists utilized. Benhacker 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.500 is a legendary Dutch manager, a massive international 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:11.580 name. Yeah. And in 2006, his impact on the Polish 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:14.120 national team was apparently so profound, so 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:16.679 transformative that the voting journalists felt 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:19.000 he was undeniably the most important foreign 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.580 figure in Polish football. Period. That's hilarious. 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:23.679 They just ignored their own category definition. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:26.299 They really did. Whether they were on the pitch 00:09:26.299 --> 00:09:28.460 wearing cleats or on the sidelines in a suit. 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:31.480 Ben Hacker was the foreigner who mattered most 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:34.059 that year. It's just another perfect example 00:09:34.059 --> 00:09:36.399 of how subjective and narrative driven these 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.700 awards really are. The journalists wanted to 00:09:38.700 --> 00:09:40.519 honor him, so they just bent their own rules 00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:42.940 to make it happen. Exactly. And while we're on 00:09:42.940 --> 00:09:45.019 the subject of foreign influence blurring the 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:47.159 lines of the data set, we have to talk about 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:50.639 Emmanuel Elissadebe. Yes. In 2001, he actually 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:53.399 won the overall player of the year award. He 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:56.159 was a Nigerian born striker who gained Polish 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.539 citizenship and became an absolute superstar. 00:09:58.669 --> 00:10:01.370 star, playing for Polonia Warsaw, then moving 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:04.190 to Panathinaikos and becoming a hero for the 00:10:04.190 --> 00:10:07.210 Polish national team. You can see how the strict 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:09.649 definition of what constitutes Polish football 00:10:09.649 --> 00:10:12.409 is starting to blur, expand and modernize by 00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:15.250 the early 2000s. Which perfectly sets the stage 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:17.620 for the modern era of this data set. Because 00:10:17.620 --> 00:10:19.940 if the early decades of the Picanuna plebiscite 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.659 were about identifying local homegrown heroes, 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.360 and the early 2000s were about expanding the 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:28.379 borders, the current era is entirely defined 00:10:28.379 --> 00:10:32.419 by absolute, unprecedented global dominance by 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:35.659 a select few. Right. So we see the awards slowly 00:10:35.659 --> 00:10:38.179 moving abroad in the early 2000s. The talent 00:10:38.179 --> 00:10:41.539 is starting to migrate. But starting around 2011, 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:44.299 this trickle of foreign winners turns into an 00:10:44.299 --> 00:10:47.500 absolute tsunami. And it's driven by one man. 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:49.759 We have to talk about the Titan in the data set. 00:10:50.169 --> 00:10:52.190 Robert Lewandowski. We can't talk about Polish 00:10:52.190 --> 00:10:53.970 football without him. If you look at the source 00:10:53.970 --> 00:10:56.590 material up through the year 2026, the numbers 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:59.009 attached to his name are just staggering. He 00:10:59.009 --> 00:11:01.230 holds the record with 13 player of the year wins. 00:11:01.590 --> 00:11:03.789 13. To really put that in perspective for you, 00:11:03.809 --> 00:11:05.610 the person in second place on the all -time list 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:08.169 is Ibi Smolarik, who won it three times. Three 00:11:08.169 --> 00:11:11.870 times compared to 13. Exactly. And Ibi Smolarik 00:11:11.870 --> 00:11:14.730 was a fantastic, highly celebrated player. He 00:11:14.730 --> 00:11:18.570 won three in a row in 2005, 2006, and 2007 while 00:11:18.570 --> 00:11:20.990 playing out in Western Europe for Borussia Dortmund 00:11:20.990 --> 00:11:24.210 and Racing Santander. That was considered a massive 00:11:24.210 --> 00:11:26.809 achievement. Right. A legendary run. But what 00:11:26.809 --> 00:11:30.190 Lewandowski has done is completely shatter the 00:11:30.190 --> 00:11:32.769 scale of the award. He didn't just break the 00:11:32.769 --> 00:11:36.309 record. He made it entirely unreachable. It really 00:11:36.309 --> 00:11:38.490 is incredible to trace his specific timeline 00:11:38.490 --> 00:11:40.769 through this data because he doesn't just magically 00:11:40.769 --> 00:11:42.409 appear at the top of the mountain. You can watch 00:11:42.409 --> 00:11:44.690 him level up in real time, column by column. 00:11:44.769 --> 00:11:47.629 Yes, you can see his entire career arc. In 2008, 00:11:47.830 --> 00:11:50.429 he wins Newcomer of the Year while playing domestically 00:11:50.429 --> 00:11:53.850 for Znicz Pruskow and Lech Puzna. The very next 00:11:53.850 --> 00:11:56.769 year, 2009, he takes a step up and wins the extra 00:11:56.769 --> 00:11:59.350 class of player of the year, which is the specific 00:11:59.350 --> 00:12:01.789 award for the best player in the domestic top 00:12:01.789 --> 00:12:03.690 slight league, still playing with Lech Posna. 00:12:03.830 --> 00:12:06.330 And then he leaves the country and the floodgates 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:09.350 open. From 2011 onward, the main player of the 00:12:09.350 --> 00:12:11.730 year award essentially becomes the Robert Lewandowski 00:12:11.730 --> 00:12:13.950 Invitational. The Invitational. That's perfect. 00:12:14.149 --> 00:12:17.370 He wins it seven consecutive times from 2011 00:12:17.370 --> 00:12:21.879 to 2017. Then. After goalkeeper Ukas Fabianski 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:25.059 briefly interrupts the streak in 2018, Lewandowski 00:12:25.059 --> 00:12:28.059 just starts a new streak. Unbelievable. He wins 00:12:28.059 --> 00:12:31.279 another four in a row from 2019 to 2022. He picks 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:34.700 it up again in 2024 and then again in 2025. But 00:12:34.700 --> 00:12:36.980 the most crucial detail here isn't just the sheer 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:39.559 number of wins. It's where he's playing during 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:42.779 this 13 -win monolith of a run. He's not playing 00:12:42.779 --> 00:12:44.940 in Warsaw or Poznań. No, he isn't. He's at Borussia 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:47.019 Dortmund. Then he's at Bayern Munich, which is 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:48.940 where he secures the bulk of his wins and becomes 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.360 a global superstar. And he moves to Barcelona. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:53.600 Right. He essentially took the most prestigious 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:56.299 Polish football award and turned it into a trophy 00:12:56.299 --> 00:12:58.639 that lives permanently in Germany and Spain. 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:02.230 Yeah. But as massive as his shadow is, Lewandowski 00:13:02.230 --> 00:13:05.009 isn't the only one doing this. We need to pivot 00:13:05.009 --> 00:13:07.490 to another massive structural shift in the data 00:13:07.490 --> 00:13:11.110 set, which happens in 2015. 2015 is a vital year 00:13:11.110 --> 00:13:13.870 to analyze because it marks the formal introduction 00:13:13.870 --> 00:13:17.409 of the women's player of the year category. Now, 00:13:17.490 --> 00:13:19.809 it's worth noting that introducing this in 2015 00:13:19.809 --> 00:13:22.809 means the data set essentially missed decades 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:25.120 of earlier women's football history. That's a 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.139 really important caveat, yeah. But the moment 00:13:27.139 --> 00:13:29.720 it is introduced, it immediately reflects the 00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:32.279 modern reality of the sport. Absolutely. The 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.200 moment the category opens, we don't see a slow 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:38.019 buildup of domestic talent like we did with the 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:41.120 Men's Award in the 70s. Right out of the gate, 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:44.080 we see the establishment of the queens of Polish 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:46.659 football, and they are already operating on a 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:49.500 global stage. The category is instantly dominated 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:51.659 by players competing at the absolute highest 00:13:51.659 --> 00:13:54.789 levels of the European game. Katarzyna Kijanek 00:13:54.789 --> 00:13:57.769 wins the inaugural award in 2015 and then immediately 00:13:57.769 --> 00:14:01.529 defends it in 2016 and 2017. Wow. Three in a 00:14:01.529 --> 00:14:03.610 row right from the start. And all three times, 00:14:03.710 --> 00:14:06.090 she isn't playing in Poland. She's playing for 00:14:06.090 --> 00:14:08.450 Para Sonderman, one of the wealthiest, most premier 00:14:08.450 --> 00:14:11.090 clubs in the world. She essentially forces the 00:14:11.090 --> 00:14:13.149 data set to recognize a whole new demographic 00:14:13.149 --> 00:14:16.429 of global Polish excellence. But then another 00:14:16.429 --> 00:14:18.970 force of nature enters the chat and completely 00:14:18.970 --> 00:14:22.870 takes over, Iwa Pajer. Yes, Iwa Pager's record 00:14:22.870 --> 00:14:26.169 in the women's category rapidly starts to mirror 00:14:26.169 --> 00:14:29.309 Lewandowski's in the men's. Pager wins the award 00:14:29.309 --> 00:14:33.190 six times between 2018 and 2025. Six times. She 00:14:33.190 --> 00:14:37.049 wins back -to -back in 2018 and 2019. Then there 00:14:37.049 --> 00:14:39.970 is a brief two -year interruption where Polina 00:14:39.970 --> 00:14:42.659 Dudak... who notably is also playing for Paris 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:45.539 Saint -Germain wins in 2020 and 2021. Okay. But 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:48.419 Pager returns to firmly reclaim the crown, winning 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:51.480 four consecutive times from 2022 through 2025. 00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:53.879 And again, look at the clubs listed next to her 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:56.139 name in the data set. Lua Pajor is winning these 00:14:56.139 --> 00:14:58.919 awards while playing for VFL Wolfsburg in Germany, 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:00.960 which is a powerhouse in the women's game. Huge 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:02.620 powerhouse. And then eventually she moves to 00:15:02.620 --> 00:15:05.690 Barcelona in Spain. Sound familiar? If we connect 00:15:05.690 --> 00:15:08.190 this to the bigger picture, the parallel is undeniable. 00:15:08.370 --> 00:15:10.990 Both Lewandowski and Pedro achieved their record 00:15:10.990 --> 00:15:13.509 -breaking multi -year dominance not by staying 00:15:13.509 --> 00:15:15.690 within the domestic Polish system, but by leaving 00:15:15.690 --> 00:15:19.830 it. They became indispensable, transcendent superstars 00:15:19.830 --> 00:15:23.470 for massive international mega clubs. We're talking 00:15:23.470 --> 00:15:26.610 about Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Paris 00:15:26.610 --> 00:15:28.669 Saint -Germain. Which brings us to the overarching 00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:31.629 narrative hiding in plain sight within the club's 00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:34.210 column of this entire data set. It's the story 00:15:34.210 --> 00:15:36.950 of a changing world. Yes, absolutely. We mentioned 00:15:36.950 --> 00:15:39.610 earlier that in the 1970s, every single winner 00:15:39.610 --> 00:15:42.110 played for a Polish club. But as you scroll down 00:15:42.110 --> 00:15:44.090 through the decades, through the 80s, the 90s, 00:15:44.090 --> 00:15:46.769 the 2000s, you literally watch the globalization 00:15:46.769 --> 00:15:50.090 of Polish football happening year by year, row 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:53.419 by row. The pipeline. From domestic talent to 00:15:53.419 --> 00:15:56.419 global export becomes starkly clear. You can 00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:58.960 actually pinpoint the exact transitional figures 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.840 in the data. Look at Zbigniew Boniak. Oh, yeah. 00:16:02.059 --> 00:16:04.779 In 1978, he wins Player of the Year while playing 00:16:04.779 --> 00:16:07.440 domestically for Widju Yudu. But when he wins 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:10.860 it again in 1982, his club listed is Juventus. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.580 In Italy. Right. He's moved to Italy. That right 00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:15.610 there is the turning point in the data set. It 00:16:15.610 --> 00:16:18.389 really is the hinge of history. By the time we 00:16:18.389 --> 00:16:21.049 hit the 2000s and 2010s, the main player of the 00:16:21.049 --> 00:16:23.570 year award is almost completely hijacked by players 00:16:23.570 --> 00:16:26.289 at foreign clubs. It's no longer a domestic award 00:16:26.289 --> 00:16:29.289 in practice. Never. You have Jerzy Dudek winning 00:16:29.289 --> 00:16:31.850 in 2000 while playing for Feyenoord in the Netherlands. 00:16:32.149 --> 00:16:34.990 You have Jeschik Krasinoek winning in 2003 and 00:16:34.990 --> 00:16:37.710 2004 playing in Germany for Nurnberg and Bayer 00:16:37.710 --> 00:16:40.529 Leverkusen. We already talked about Ibi Smolarek 00:16:40.529 --> 00:16:43.450 at Borussia Dortmund. Pieter Zieliski wins it 00:16:43.450 --> 00:16:46.450 in 2023 playing for... Napoli and Italy, the 00:16:46.450 --> 00:16:49.190 ultimate prize for Polish football is now almost 00:16:49.190 --> 00:16:51.769 exclusively handed to athletes who don't play 00:16:51.769 --> 00:16:54.049 a single minute of club football in Poland anymore. 00:16:54.250 --> 00:16:57.250 And that reality, the fact that the main award 00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:00.330 effectively migrated to Western Europe, explains 00:17:00.330 --> 00:17:03.309 exactly why the magazine had introduced the extra 00:17:03.309 --> 00:17:05.710 klasa player of the year category. Because they 00:17:05.710 --> 00:17:07.839 needed something else. Right. When your national 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:10.119 talent pool is so good that your absolute best 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:13.019 players are inevitably poached by the English 00:17:13.019 --> 00:17:15.619 Premier League, the German Bundesliga, or Spain's 00:17:15.619 --> 00:17:18.319 La Liga, you still need a way to recognize the 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:20.420 people actually playing in your local stadiums 00:17:20.420 --> 00:17:22.920 week in and week out. It's a bit like the Oscars 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:26.180 versus a local, highly respected indie film festival. 00:17:26.900 --> 00:17:29.559 Lewandowski is out in Munich and Barcelona winning 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.460 the blockbuster global prize year after year. 00:17:32.859 --> 00:17:35.660 But the extra class award is there to make sure 00:17:35.660 --> 00:17:38.819 the incredibly vital homegrown indie cinema isn't 00:17:38.819 --> 00:17:40.680 ignored. That's a great way to look at it. It 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:42.799 functions almost like a domestic consolation 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:45.180 prize, but an incredibly important one for the 00:17:45.180 --> 00:17:47.460 fans who actually buy tickets to local matches. 00:17:47.700 --> 00:17:50.039 While the international superstars are off winning 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.309 Champions League. leagues, the extra class award 00:17:52.309 --> 00:17:55.470 is shining a spotlight on domestic heroes. Exactly. 00:17:55.509 --> 00:17:58.410 Players like Tomas Frankowski at Wissow Krakow 00:17:58.410 --> 00:18:02.309 in 2004, Kamil Grosicki at Pogo Schutzen in 2022 00:18:02.309 --> 00:18:06.390 and 2023, or Jakub Motor at Lech Poznań in 2020. 00:18:06.789 --> 00:18:09.589 This category ensures that the local league isn't 00:18:09.589 --> 00:18:11.450 forgotten just because the national stars have 00:18:11.450 --> 00:18:13.730 gone global. It creates a beautiful duality in 00:18:13.730 --> 00:18:15.920 the data set. When you read the columns side 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.420 by side, the extra klasa award shows you the 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:20.519 current grounded state of the domestic league, 00:18:20.619 --> 00:18:22.440 while the main player of the year award shows 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:24.940 you the maximum limitless potential of the Polish 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:27.460 athlete on the global stage. Okay, let's unpack 00:18:27.460 --> 00:18:30.880 this. So what does this all mean for us? We started 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:34.079 looking at a simple list of names in 1973, with 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:36.779 Kazimierz Dana playing for Liga Warsaw, back 00:18:36.779 --> 00:18:39.160 in an insulated era where the best players stayed 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:43.440 home. And we journeyed all the way to 2025, an 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:46.059 era completely defined by the staggering, record 00:18:46.059 --> 00:18:48.460 -breaking dominance of Robert Lewandowski and 00:18:48.460 --> 00:18:51.190 Iwa Pager. Two athletes who have conquered the 00:18:51.190 --> 00:18:53.210 sport while playing for some of the biggest global 00:18:53.210 --> 00:18:55.809 brands on the planet. Yeah. We've watched a purely 00:18:55.809 --> 00:18:58.589 domestic league transform right before our eyes 00:18:58.589 --> 00:19:01.809 in the data into a highly effective launch pad 00:19:01.809 --> 00:19:04.369 for international superstardom. And along the 00:19:04.369 --> 00:19:06.690 way, we've seen how the journalists themselves, 00:19:07.150 --> 00:19:09.789 the curators of this history, have had to constantly 00:19:09.789 --> 00:19:11.589 adapt. Right. They couldn't just keep things 00:19:11.589 --> 00:19:13.910 the same. They added new categories. They made 00:19:13.910 --> 00:19:16.210 highly subjective judgment calls. And sometimes 00:19:16.210 --> 00:19:19.200 they even withheld awards entirely just to. accurately 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.480 capture the rapidly changing landscape of their 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:24.140 sport exactly so the next time you are looking 00:19:24.140 --> 00:19:26.519 at a list of award winners whether it is sports 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:29.140 music science or anything else i want you to 00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:31.000 challenge yourself don't just read it like a 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.700 phone book Look closer. Look beyond the names 00:19:33.700 --> 00:19:35.920 of the winners. Look at the locations. Look at 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:38.160 the missing years. Look at how the categories 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:41.259 change over time. Because there are always massive 00:19:41.259 --> 00:19:43.900 geographical, economic, and historical shifts 00:19:43.900 --> 00:19:47.339 hiding right there in the raw data, just waiting 00:19:47.339 --> 00:19:50.359 for someone to notice them. This raises an important 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:52.440 question, though. Something to consider as we 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:54.299 wrap up our conversation today. What's that? 00:19:54.750 --> 00:19:57.269 If the ultimate domestic prize in a nation's 00:19:57.269 --> 00:20:00.089 sport is almost exclusively won by athletes who 00:20:00.089 --> 00:20:02.569 no longer play in that nation, does the award 00:20:02.569 --> 00:20:04.910 actually celebrate the strength and vitality 00:20:04.910 --> 00:20:08.250 of the country's own footballing system? Or does 00:20:08.250 --> 00:20:10.849 it merely highlight its role as a massive factory, 00:20:11.089 --> 00:20:13.910 an exporter of premier talent to the rest of 00:20:13.910 --> 00:20:16.210 the world? Ooh, that is a fantastic question 00:20:16.210 --> 00:20:18.150 to leave hanging in the air. Does it mean the 00:20:18.150 --> 00:20:20.990 system is thriving or just really good at saying 00:20:20.990 --> 00:20:23.460 goodbye? That is something for you to ponder 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:25.799 long after we are done speaking today. Thank 00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:27.380 you for joining us and letting us share this 00:20:27.380 --> 00:20:29.180 journey through the archives with you. Keep digging, 00:20:29.339 --> 00:20:31.359 keep looking for the hidden stories in the numbers, 00:20:31.460 --> 00:20:34.200 and most importantly, keep learning. We'll catch 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:34.660 you next time.