Jakub Kiwior's globetrotting route to Arsenal
Our Polish defender on how he already has plenty of experience of settling into various team dynamics at such a tender age
Jakub Kiwior was just 16 years old when he first moved abroad in order to further his career, and the mental fortitude and resilience he built up during those teenage years have stood him in excellent stead ever since.
He has called five different countries home already, and each time the Polish defender has moved he has had to adjust to a new environment, a new language, new teammates and, most significantly, a step up in class. And that’s what has always motivated him – getting the best out of himself, whatever the surroundings.
Having started at his hometown club GKS Tychy in southern Poland, Jakub decided to uproot and move more than 1,200km east to Anderlecht in Belgium at the age of 16 to start fulfilling his undoubted potential. That was followed by moves to Slovakia, Italy and finally England, when Jakub arrived at Arsenal just under a year ago.
It wasn’t always plain sailing, and there have been plenty of challenges to overcome, but all the time his focus has been on his career, and he’s now reaping the rewards for years of perseverance.
It all started with that move to Anderlecht just over seven years ago, and the defender says that moving so far from home at such a young age, although daunting, was an exciting prospect.
“I had trained a lot with the first team at Tychy, but unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to make my debut there,” he says. “I only played in the reserves and youth team for a year and a half. Then when I was 16 I had the opportunity to join a club abroad for the first time. That was exciting for me. I was very young still, but I wanted to go, and so I joined Anderlecht in Belgium. I must say that it was very hard at the beginning, being away from home, but the good thing was that I moved with my father.
“The main thing was the language. I only spoke Polish, and obviously in the changing rooms the players all spoke French, Dutch or whatever. I joined a school in Belgium to help with language, an international school, because I was still young.
“But it’s true it was difficult at the beginning. I was the only Polish guy in the team, most guys spoke French, even the players from all over the world, so when I started with the language it got easier for me.”
Despite these difficulties, young Jakub remained fiercely motivated to succeed, and it was only due to a lack of playing opportunities that he decided to move on.
“I spent two and a half years with Anderlecht, and I played mainly for the under-17, under-19 and reserve teams there. It wasn’t the worst time there, but still I made the decision to leave because I didn’t feel like I would get the chance to play in the first team.
“So when I was 19, I moved again, this time to FK Podbrezova in Slovakia.”
It was footballing country number three for the young Jakub, and on this occasion, he was flying solo.
“My father didn’t come with me this time,” he says. “I lived in a hotel when I joined Podbrezova, but Slovakia is not so far away from Poland, so it wasn’t too bad. “Also the language is very similar. It’s almost like a dialect of Polish, so I could understand my teammates better. I went there for a two-week training camp at first, and after those two weeks I could virtually speak Slovakian.
“That two-week camp had a huge impact on me. It was definitely much easier for me around the team after that. I could speak to my teammates, I had made a couple of friends in the team, and also the experienced players in the team really helped me to settle in. I felt more at home there, it felt completely different to what I’d known in Belgium.”
From a young age then, Jakub has able to assimilate into team culture, wherever he was playing. After not progressing to first-team football in Belgium, many youngsters would have been forgiven for wanting to return home. Not Jakub. His decision was purely based on football.
“When I left Anderlecht I didn’t feel like I wanted to return to the Polish league as soon as possible, because the Polish league looked much different then than it does today,” he says. “So we decided to go to Slovakia, and the Slovak league was not at all worse than the Polish one. I decided it would be the right league for me to try to start my senior career, to play first-team football, so that’s why I did it.
“When I left Poland at 16, my plan was to play abroad, and I wanted to stick to that plan, even if it wasn’t with Anderlecht any more. We decided to go for it, I wanted to experience a higher level of football, whatever country that was.”
Jakub’s ability to mix and integrate into a new team proved very useful at Podbrezova, as he spent most of his time with his teammates, even after training.
“I had friends my age in the team there and we would go out together after training for dinner or for a coffee sometimes, so I was part of the group and that made it easier. Honestly, though, we often stayed together in my hotel where I was, or at people’s houses, because there was not much to do in town.
“So I got to know my teammates well after training sessions, there was a good togetherness there, and that made my football easier. This was my first time living on my own in another country, so having my teammates with me made me feel better. It was a big impact on my life at that stage, learning how to live away from home.”
Podbrezova were relegated at the end of his first season in Slovakia, but Jakub had obviously impressed because he stayed in the top flight, moving to Zilina – one of the most successful teams in the country.
“I wanted to stay in Slovakia, and also Zilina is only two hours away from Tychy, so it was a nice move for me, and they are one of the top teams in Slovakia too.”
After helping his side finish second in the league in his first season, then reach the final of the Slovak Cup the following season (scoring in the 2-1 defeat in the final against Slovan Bratislava) Jakub was attracting interest from the continent’s major leagues. In August 2021, he joined Serie A side Spezia.
Another move, another step up, but by now there was another consideration that Jakub had to factor in – his then-fiancée, and now wife, Claudia. Jakub and Claudia, a professional dancer, were married in June, having met as teenagers.
They had been together in Zilina, but this was their first big move as a couple. “Claudia had a big impact too, because it was a big decision for both of us, but it was a very good move for me to play in Italy.
“It was a big step in my personal life, and in my football career. We liked it in Italy, because of the weather, and we were on the coast, so we had a really nice time there, and that helped us settle there too.”
So having the support of Claudia made it easier to settle into life at Spezia, where he was often deployed as a defensive midfielder. But what also helped, he says, was the presence of one of his Polish international teammates.
“I was aware that Spezia was a special club,” he says. “Things looked a lot different to what I had known before, I was in Serie A now, a much bigger league. It started a lot harder for me, the level was higher, but I quickly got the hang of it.
“During training it was good, because also there was another Polish player, Arkadiusz Reca, who arrived a couple of weeks before me. That definitely helped me. He spoke Italian, so he could tell me everything. We played together and hung out together. He is still there in fact. He’s a few years older than me and was a big help to me in Spezia.”
All those previous moves though, were just building towards last January, when he joined Arsenal.
Arriving in a foreign country and walking into a new dressing room was nothing new to Jakub, who was 22 when he signed. But coming to a Premier League club, he says, was something else entirely.
“In a word – huge!” he says when asked to sum up what that transition was like. “I never expected to be at such a big club, and I was surprised at the size of everything. Of course I knew Arsenal as a very big club, but what surprised me was how well everything was organised and how well I was looked after right from the beginning.
“It’s true it was a challenge for me at the start, but I wanted to take that challenge because I want to play for a big club like this. What made it easier was I had a lot of help from a lot of people, not just players and coaches in the dressing room. It was a nervous time for me in those first few days, but the players were really good with me.
“What was really good for me was when Alex Zinchenko introduced me to the whole squad on my first day here. It was funny because I was at Emirates Stadium to watch us play Manchester United the day before I was due to go to the training ground to sign.
“After the game, Zinchenko was down by the pitch waiting to do interviews, and he saw me there. So he introduced himself and said, ‘Welcome to Arsenal, have you met the boys yet?’ I told him I hadn’t, so he took me into the dressing room and introduced me to everyone.
“This was just after we had won a huge match! He made it great for me, because of course I was nervous about meeting everyone, but he made it easy. He went around and made sure I chatted to everyone. It was a big help. The whole group was really open and friendly.”
The following day Jakub visited London Colney for the first time to complete his medical, sign his contract and fulfil his club media commitments. It was a day made more special, he says, by having Claudia alongside him. “I had promised her that one day she would see what a signing looks like and be there when I signed a contract,” he recalls with a smile. “But we had a dog in Italy that we needed to look after, so it looked like she wouldn’t be able to come.
“But then my parents surprised us by looking after the dog for us, so that meant Claudia could come over and be with me that day.
“Also I want to mention a guy who works at our training ground, called Piotr, who is Polish too and has been a big help since I arrived. On that day when Alex introduced me to everyone, he said to Piotr afterwards: ‘You have a compatriot in the changing room now – we have to look
after him.’
“He has helped me with lots of things, helping me with the language too, so it’s nice to have him around. Also there are a couple of Polish guys in the youth team who I have trained with. There is a little group of us at the training ground who can speak Polish together!”
Just a couple of months after arriving Jakub made his debut for the first-team, scoring his first goal for us on the final day of last season. Now nearly a year into his Gunners career, he’s firmly a part of the Arsenal family, and very settled in his surroundings.
“I’m very happy here,” he smiles. “I don’t live in London, because I’m not really one for big cities, but my neighbourhood is very nice. We have everything we need here, and so all I need to focus on is my football.”
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