Ipswich Town keeper Bartosz Bialkowski kindly let us into his home for an exclusive interview and photoshoot that will appear in edition four of Kings of Anglia magazine later this month.
The 29-year-old spoke candidly to chief football writer Stuart Watson about a whole range of subjects.
He starts with memories of growing up in Poland, from being a ‘chubby’ kid who hated to run, to the incident which led to 24 hours in jail and being beaten up by rival fans.
Family is never far away in the conversation. His love for wife Inez and two children – seven-year-old Nadia and five-year-old Oskar – is clear. He also talks of the pain and anger which followed his father Marek’s passing in 2015 and how doing dad proud motivated him to find new level of form 18 months ago.
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In short, Bart says he’s just a ‘normal guy’. He’s settled in Suffolk, ‘feels the love’ from the fans who have twice voted him Player of the Year and says he’d be happy to see out his career with Town.
This rare personal insight into the life of a modern footballer is sure to make him even more popular among the Blues faithful. It’s a good reminder that players are not robots too.
Give the video a watch and buy edition four of Kings of Anglia to read the feature length article.
It’s packed with Town content. Andy Warren has caught up with former fans’ favourite Pablo Counago and tracked down Danny Karbassiyoon for the latest of his ‘where are they now?’ series, EADT editor and lifelong Town fan Terry Hunt reveals the top 25 in his ‘greatest Blues players of all time’ list, there’s some mindboggling numbers from enigmatic Twitter poster ‘Renegade Statman’, while Amy Downes brings you ‘Diary of a Tractor Girl’.
The magazine, which costs £3.99, will be in shops soon and is available for pre-order here.
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