Poland guards the way

The Polish deluge continues in Britain, with goalkeepers following on the heels of construction workers and plumbers. Legia Warsaw's promising 22 year-old goalkeeper, Łukasz Fabiański, is set to join Arsenal London, one of the most successful soccer clubs in the English Premiership league.

The English team's manager, Arsene Wenger, announced the news. "He will be our new goalkeeper. He will join us next year [next season] and will compete for a position," Wenger said, adding that Fabiański "is for the future." The Polish keeper, who was a member of Poland's World Cup squad last year, is set to join the club for $3 (zł.8.4) million. At the time WBJ went to press, however, Legia Warsaw hadn't confirmed the news.

Fabiański is joining a major club, which played in the final of UEFA Champions League in 2006 and is currently ranked fourth in England. He will also join a growing colony of Polish goalkeeper in British football. The most famous is Jerzy Dudek of FC Liverpool, who helped the club win the UEFA Champion's League in 2005, but has spent the last two seasons on the bench.

Celtic Glasgow's Artur Boruc (the Polish national team's first choice keeper) has recently won a second successive Scottish championship and was nominated for the Player of the Year award in the Scottish league. Tomasz Kuszczak is a reserve goalkeeper for the newly crowned Premiership champion Manchester United. Another young player is 20-year-old Bartosz Białkowski, who protects Southampton FC's goal in the English Championship (England's second-tier league). Fabiański won't be the only Pole in London either, as Arsenal has a Polish keeper in its youth team - 17-year-old Wojciech Szczęsny.