Jerzy Dudek ; born 23 March 1973 in Rybnik) is a Polish football goalkeeper who plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid C.F. He has been capped 58 times for the Poland national team, and won the UEFA Champions League with Liverpool F.C. in 2005
Dudek began playing football at youth level at twelve for Górnik II Knurów. At sixteen, he made his debut in the oldest youth team of Górnik Knurów, before moving to Concordia Knurów in the Polish third division two years later. He set a goalkeeping record of 416 minutes in the third league without conceding a goal. After four years at the club, he moved to Sokół Tychy, making his debut against Legia Warsaw. He only played fifteen games before moving to Holland.
He left Poland in 1996 to join Feyenoord, but had to wait a year before he made his debut, then played 140 consecutive games for the club. He won his first trophy in the 1998-99 season, along with the Dutch Super Cup later that year after defeating Ajax. Dudek was named the Dutch Goalkeeper Of The Year, becoming the first non-Dutch goalkeeper to win the award. He would retain the award again the following season. He played his final game for Feyenoord on 26th August 2001, against Ajax.
Dudek joined Liverpool August 2001, and was coach Gerard Houllier's first choice between the sticks. Following a splendid season where his clean sheets and fine performances helped Liverpool finish second in the Premiership behind Double-winners Arsenal, he was nominated alongside Oliver Kahn and Gianluigi Buffon for UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year at the end of the 2001-02 season. Next season he rebounded spectacularly from a series of poor errors in the Premiership to win the League Cup with a Man-of-the-Match performance against Manchester United in the Final. Pope John Paul II, who was a goalkeeper in his youth, met personally with Dudek in 2004, telling him that he was a fan of Dudek's and followed Liverpool whenever they played. Dudek, who had the honour of presenting the Pope with a souvenir goalkeeper shirt, would later dedicate Liverpool's Champions League success to the late pontiff.
Dudek was a catalyst in Liverpool's 2005 Champions League success, performing a double save against A.C. Milan's Andriy Shevchenko at the end of extra time in the final, after Liverpool had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the match 3-3. He saved from Pirlo and Shevchenko in the ensuing penalty shoot-out, which Liverpool won 3-2. During the shoot-out, he attempted to distract the Milan players with the "spaghetti legs" tactic that was used by former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar in the 1984 European Cup final. As a tribute to his heroics, a group of Liverpool fans called the Trophy Boyz recorded a successful novelty single called "Du the Dudek."
He received his second UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year nomination, but lost his starting position to new acquisition Jose Manuel Reina the next season following an arm injury. Dudek made a total of twelve more appearances over the next two seasons before departing to Real Madrid at the end of the 2006-07 season.
Dudek's on-field activity at Madrid has been limited due to the presence of Iker Casillas, who has played in the lion's share of the club's games throughout the 2007-08 and current season. Nevertheless, his attitude and work ethic has earned praise from his fans, teammates, coaching staff and several Spanish journalists. In new coach Juande Ramos's first game as Madrid manager Dudek was handed the start ahead of Casillas for Madrid's final Champions League group game against UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup winners Zenit St. Petersburg at the Bernabeu. In a match where Madrid's attacking play made headlines, Dudek made several fine saves and exuded an air of calm solidity and confidence, particularly on crosses, earning a clean sheet in the process. This performance earned glowing praise from Ramos, who highlighted the Polish goalkeeper's qualities and referred to him as a 'magnificent player'. With some noises being sounded out about Casillas's shaky form of late, there is a chance that Dudek could get yet more chances to play under Ramos this season.
Dudek's Real Madrid have been drawn against his former team Liverpool in the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League, and there is a chance that he might return to Anfield as an opposition player after vowing never to do so upon leaving Liverpool. The tie also sees another old-boy reunion for Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, who played for and coached Madrid's youth team Castilla CF.
Dudek is his country's second-most capped goalkeeper with 58 caps for Poland. He received his first call up in 1996 as an unused substitute during a friendly against Russia in Moscow, and won his first cap in February 1998 in a friendly against Israel. He was a member the 2002 World Cup squad that was eliminated in the group stage, and due to his lack of appearances at club level, he was dropped from the starting lineup in favor of Artur Boruc, and was left off the 2006 World Cup squad as a result. He captained the team once in a friendly against Estonia.
Dudek's omission from the 2006 World Cup Squad was greeted with shock among Polish fans and the national media, with one newspaper's headline reading 'Has (then Poland coach Pawel) Janas gone mad?!'. And following a warm-up match against Colombia where both Boruc and Tomasz Kuszczak were at fault for each of the goals in a 2-1 defeat, the angered Polish fans started to chant Dudek's name as a reminder of the stupidity of Janas's decision to drop the player. It is worth noting that Kuszczak's goal was directly from a goal-kick from the Colombian goalkeeper Neco Martinez.
It is unknown whether Dudek will play for the national team again, although he is hopeful that with more football he will be back in the picture.
