Football
James Olley, Senior Writer, ESPN FC 3y

West Ham's Fabianski on retirement plans: I don't want to stay in football

West Ham United goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski has revealed he plans to quit football altogether and return to Poland when he retires from playing.

The 36-year-old agreed a 12-month extension to his contract in March and said he still has "a few years" left at the highest level, having established himself as first-choice at London Stadium following his £7 million arrival from Swansea in 2018.

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Fabianski was recognised for his fine form at Tuesday's London Football Awards by being named Goalkeeper of the Year after recording nine Premier League clean sheets as West Ham have made an unexpected push for a top-four finish.

And when asked by ESPN if he had thought about his one day moving into coaching, Fabianski replied: "In all honesty, at this present moment, the way I feel about myself after I retire, I wouldn't want to say in football on the professional level.

"The thinking behind is basically, I've been away from home for almost 15 years, 16 years, something like that, away from my country. And actually, I would want to give back a little bit to my family because what they did was help me to focus on my career, and then they gave up so many things in their lives.

"I would like to just give something back to my family. And then probably I will at one point, I will get the feeling if I want to come back to football now but this present time I will just want to take a step back and focus on my family."

Fabianski confirmed he will assess whether to continue playing on an annual basis.

"That's the smartest way to do it," he said. "I think the main thing is if you are physically good enough to compete at this level because we all know the Premier League is very demanding and you have to be up to the standard, especially physically. I am really happy to do that.

"I think I'm very demanding of myself. At the same time, I have very demanding coaches around me with a manager and especially with the goalkeeping coach [Xavi Valero]. I feel physically good as well. I will keep pushing, see what's going to happen. In my mind I think I've got still hopefully got a few years left."

Fabianski moved to England in 2007 when signing for Arsenal from Legia Warsaw and he believes the key to his longevity has been developing the mental side of his game.

"If you look at my history in the Premier League, I've been going through different periods in my life," he said. "I remember the early years, I struggled with coping with my reaction after making a mistake in the game.

"Sometimes you have to go through it, sometimes you have to learn and gain that experience. On the other hand, I think what is important as well is that you have still trust of the coaches, of the managers or even of the players because if you have that then it's kind of easier to go through things like that.

"Then when you get older, what I try to do is basically focus on the next thing. It's something that you can't change, it happened so your focus should be on what's happening now in front of you, rather than what just happened."

Editor's Note: James Olley was on the voting panel for the 2021 London Football Awards

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