Text: Olaf Jansen

I Know That Guy

It was June 2012. Our Team Germany had just played its third match under a scorching sun at the journalists’ tournament in Ostróda, Poland, and I barely had the strength to drag myself into the shade, where I collapsed, exhausted.

Next to me crouched a long-haired, tattooed guy in the yellow shirt of the Polish TV channel TVN, who didn’t look all that fresh either. “I know that guy,” I thought to myself, and spoke to him. He jogged my memory and introduced himself as Sławo Chałaśkiewicz – of course, Hansa Rostock’s speedy winger in the 1990s. Trademarks: incredible pace and that flowing blond mane.

We chatted – first on the pitch, later at the after-show party in an old historic building. Sławo wanted to know all sorts of things about the German football scene; I was interested in his story. And what a story it was.

After his time in Rostock he returned to Poland in 1998, but German football drew him back like a magnet. So in 1999 he went back to Germany, signed for Babelsberg, and in 2003, aged 39, moved to fourth-tier side Hessen Kassel. By then a playmaker, he thrilled the Kassel fans and became a crowd favourite thanks to his intelligent style of play and his open manner.

Then fate struck: in autumn 2005 “Chala” was diagnosed with skin cancer – a severe form of the disease. For months Chałaśkiewicz was in treatment, going from hospital to hospital. A heavy burden for him and his family, financially too. And so, even today, now that he has fully recovered, he is grateful for the support he received from Kassel at the time. When they learned of his illness, his teammates immediately held a collection within the squad and also organised a benefit match for Chałaśkiewicz.

Olaf Jansen and Sławo Chałaśkiewicz

“I will never forget that,” he told me.

Since then we have met regularly once a year at the Polish journalists’ tournament and caught up on each other’s news. A little tradition that has become very dear to me.