Marco Silva wants player who nearly quit football for... gymnastics | OneFootball

Jakub Kaminski, a winger who has emerged as one of Benfica’s top priorities to strengthen Marco Silva’s attack, had a rather unusual path before making a name for himself in football. Long before standing out on the pitch, the Polish international was dedicated to... acrobatic gymnastics. The sport was part of the family tradition, as his parents were former gymnasts and ran an academy in the city of Ruda Śląska.

Young Kaminski showed talent from an early age and even won several medals in gymnastics competitions, balancing training with football for several years. Despite his success in gymnastics, it was with a ball at his feet that Jakub spent much of his time. Realizing her son’s passion for football, his mother asked him the question that would end up changing the course of his career: "Do you want to sign up for a football club?"

The answer was immediate. Even so, the condition imposed by the family was that he would not give up gymnastics, so for a while Kaminski divided his time between the two sports. The most difficult moment came during his time in the youth ranks, when opportunities to play became scarce.

In an interview given in 2020 to the Polish outlet Weszlo, the winger revealed that he came very close to giving up football and returning to gymnastics for good: "I almost quit. I probably would have gone back to gymnastics for good, but there was one game where I came on, played really well and I think I scored a goal and got an assist".

That match ended up completely changing the course of his career: "I remember they even wrote on the club’s website: 'Kaminski is impressing with his quality'. I ended up being the breakthrough player of the season and, later, I started being called up to the regional teams".

Since then, his development has been steady until reaching professional football, becoming a Poland international and one of Cologne’s key players. Now, everything indicates that Jakub Kaminski could take the next big step in his career by joining Benfica, where he is seen as one of the priority targets to strengthen the left side of the attack.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.