Following last Saturday’s game at SeatGeek Stadium, Fire midfielder Przemyslaw Frankowski walked around the field holding his one-year-old son. While Frankowski greeted fans and took photos, a man who didn’t introduce himself spoke with Frankowski’s wife Alexandra in Polish.
The next morning, when the family went to Mass at the historically-Polish Holy Trinity Church and took communion, Alexandra said she recognized the priest was the man who spoke to her the night before. That Sunday morning, the priest named Krzysztof Janicki also recognized the Frankowski family and introduced Przemyslaw as a member of the Polish national team, which brought a round of applause from the congregation.
“That definitely is an example of how I’ve been welcomed to the community in Chicago,” Frankowski said through translator, Fire CFO Pawel Szynalik. “Wherever I go, people recognize me. They try to go out of their way to have a conversation.”
In January, the 24-year-old Frankowski joined the Fire, who faced the New York Red Bulls on Friday. Since coming to Chicago, Frankowski has been embraced by city’s Polish community. He attended a Polish-American Chamber of Commerce event and participated in the official ribbon-cutting.
“Przemek fits in Chicago as if he were born here: humble, hardworking, dedicated to his family, and proud to represent the city,” Fire president and general manager Nelson Rodriguez said.
The familiarity and his relationship with Szynalik, who helped bring him to Chicago and traveled to Bialystok, Poland, last summer to speak with him, has also helped Frankowski’s adjustment to his new home.
Szynalik and Frankowski’s families are close and see each other frequently. Szynalik also assisted with the paperwork needed to complete the move, which is made even trickier by MLS’ tricky roster rules. Whenever he needs to, Frankowski can pop into Szynalik’s office to talk.
And the first week Frankowski was with the Fire, Szynalik took him to a Polish store. Frankowski told the Fire executive “I feel like I’m in Poland” when he was around Polish-speaking people and food imported from Poland.
“That was very welcoming to me, very interesting to me,” Frankowski said. “That made me feel at home.”
Frankowski is not the first Polish player to suit up for the Fire. The 1998 MLS Cup championship team included Roman Kosecki, Peter Nowak, and Jerzy Podbrozny, which helped the young franchise build a relationship with the city. One of the people reached was Szynalik, who’s originally from Poland and came to the United States when he was 11 and became a fan of the team when it was founded in the fall of 1997.
Szynalik acknowledges that Frankowski helps the team connect with the Polish community, and that he’s seen more Polish fans at Fire games this season.
But that’s not why he was signed. The Fire wanted a speedy winger who could cause problems on the flanks and chase down longer passes, while still having room to improve his game. Frankowski ticks those boxes.
“He just happened to be Polish,” Szynalik said.
