Back in Poland, they have already decided. There he is big news. A celebrity, a hero, the main striker in his country’s squad for this summer’s World Cup finals. They adored him at Wisla Krakow and pleaded with him to stay. Celtic beat off other suitors including Trabzonspor and Austria Vienna to sign him for £2m because they were more decisive in their contract offer and because Zurawski considered them the most attractive option after consulting Dariusz Wdowczyk, the former Polish international who was Celtic’s left-back from 1989 to 1994. “The other clubs were hesitating. Celtic came in and made an offer quickly and looked a much stronger club, there was no question on that for me. I wanted to come here for the reputation the club has. Although I spoke to Dariusz Wdowczyk and he gave me a lot of guidance, I made the decision myself because I already knew it was a great club.”
To imagine Wisla’s loss, Celtic supporters need only recall how they felt when Larsson left them for Barcelona 18 months ago. Zurawski scored more than 100 league goals as they won four championships from five between 2001 and 2005. In the season that Larsson’s goals took Celtic to the Uefa Cup final in Seville, Zurawski’s took Wisla past Parma and Schalke 04 before they were eliminated by Lazio in the fourth round. When Celtic supporters hail him, as he dots between the Glasgow shops he has come to love, Zurawski could be back in Krakow where the same scene was often enacted. “The people are very open and warm and I like that,” he says. “I like to shop and a lot of people will come over and clap me on the back and smile while I am out. That feels good and walking out in front of 60,000 people at Celtic Park is a fantastic feeling too. In Poland, the crowds aren’t so big. Here, it is more like playing an international match.”
If people stop in the street to greet him, then Scottish football can sometimes pass Zurawski by. It was noticeable during last Wednesday’s win over Falkirk that he became more prominent in the second half when the pace of the game dropped slightly, and only the crossbar stopped him scoring for a sixth consecutive match when he connected with Paul Telfer’s cross in the 67th minute. He admits that, initially, the biggest adjustment he had to make was to the manic tempo of the Premierleague. “Scottish football is faster, quicker,” he says, “and that was difficult to begin with.”
Off the park, he misses Polish food and his parents. “I like to go back as much as I can. It is a bit daunting when you come to a new country and leave everything behind, but for my career to go forward the way I wanted it to, I had to make the transition.” Andrzej, his father, is a coach at Warta Poznan, where his career began before he moved on to Lech, the city’s main club. Barbara, his mother, runs the Zurawski household to which Maciej and his brother Adam, who works in the motorcycle trade, return as often as they can.
A tabloid tale earlier in the season painted gaudily around his split with his wife Monika, a make-up artist, and subsequent relationship with Natalja, his girlfriend. This is perhaps why, when I ask him about comparisons with Dziekanowski, Glasgow’s original Pole dancer, he clarifies, through Hania, if I mean sporting or socialising. Sporting, I stress, although the answer would probably be the same by the sounds of it. “I am Maciej Zurawski, not the other guy. If people compare us then that’s up to them. I don’t.”
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Although his translated answers may occasionally sound prickly, Zurawski is polite. His childhood was lit up by Marco van Basten and later on he admired the things that Rivaldo could do with a football and now he gapes, like the rest of us, at Ronaldinho. He was only six when Poland finished third at the 1982 World Cup but Zbigniew Boniek later became something of a mentor when he was Poland’s manager. Zurawski’s talent as a goalscorer was something of a slow burner, but he was always strong technically. “The goalscoring was a gradual progression. I started scoring goals at my first club, then it grew,” he reveals. “The more I scored, the more I wanted to score. I try to do more than score goals when I am on the pitch but I do enjoy being a striker. I want to help us win the the Premierleague and CIS Cup by scoring as many as I can but I don’t count my goals or set myself a target. If it happens, it happens.” Even if he’s not counting, he has now scored 10 times in 18 games for Celtic this season.
He could be spotted having a blazing on-field row with Stilian Petrov during the recent CIS Cup semi-final victory over Motherwell, but the Bulgarian midfielder is the established Celtic player that Zurawski has become closest to. “If I need any guidance, I go to Stilian, but on the pitch there are no friends,” he grins. Despite the storm outside, he does not miss the severe Polish winter. “It’s a lot warmer here at this time of year than it would be in Poland. Normally I would be training with the temperatures minus-something. Here it is a lot greyer, but less cold.”
Yet his acclimatising was not helped by a debut that ended in a 5-0 defeat by Artmedia Bratislava. It was then that Zurawski wondered briefly if he had misjudged Celtic’s stature in the game. “When the result came about, I was wondering if Celtic were so weak or they (Artmedia) were so strong,” he says. “There was a bit of confusion in my mind. Now, I am trying to forget that and look to the next chance we have in Europe.” Then a hamstring injury, sustained at Old Trafford on international duty against England, kept him out through most of October and November and came just as he seemed to be getting into his scoring stride. “That was a problematic time for me. After two months out, it is very difficult for any player to get back to form quickly.”
During that spell, he missed Celtic’s home victories over Rangers in the Premierleague and CIS Cup. His only Old Firm experience was 23 minutes as a substitute in the 3-1 defeat at Ibrox on August 20 with Celtic down to 10 men and chasing the game. “I couldn’t really get into the swing of things, the whole ambience and atmosphere of it. I am hoping this time it will be different. Hopefully, I will start and be able to make an impact. I have found goalscoring form, but, generally, I feel there’s a bit more to come.”