Jagiellonia player vs. “Duch Puszcza”. It wasn’t an equal fight

The championship celebration of Jagiellonia Białystok attracted several dozen thousand people to the Kościuszko Market Square in Białystok, who together celebrated the historic title of Polish champion, won on Saturday by Adrian Siemieniec’s players. The biggest furore was caused by the promise fulfilled by Jaga’s striker, Afimico Pululu, who, on the occasion of the championship, decided to try the Podlasie specialty – “The Spirit of the Forest”.

On Saturday evening, Jagiellonia Białystok won the Polish championship for the first time in the 104-year history of the club. No wonder that the celebration of this historic success in the capital of Podlasie was extremely grand. It started, of course, with receiving commemorative medals and the cup for the Polish championship on the pitch of the Municipal Stadium…

Later, of course, the celebration moved to the center of Białystok. Many thousands of Jagiellonia fans were already there, as they could watch the last match against Warta Poznań (3-0) together at Kościuszko Square on a large screen organized by the club and the city authorities. Later, the fans who were present at the stadium that day also arrived there. “Champion, champion, Jaga champion!” and “Jaga is the Polish Champion” – it was heard. Fans found their seats literally everywhere – at the fountain, at traffic lights, on balconies and even shop awnings.

Eventually, however, the newly crowned Polish champions arrived at the center in an open bus and the “real” part of the celebration began. At the beginning, speeches were given by all the most important members of Jagiellonia – the club’s main shareholder Wojciech Strzałkowski, president Wojciech Pertkiewicz, sports director Łukasz Masłowski, and the coach of the golden team, Adrian Siemieniec. Jaga’s coach received a gift from its fans – a T-shirt with Saturday’s Jaga fans’ image and the image of the coach himself.

Then the players came to the fore . Each of them, starting with captain Taras Romanczuk, was called to address at least a few words to the gathered audience.

Feta in Białystok. Afimico Pululu has fulfilled an extraordinary promise!

However, at some point, Jerzy Kułakowski, an experienced journalist of Radio Białystok and a long-time radio commentator of Jagiellonia’s matches , also in the lower leagues, stepped in. All because of the promise made to him by the striker of the Białystok team – Afimico Pululu. While in the Radio Białystok studio, Pululu admitted that he had not yet tried the popular Podlasie moonshine “Ducha Puszczy” because he does not drink alcohol, but he would do so after winning the Polish championship.

Jagiellonia Białystok became the champion, and Pululu, wearing an elegant Indian headdress, kept his word on stage! Although he grimaced mercilessly, he was slightly out of breath, and his plume even fell off. “I’m drinking, I’m having fun,” Jaga’s delighted fans sang to him.

Each Jagiellonia player also had the opportunity to sing a chant to the fans. The Spaniards took advantage of this to hear their traditional “Campeones!”, the other players chose to sing songs in Polish, although Zlatan Alomerović preferred to sing the song “We are the champions!” with the fans.

Apart from Pululu, Nene was the one who made the audience laugh the most. Called into the microphone, among others: by Dominik Marczuk, who did great as the host of the festival. Nene was asked to say something in Polish and with natural sincerity he responded in Polish: “Oh I’m drinking.” Marczuk himself, in turn, talked about how happy he was that he chose Jagiellonia in the summer and that it was the best possible decision for him, which in turn Bojan Nastić commented by saying that it was not Marczuk who chose Jaga, but Jagiellonia him.

At the end, the players went to a private party at one of the Białystok clubs, where they celebrated their success, for most of them definitely the greatest success in their careers. Their duties in the 2023/24 season will end on Monday in Warsaw at the Ekstraklasa Gala, and then they will have a long-awaited, although probably not very long, vacation.

Will Jagiellonia Białystok advance to the group stage of European cups?