Wojciech Szczesny must feel like he is living in a dream.
Last August, the former Arsenal goalkeeper retired from football aged 34 and may have been preparing to consume the season of Champions League content on MailOnline.
Now he is gearing up to play in the semi-finals for Barcelona - after answering their desperate plea for him to solve their goalkeeper crisis from the beaches and golf courses of Marbella in October.
Szczesny is doing all this on his own eccentric terms - he still chain-smokes in the changing rooms, despite that getting him in trouble with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, and helps write lyrics for his Ukrainian pop star wife Marina Luczenko.