Marcin Bulka – OGC Nice’s impassable wall

78 days and counting. That is how long it has been since OGC Nice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka (24) last conceded a goal in any competition.

A lot has happened since 15th September: Fabio Grosso had not yet been appointed Lyon manager, Marcelino was still in the Marseille dugout and AS Monaco were top of Ligue 1. However, one thing hasn’t changed: the number in Nice’s goals against column.

No team in Europe’s top five leagues have conceded fewer than Nice. Bulka, who has featured in every minute of the club’s season, has been beaten on only four occasions and has kept 10 clean sheets in his first 13 games. Having not conceded in over two months, the former Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea goalkeeper has admitted that the feeling of conceding is becoming rather foreign to him.

“I hope that I won’t be reminded of the feeling of conceding a goal,” joked the Nice goalkeeper ahead of another clean sheet against Toulouse FC last week.

Bulka’s form saw him awarded Ligue 1’s Player of the Month for September, and whilst he is undoubtedly the standout goalkeeper at the beginning of the season, it could all have been very different.

‘I must confess that sometimes, I ran out of patience!’

Bulka has been eager to display his qualities but hasn’t always had the chance. He had looked set to go into the 2022/23 season as Nice’s No.1, but the club’s recruitment of Kasper Schmeichel, and the INEOS hierarchy’s insistence that he play, ended those hopes.

Whilst Bulka himself didn’t vocalise frustration, his agent, Yvan Le Mée did. “We were surprised by [Kasper Schemeichel’s] arrival, of course. That’s football – one week can change everything. We spoke with Christophe Galtier and Julien Fournier and we were told that he would start the season as No.1.