With UEFA EURO 2012 looming large now, Poland’s national coach Franciszek Smuda is drawing up his squad short list.

Finally there are those who will make it if they can produce impressive performances for their clubs between now and May. But, their clubs need to be playing at a high level, or else exceptionally well at a lower level. Neither of those criteria fits Nottingham Forest who are presently languishing near the bottom of the Chamionship, the second tier of English football. This is the club Radoslaw Majewski chose to join in 2009 when as a 21 year old he seemed to be on the threshold of an exciting international career.

The Polonia Warszawa midfielder had just broken into the Reprezentacja when the offer of a move on loan came from the English club. Majewski was attracted by Nottingham Forest’s history of twice winning the European Champions Cup in 1979 and 1980, and he believed, they would be a solid stepping stone onto one of the world’s great football stages.

“I’ve always wanted to play in one of the top leagues in Europe so when I decided to come here, I hoped that Nottingham Forest would be promoted to the Premier League,” he said on his arrival at the City Ground in July 2009.

His career at Nottingham Forest certainly started off with a bang when he scored a spectacular goal against, of all teams, Forest’s deadly rivals Derby County. That went down incredibly well with fans and in his first season of 2009-10 Majewski started in 36 games, scoring four goals. Throughout that campaign it looked like he had indeed made the right choice and his dream of playing in the English Premiership would materialize the following season. The midlands side stormed their way up into the promotion zone and stayed there throughout, until near the end of the regular league program things began to go pear-shaped. Finally, after just missing out on an automatic promotion place, Forest fell at the final hurdle, losing out to Blackpool in the play-offs.

This meant Majewski having to spend at least one more season in the Championship, and with it, getting less exposure to his talents. Perhaps this also had an effect on his form because he gradually faded from the international picture getting just one call up for Poland against Ecuador in October 2010, when he came on as a substitute for the last ten minutes.

His international decline has now been almost matched by his position within the club, where he can barely command a regular place in the starting eleven. Halfway through the current season, Majewski has started in only half of Forest’s 25 League matches and has spent an equal time warming the bench.

English football has been a graveyard for Polish footballers, Wojciech Szczesny at Arsenal being the exception. Although it’s still a bit early to declare his career at the Emirates a great success.

Going right back to when Kazimierz Deyna played at Manchester City in the late 1970’s, through Dariusz Dziekanowski during the 90’s and more recently Grzegorz Rasiak, Tomasz Frankowski and Marek Saganowski, no Polish player has managed to made a lasting impression in the football league. Yet like Majewski, they all started off impressively.

Majewski is still only 25 and at the peak of his career. Unless he can somehow get out of his contract at Nottingham Forest during the January transfer window and join a club which plays at a higher level of European football, he will be watching UEFA EURO 2012 as no more than a distant spectator.