How brilliant is Barcelona and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski?
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Article summary
UEFA.com celebrates the genius of one of the game's most prolific marksmen after he became only the third player to score 100 UEFA Champions League goals.
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Having sent records tumbling left, right and centre in a hugely successful spell at Bayern, Robert Lewandowski has showed no sign of slowing down since joining Barcelona in July 2022.
UEFA.com sings the Polish marksman's praises after he became only the third player to score 100 UEFA Champions League goals.
What they say
"Robert Lewandowski has been the best central striker in the world for the last ten years. His job is to play up front and score goals, and he does that. Simple!"
Hansi Flick, Barcelona coach
"It's easy to play with a player like him, so I always try to find him on the pitch. I admire his finishing and his link-up play – it's a luxury to play with Lewandowski. I hope he brings us a lot of joy."
Pedri, Barcelona team-mate
"I would not change Robert for anyone in the world. He has won everything, but he arrived with humility, and what he's doing is extraordinary. He's very mature, and his way of playing helps the young players."
Xavi Hernández, former Barcelona coach
"I can only keep saying the same thing: he's incredible. He keeps scoring and he's a machine. At the moment, he's the best."
Serge Gnabry, former Bayern team-mate
"He is one of the most professional footballers I have ever worked with. He eats, sleeps and trains for his job. He's never injured because he focuses so much on the right diet and proper preparation."
Pep Guardiola, former Bayern coach
"One of his finest qualities has always been with his back to goal, shielding the ball. The fact that he has become a world-class striker is down to his work ethic in training and his ambition. The way he motivates himself is extraordinary."
Jürgen Klopp, former Borussia Dortmund coach
"He was very thin, his legs were like sticks and I was always scared that others would break them. I wanted him to be physically stronger and even advised him to eat more bacon! I remember one season my team scored 158 goals; Robert got half of them."
Krzysztof Sikorski, Lewandowski's youth coach at Varsovia Warszawa
"In the 70s, Poland had Kazimierz Deyna, in the 80s [Zbigniew] Boniek, and now we have Lewandowski. Our national team's current success is down to teamwork, but every success needs a face, and that face is Robert Lewandowski. He is absolutely world class."
Zbigniew Boniek, former Poland forward and Polish Football Association (PZPN) president
Current tally
International: 156 appearances, 84 goals
UEFA club competition: 152 appearances, 109 goals
Claims to fame
Poland domestic
• Top scorer in all three top divisions in Poland with Znicz Pruszków (third division 2006/07, second division 2007/08) and Lech Poznań (first division 2009/10).
• Scored the winning goal on his European debut as Lech Poznań won 1-0 at Xäzär Länkäran in a UEFA Cup qualifier on 17 July 2008.
Dortmund
• In March 2013, broke Friedhelm Konietzka's record by scoring in 12 successive Dortmund league games.
• Became the first player to hit four goals in a UEFA Champions League semi-final game as Dortmund beat Real Madrid 4-1 on 24 April 2013. The only other Pole to bag a hat-trick against the Merengues was Jan Urban, with Osasuna, in December 1990.
• Left Dortmund as the club's European top scorer with 18 goals (a record subsequently broken by Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang).
Bayern
• Set a world record by scoring five goals in eight minutes and 59 seconds in a 5-1 win against Wolfsburg on 22 September 2015. His haul included the fastest Bundesliga hat-trick (four minutes), and most Bundesliga goals by a substitute (five).
• Scored 82 goals in his first 100 Bundesliga games for Bayern; the best stats for any new signing in the competition's history.
• In 2015/16, became the first foreign player to net 30 goals in a single Bundesliga season (and the first player of any nationality to notch 30 since Dieter Müller in 1976/77). He matched that tally in 2016/17, emulating Gerd Müller in becoming only the second player to score 30 in back-to-back Bundesliga campaigns.
• With 312 goals, Lewandowski is by far the most prolific foreign goalscorer in Bundesliga history; he eclipsed Claudio Pizarro's record of 195 in March 2019.
• Reached 50 goals for 2019/20 with his double in the German Cup final: he ended the season as top scorer in both domestic competitions after his third double with Bayern.
• Scoring a staggering 41 times in 29 appearances for Bayern in 2020/21, breaking Gerd Müller's 1971/72 40-goal record for the most goals in a single Bundesliga season.
• As well as making him the first player to reign as Bundesliga top scorer for four consecutive seasons, his 41-goal haul in 2020/21 crowned him as top scorer in Europe's big five domestic leagues.
• In September 2020, Lewandowski's strike against Schalke helped him surpass Karl-Heinz Rummenigge's total of 162 Bundesliga goals for Bayern. With 312 overall, he's second only to Gerd Müller's career haul of 365.
• Marked his 100th Champions League appearance by becoming the fastest player to reach the 80-goal mark, compared to Lionel Messi's 102 and Cristiano Ronaldo's 116. He also took his tally to 64 European goals for Bayern, surpassing Gerd Müller's record of 62.
• Set the Bundesliga record for most goals in a calendar year with 43 in 2021, bettering Gerd Müller's 1972 landmark in the 87th minute of Bayern's final game.
• Was rewarded for his sensational performances in 2021 with the FIFA Men's Player award.
Barcelona
• Became the fastest player to reach nine La Liga goals in the 21st century, doing so in just seven appearances in 2022/23.
• Scored his 600th and 601st career goals in a 3-0 La Liga victory against Villarreal in October 2022.
• Claimed the Pichichi Trophy as top scorer in La Liga for 2022/23, notching 23 goals in 34 appearances.
• Netted a superb hat-trick in his first Champions League appearance for the club – a 5-1 triumph against Viktoria Plzeň.
• Started the 2023/24 La Liga season with 12 goals in ten games, a strike rate only equalled or bettered by seven players in the competition's history.
• On 23 November 2024, he reached 20 club goals for a recorded 14th consecutive season, surpassing Lionel Messi's previous landmark.
• Three days later, his early penalty against Brest made him only the third player, after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, to score 100 goals in the Champions League proper.
Poland national team
• On 10 September 2008, aged 20 years and 20 days, became the second-youngest debut goalscorer for Poland; Włodzimierz Lubański, aged 17, has the record.
• Claimed 13 goals in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying, equalling David Healy's record total for Northern Ireland in the run-up to UEFA EURO 2008.
• From 13 June 2015 to 10 June 2017, Lewandowski scored in 11 straight European Qualifiers – almost certainly a world record.
• Broke new ground with 16 goals in ten qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup – a European record.
• Finding the net against France during UEFA EURO 2024, Lewandowski became one of three players to score in four consecutive editions of the competition.
• The Eagles all-time top scorer with 84 goals, he holds a 36-goal cushion ahead of next-best Włodzimierz Lubański's 48 goals.
• Is Poland's most-capped player with 156 appearances. Jakub Błaszczykowski sits second in that ranking with 109 international outings.
What you might not know
• In an interview with UEFA.com, he credited training with his boxer dog for helping him recover from injury earlier in his career.
• Dedicates his first goal for every club – and any important goals – to his father, Krzysztof, who died when the striker was a teenager; his celebration involves pointing his two index fingers upwards.
• Lewandowski's penalty against Leverkusen on 18 August 2017 was converted after the first-ever Bundesliga refereeing decision made following a video review.
• Wife Anna Lewandowska is a karate champion and fitness expert, with tabloids in Poland suggesting she is in charge of her husband's diet and work-out regimes. In December 2016, Lewandowski announced that his wife was pregnant with a goal celebration against Atlético. In May 2017, Anna gave birth to their first of two daughters.
• Off the field, he is involved in a company that builds apartments in and around Warsaw. In October 2017, he was awarded a degree in Physical Education by Warsaw's School of Education in Sport. His degree thesis was based on his own career and titled: RL 9, Path to Glory.
• To avoid being pestered when he is out and about, it has been claimed that Lewandowski asks friends to call him 'Emil'.
What he says
"Is it hard talking about my work? That's the media's job! I would rather go home and focus on the next match instead. I try to switch off and don't follow what people say too much. It's more important to focus on training, working hard and putting my energy into the next match – how to score more goals, how to win. That's what I try to focus on. I am a grounded, cool-headed person."
"You always need to believe in your ability. I always know there will be chances."
"Instinct does the trick sometimes, but there are things you can work on in training. If you work hard and focus on details, you may not even realise it, but you start doing certain things automatically in matches. That's the beauty of football. Even if my right foot is better than the left one, I need to work hard on both."
"When I was a very young player, six or eight, I looked up to Roberto Baggio. When I got a bit older, it was Alessandro Del Piero. And when I knew a bit more, it was Thierry Henry. His movement, his technique and the way he hit the ball and scored goals – it was great to watch that as a kid. I learned a lot from him."
What he might yet achieve
• Climb to second in the all-time UEFA Champions League scorer rankings; currently he lies third with 101 goals. Some way in front is a certain Messi, whose tally stands at 129.