Something strange happened in Bayern Munich’s game on Saturday against Werder Bremen. Until the middle of the second half Robert Lewandowski could not find the net. And it’s not that he did not try.
No less than three times Lewandowski’s balls splashed the sources of Berman’s goal, and then it was Czech goalkeeper Yiri Pavlenka who would frustrate the German champions’ top scorer, with some impressive stops. The Polish striker did not believe in his bad luck, especially in a game where everyone expected him to score as always and record another achievement: a jump to second place in the ranking of Bundesliga scorers for their generations. Lewandowski came to the game in Bremen with 267 goals, one less than Klaus Fischer – the legendary Munich striker 1860, Schalke, Cologne and Bochum. Fisher scored his goals in 535 league games, over 20 years, between 1968 and 1988.
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Continues to celebrate at a crazy pace. Robert Lewandowski
(Photo: AP)
In the 67th minute, the dam broke, with a bit of luck: Leon Gorzka kicked, the ball bounced off the foot of a defensive player and reached “my heart”, who already knew what to do with it. Not exactly a gate of cut and save, but pioneers like him celebrate every gate, beautiful or not. Probably one that is a landmark. But beyond the jump in the German league scorers’ table, what’s amazing is the dizzying pace at which Lewandowski is punching nets: he scored 268 goals in just 345 games – 9 years and 190 games less than Fisher.
Only the sharp-eyed among the spectators noticed that Bandowski scored the goal in Nike’s red shoes, and not with the yellow Puma shoes with which he started the game. Coach Enzy Flick was required to matter at the end of the 1-3 win, which gave Bayern a four-point lead at the top over Leipzig. “In training he sometimes wears the cougar and sometimes the Nike,” he explained. “I was unaware that he was changing shoes during the break, and I noticed this only because of the difference in colors.”
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Changed shoes. Robert Lewandowski in a game against Werder Bremen
(Photo: AFP)
The German media tried to understand whether this meant that Bandowski was on his way to signing a new contract with one of the companies (his current contract with Nike ended) or that it was just a matter of superstition. But the truth is that no matter what Lewandowski wears – the goals continue to fall at a crazy pace, at the level of Cristiano Ronaldo and not Messi in their great years.
32 goals in 24 league games, an average of 1.3 goals per game, a goal every 63 minutes – these are numbers on a historical scale. Since Messi of the 2012/13 season he has not been a player in the top five leagues in Europe scoring 32 goals in his first 25 games. Last season, the best of his career, he scored 34 league goals. And here he is only two years away from this achievement, with nine more rounds left at the end of the Bundesliga.
Now Lewandowski is already threatening Gerd Miller’s legendary record from 1972, 40 league goals a season – a scenario that sounds imaginary until recently. If he continues to score at the current pace, the 49-year-old record will be broken.
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His record on the way to breaking. Gerd Miller in 1974
(Photo: AP)
However, the 75-year-old “Der Bomber” could be a little more relaxed about his other record – 365 Bundesliga goals in 14 seasons in Bayern uniform. Lewandowski needs 98 goals to get through. By August he will already be 33 years old, and even for him this seems like a difficult task – but not impossible.
When Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic prove to us almost every week that in the modern age, with innovative training methods and scientific leaps, strikers can play until the age of 37 or even 39, and continue to rip nets in bundles. Lewandowski is able to continue at the same pace: three more seasons with an average of 30 goals a year, and the mythical German bomber will also be left behind.
This is Lewandowski’s 11th season in Germany, his seventh at Bayern after four great seasons at Jürgen Klopp in Dortmund. And like old wine, it’s just getting better. Hard to believe, but in his first season in Germany (2011), after being bought by the King of Poznan for 4.5 million euros, he scored just eight league goals. In the following year he had already risen to 22, and only in the second season at Bayern (2016) did he cross the 30 mark. Anyway, the small numbers are already far behind him. Five seasons in a row he has not dropped from 40 goals a season in all competitions, and this will be his sixth.
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Lewandowski also recorded wonderful seasons in Dortmund
(Photo: Getty Images)
But these are not only the gates, but also the titles. In just two of his previous ten seasons in Germany he has not won a championship (two with Dortmund, six in a row with Bayern), and the highlight was of course last season: his first Champions League win, with 15 goals in 10 Champions League games. In fact, he scored in all games except the final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Still, last season was not perfect. France Football magazine, which organizes the annual selection of the “Golden Ball” – World Player of the Year Award – has decided not to award it in 2020. The official reason was the corona: the leagues were halted to a forced hiatus of several months as the plague raged in Europe. But in truth there was no justifiable reason for the hasty decision. After all, almost all the major leagues have come to a full end, and the Champions League also ended in the famous bubble in Lisbon.
If the traditional referendum had taken place as usual, there is no doubt that Bandowski would have won the “Golden Ball” and been crowned the best footballer in the world. He had no real competitors, so the decision was also accompanied by a sense of failure: many commentators in Europe thought he had missed the only opportunity he had to win the prestigious title. Still, Messi and Ronaldo are still around, and meanwhile Killian Mbabane and Arling Land have joined the world top.
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He was awarded the title of FIFA Player of the Year by Lewandowski
(Photo: gettyimages)
This feeling was probably unfounded. Like last season, even now Bayern look like the best team in Europe, and no one will fall off the chair if they lift the trophy with their big ears for the second time in a row (tonight they are expected to pass Lazio on their way to the quarter-finals, after a 1-4 away win in the first game). Nor will anyone faint if Lewandowski finally wins the title he so deserves.