Robert Lewandowski: the living, Polish football legend

Youth and previous career

Robert Lewandowski was born on the twenty-first of August 1988 in Warsaw, Poland. He grew up in a sporty family. His father was an ex-football player and Polish judo champion, and his mother used to be a professional volleyball star. The nine-year-old Robert started playing football at Partyzant Leszno and transferred to MKS Varsovia Warsaw later. When he was sixteen years old, the Polish boy transferred to a higher division where he played for less than a year. The great Legia Warsaw took Lewandowski over. He scored only two goals over twelve games there. The club didn’t need more reason to fire the almost 18-year-old from the youth training. In addition to his unsuccessful performances, the club also thought him to be too small and too skinny.

Lewandowski ended up at the third division club Znicz Pruszków, where he became top scorer in the blink of an eye. The club promoted him to the second division because of this. He became top scorer again a few years later and that club promoted him, as well. He was affiliated with Legia Warsaw again, but the director of the club didn’t want to rehire him. Lech Poznan would eventually be the one to take Lewandowski.

Success in Polish league

In the summer of 2008, Lewandowski made his debut at Poznan during the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup when he scored the only goal of the match. He scored again in the European game that followed. He made his debut on the eight of August at the highest Polish division, Ekstraklasa. Unsurprisingly, he scored in this game, too. He scored a total of 14 goals and made six assists in his first season. The season after, Lewandowski won the national championship at Poznan and he became top scorer of the league (18 goals). Earlier video footage shows that his unparalleled nose could be often found in front of the goal when he was just a young adult.

Top clubs hunted ‘Lewangoalski’

Lewandowski managed to get transferred to Borussia Dortmund after two amazing seasons at Poznan. Other top clubs wished to take the Polish player over, as well, but he eventually chose to transfer to the German top club himself. He signed a contract for four seasons.

Lewandowski scored eight goals during his first season at Dortmund but he did win the national championship. He was positioned on the field from the beginning of the match 15 times and played predominantly as shadow striker. Jürgen Klopp positioned him as striker a season later. The striker scored regularly and scored his very first hattrick in professional football on the eight of October in 2011. He scored his second hattrick not much later during the finals of the German cup against Bayern Munich, which they won. He scored a total of 22 goals in his second season.

‘Lewa’ set a club record in 2012/13; he scored in 12 consecutive matches. Furthermore, he scored four goals during the semi-finals of the Champions League against Real Madrid, which ended in 4-1. Great clubs like Manchester United, Juventus and Bayern kept an eye on him now. Dortmund didn’t let him go at the end of the season, which led to dissatisfaction on Lewandowski's side. They did let him go one year later. Lewandowski left transfer-free to Bayern Munich. He played a total of 131 matches at Dortmund in which he scored 74 goals.

Lewandowski at his best at Bayern Munich

Lewandowski’s time at Bayern was a sequence of records, prizes and many goals. The Pole played his first clash against his former club Borussia Dortmund in the August of 2014 and lost. He scored a total of 25 goals and made 13 assists in 49 matches during his first season at Bayern. This resulted in a shared second spot in the rankings.

An insane record was set in 2015/16: Lewandowski scored five goals in nine minutes during a game against VfL Wolfsburg.

He eventually scored 30 goals in one Bundesliga season, which resulted in him breaking Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s record. He scored 11 goals in 14 league games in the season of 2016/17 and became top scorer of the Bundesliga for the fourth time in the season of 2018/19.

He scored his 40th goal of the season on February 1 2020 in a match against FC Köln. He broke Gerd Müller’s record because of this. Lewandowski scored his 44th in June that same year, which led to him breaking Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s record. He had scored 43 goals when playing at Borussia Dortmund in the season of 2016/17.

UEFA Men’s Player of the Year 2019/20

Lewandowski was declared UEFA Men’s Player of the Year 2019/20 on September 15, 2020, partly because of his accomplishments in the Champions League, in which he managed to score four goals in the quarter-finals against FC Barcelona. Lewandowski scored 41 goals in the Bundesliga that season.

Lewandowski kept on impressing in the season of 2020/21. He scored his 100th goal on March 12, 2021, in the Champions League during a match against Lazio. He became the third player in history who had managed to achieve this. The other two are stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Lewandowski became the top scorer of the Bundesliga once again at the end of the season.

Lewandowski played his 300th Bundesliga game in September 2021 in a match against RB Leipzig. He scored two times, made an assist and won the game by 4-1. He scored his 250th goal in the Bundesliga on the 25th of September 2021 in a match against FC Köln. He became the first player in history to have done this.

Lewandowski played a total of 253 matches at Bayern and scored 238 times. The now 33-year-old Pole left in the summer of 2022 for approximately 45 million euros and is currently playing at FC Barcelona.

Transfer to FC Barcelona

Lewandowski transferred to FC Barcelona on the 16th of July in 2022. It had always been a dream of his to play at the Catalan club. He scored 15 goals and made five assists in twenty matches now. Despite Barcelona's reputation as a top club, they do not participate in European football now. The club was recently defeated by Manchester United and were kicked out of the competition.

It is rather unlikely that Lewandowski will score over 20 goals this season in La Liga because he is currently suffering from a hamstring injury, which is why he will probably be out of the game for a couple of weeks.

Personal life

Lewandowski is married to his childhood sweetheart Anna and they’ve got two daughters: Laura and Klara. The professional football player loves to do yoga and to meditate, and he has his own sportswear line, named ‘RL9’. He also focuses on charities besides football. An example of such a charity is the treatment of children suffering from leukaemia. He also donated a million euros on research regarding the coronavirus.