The Robert Lewandowski saga appears to be reaching its peak. On Monday in a press conference with the Polish national team ahead of their Nations League match against Wales, he stated that his time with Bayern Munich is done.
“My era at Bayern is over,” Lewandowski said. “I don’t see any possibility to continue playing for this club anymore.”
That is a definitive and surprising statement from Lewandowski coming off of a season in which he scored 35 goals in the Bundesliga, assisting three more. But only winning the league and being knocked out of Champions League play by Villarreal makes this quite a disappointing season for the German giants overall. They’re already linked to a replacement to Lewandowski in the form of Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, but the veteran is under contract until the end of the 2023 season, so any interested clubs will need to negotiate with both him and Bayern Munich.
While Lewandowski was already wanted by Barcelona, his plea to leave Bayern in this way was unexpected.
Lewandowski is the second leading scorer in Bayen club history with 344 goals in just 375 matches in all competitions, and he has won everything that there is to win. It could be a case where winning the Bundesliga year after year isn’t enough to satisfy Lewandowski or that something behind the scenes has happened. After already stating that he wouldn’t renew his contract earlier this month, he has now escalated things and hopes that Bayern won’t stand in his way. At the end of the season, Bayern’s chief executive Oliver Kahn said that he has a contract and will fulfill it, so things could get a bit messy. On Monday, Kahn addressed Lewandowski’s comments.
“I can’t tell you why Robert chose this way to communicate his situation,” Kahn told Sports1. “Public statements like that don’t get you anywhere.
“Robert should know what he has at Bayern. Appreciation is not a one-way street.”
Even though he’s 33, Lewandowski shows no signs of slowing down as he has eclipsed 2,400 league minutes for the past four seasons and scored 20 or more league goals in seven consecutive seasons. This means that there will be no shortage of suitors for his talents, but who are some of the best fits around the globe?
Barcelona are the favorites
Coming off of a season in which Barcelona finished 13 points off the title in La Liga, they’re looking to get back to their best immediately under Xavi. After joining in January, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was one of their leading scorers with 11 goals in 17 matches, but after him, there are plenty of question marks. Memphis Depay and Luuk de Jong are holdovers from the Ronald Koeman era and will likely move if Barcelona can find suitors, but no one on the squad scored more goals than Depay’s 12 in league play.
Adding Lewandowski would immediately make the Barcelona attack one to be feared and along with Aubameyang and Ferran Torres ahead of a midfield with emerging talents like Pedri.
Liverpool make a ton of sense now
A new likely entry into the Lewandowski sweepstakes, a rare player swap could suit both clubs. With Sadio Mane possibly heading to Germany to replace Lewandowski, why not send a forward the other way? Liverpool are a club that can match Lewandowski’s ambitions while adding a feared striker will help the Reds in the Premier League arms race after Manchester City bolstered their attack with Erling Haaland.
There is already recent transfer history between the clubs as Thiago joined Liverpool from Germany and keeps in contact with Lewandowski. Jurgen Klopp also coached Lewandowski during his time at Borussia Dortmund.
Replacing Mane’s 12 goals at the forward position will be crucial, and what better way than adding Lewandowski?
Chelsea could be a dark horse
The Blues thought their striker woes were over after spending over 270 million dollars on Romelu Lukaku, Kai Havertz, and Timo Werner. They were so confident that they even allowed Tammy Abraham to go to Roma where he scored 17 goals in the Serie A. That output was only three fewer goals than Chelsea’s trio combined. While the sale of the team to the Todd Bohley consortium does muck up transfer plans due to the team being under an embargo until the dust settles, striker is the first target for improvement.
Adding Lewandowski to the forward line would make Chelsea title contenders as no one on the team scored more than 11 goals last season. He hasn’t had a season with fewer goals than that in 11 years. Chance creation isn’t an issue for Chelsea but putting the ball into the back of the net is.