Robert Lewandoski is a prolific goal scorer who has been painting Bundesliga with goals but somehow he doesn’t seem to get the recognition he deserves. Lewandoski started his career at Znicz Pruszków in the Polish second division league, he won the highest goal scorer in the second and third division before moving to Lech Poznan’.
In 2009, He also won the highest goal scorer in the first division as Lech Poznan’ won the league that was the beginning of his rise as a consistent goal scorer. Borussia Dortmund signed him in 2010 for a reported fee of €4.5 million an amount that proved to be a bargain as he went to shatter a lot of goalscoring records.
He scored his first goal for Dortmund in a 3-1 victory over Schalke 04, he was a second choice behind Lucas Barrios. Lucas Barrios got injured before the start of the 2011/2012 Bundesliga season, Lewandoski tool full advantage of his injury to cement his place in the first team he finished that season with 22 Bundesliga goals and as the third-highest goal scorer in the league.
Lewandoski scored a hat-trick in the DFB Pokal Cup final against Bayern Munich subsequently ending the season as the top scorer in the competition.
2012/2013 Lewandoski’s Breakthrough Season
Lewandoski made his first appearance of the season in the opening day victory over Werder Bremen scoring his first goal against Bayer Leverkusen in a 3-0 victory a week later. He scored his first UEFA Champions League goal against Ajax in the 87th minute to give Dortmund the maximum points.
Lewandoski became the first player to score four goals in a Champions League semi-final as Borussia Dortmund defeated Real Madrid 4-1 in the first leg. Dortmund eventually made it to the finals but they lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich, Lewandoski ended the Champions League season with ten goals two goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo who was the highest goal scorer of the competition.
Lewandoski played one more season at Dortmund before announcing that he won’t be renewing his contract and subsequently he joined Bayern Munich in 2014 after scoring 28 goals in all competitions in his last season with the club. He scored a total of 74 goals in 131 matches for the club. The decision to join Bayern Munich did not go down well with some Dortmund supporters and even administrators as he was criticized for joining a rival.
Lewandoski wasn’t deterred by the criticisms he started where he left off at Dortmund banging in goals for Bayern Munich with reckless abandon. He made his competitive debut for Bayern against Dortmund as his former club ran out 2-0 winners in the German Super Cup.
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In his first league match against Dortmund, he scored the winning goal to give Bayern Munich the maximum points. That was the beginning of a goal-laden era with the Bavarians which has continued till this day, he finished his first season with 25 goals in 49 appearances.
On September 22, 2015, Lewandoski set a Bundesliga record by coming off the bench to score five goals in nine minutes the fastest by any player in Bundesliga history.
He also set the record for the fastest hat-trick in Bundesliga history three goals in four minutes coupled with most goals scored by a substitute.
On January 11, 2016, Lewandoski finished fourth in the 2015 FIFA Balloon d’or awards.
Lewandoski ended the 2015/2016 season with 30 goals in 34 Bundesliga matches and 42 goals in 51 matches across all competitions, he became the first foreign player to score 30 goals in the Bundesliga.
In the 2016/2017 season, Lewandoski scored 42 goals in 47 matches in all competitions to continue his remarkable consistency in front of goal.
For the third consecutive season, Lewandoski scored over 40 goals in all competitions when he ended the 2017/2018 season with 41 goals in 48 matches that is unreal if you are not Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.
In 2018, Lewandoski became the all-time top scorer in the German Super Cup history, he is also the third-fastest player to score 50 goals in the champions league, it took him just 77 matches to hit half-century goals. Lewandoski is the first player to score 100 competitive goals at the Allianz Arena Stadium.
LewanGoalski, as he is fondly called by his admirers, finished the 2018/2019 season with 40 goals in 47 matches making it the fourth consecutive season that he has scored 40 goals in a season.
He started the 2019/2020 season on fire Lewandoski scored his 200th goal for Bayern Munich in a 3-0 Champions League win over Partizan Belgrade.
He is also the first player to score in each of the opening 11 games of the season in the Bundesliga surpassing the record of Pierre Emerick Aubameyang who scored in 8 consecutive Bundesliga matches.
Lewandoski has scored 23 goals in 18 matches for Bayern Munich in all competitions this season and we are only in November, you can’t bet against him scoring over 50 goals this season.
Lewandoski’s biggest individual honor is the Bundesliga player of the year award.
The Question on the lips of many football lovers, ‘why is Lewandoski so underrated and doesn’t get enough recognition for his consistency in the era of Messi and Ronaldo?
Well, probably because he has not been able to guide Bayern Munich to a champions league trophy that is why he doesn’t get enough credit and unfairly underrated.
Taiwo Ibrahim is a football analyst and sports enthusiast. For more of his sports analysis simply follow on Facebook @Sportivation1 and Twitter @TaiwoSportJournalistIbrahim
