Robert Lewandowski wanted to be Lionel Messi. Or, at least, Joan Laporta wanted it to be. In the summer of 2021, the president ruled out the Argentine’s renewal. “I am not going to mortgage the club for 50 years for anyone, not even for the best in the world,” said the top manager. His idea was to square the fair-play financial, an objective that it has not yet been able to meet. Not even after selling club assets for 727 million to be able to reinforce the team with Lewandowski as its franchise player, a year after La Pulga said goodbye. “I ask you to come to the Gamper to see Lewandowski. It will be historic,” said Laporta, on the day of the presentation of the Pole, who at 34 years old (today he is 35) arrived at Barça in exchange for 50 million, plus 10 million in commission, and with a salary of close to 25 million. Messi had agreed to earn 20 million the first year and 70 the second.
“Retaining Messi could never be a problem, in fact, it was part of the solution,” complained Victor Font, candidate for the presidency of Barcelona in the last elections, in a letter to Barcelona fans, in which he asked, among other things , refound the club. It turned out, in any case, that Lewandowski threatened to make us forget the scoring power of the number 10. In his first campaign, he scored 33 goals in 46 games. His influence on Xavi’s team helped them win two titles: the Spanish League and the Spanish Super Cup. This season, however, the Pole went out. And with him, Barça. He has 15 goals in 32 duels and is the forward who accumulates the third worst differential between goals scored and expected goals: -3.7, behind Cyle Larin (-4.2) and Aspas (-4). “It is difficult to explain why we are like this. We can do better, but we have young players and we have to go step by step,” analyzed the Pole, godfather of the 18th edition of the Solidarity Stories of Sports.
“First we have to look at ourselves,” said Lewandowski, who reduced his average of shots on goal by 42%: from 1.74 last season to 1.22 this season. “We cannot compare ourselves with last season’s team in which we had players with more experience and quality like Busquets, Alba and Piqué. We are at a time when we must work and play better. We don’t know what happened, but it’s football,” added the forward. And he concluded: “I ask all the culés for peace of mind, we will play together and I hope that at the end of the season we can be happy with how we have done it. I am sure that we will win many games and also in the Champions League. In the end, we are going to win something.” Barcelona visits Celta next Saturday (6:30 p.m.) and travels to Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday to face Naples in the round of 16 of the Champions League. A key match for Barça, but essentially for Xavi.
“Who is the coach of Barcelona now? Xavi, well he’s already there. Thank you,” Lewandowski tried to negotiate the conflict, when he was consulted about the possibility of Hansi Flick sitting on the Barça bench next season. Flick coached Lewandowski at Bayern, between 2019 and 2021. The German coach, according to Mundo Deportivo, has already started studying Spanish. The language is a handicap for a trainer who does not even speak English. “I know Flick. “He is a very good person,” the Pole concluded. The German coach, in any case, has already taken a step to get closer to Barça: he hired Pini Zahavi, the same agent who brings Lewandowski. “Pini, thank you very much for bringing Lewandowski to Barcelona. Brother! (Pini, thank you very much for bringing Lewandowski to Barcelona, brother)”, Laporta thanked the Israeli representative, at the presentation of the Pole at the Camp Nou. It was his bet to make Messi forget. Next summer, perhaps, he will also thank Zahahi for hiring Flick to succeed Xavi.