“I see my record of 41 goals in 29 games… Wow!”
Even Robert Lewandowski finds it laborious to comprehend his staggering goal-scoring numbers.
The legendary striker is talking to Sky Sports from his house in Barcelona, the place he’s gearing up for a run-in which may see him add much more main honours to his CV.
But, in addition to chasing a LaLiga and Champions League double with Barcelona, Lewandowski, now 37, has additionally been retaining a watch on Harry Kane at his former membership Bayern Munich.
The England captain is threatening Lewandowski’s file for many objectives in a 34-game Bundesliga season – though even with 30 in 24, Kane nonetheless has a way to go in the closing 10 video games of his league season to match Lewandowski’s unbelievable 2020/21 haul.
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Harry Kane scored his five hundredth profession purpose in type along with his second for Bayern Munich in opposition to Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga.
“Harry Kane is scoring always so many goals and he’s playing really good and he’s doing a great job,” says an impressed Lewandowski. “And then I saw I did this in 29 games… if I played 34 games, I can only imagine I could even score more!”
Lewandowski lets out a loud snigger. “Because of him, I can be more proud of my record now!”
It is not a shock that a participant who has scored over 700 instances in his profession for membership and nation speaks so proudly of his statistics.
But in a wide-ranging dialog, exploring the secrets of what it takes to be a star striker, it is clear Lewandowski thinks about extra than simply objectives.
“So many people were thinking that I am so focused on scoring goals that I don’t care about tactics,” he says, whereas calling on his expertise in the recreation to have his say on…
- Why the conventional No 9 is a dying breed – and the key to his longevity
- How Pep Guardiola modified the method he understands soccer
- What is subsequent for him along with his Barca deal set to expire this summer time
- And the key to unlocking the potential of his ping-pong rival Marcus Rashford
‘It’s like copy and paste; like a manufacturing facility’
Lewandowski is into the twenty second season of his profession. He has seen traits come and go, with the bodily, direct method in England’s high flight taking maintain this time period.
But he has extra lately observed a deeper shift. A transfer away from individuality and impulsivity. No extra mavericks.
“Of course, you have some unique players or different players,” he says. “But it’s less than before for sure. From academies you have so many similar players.
“The method they need to be taught, how to play soccer is like copy and paste. Like the manufacturing facility.”
Robert Lewandowski celebrates along with his team-mate Fermin Lopez
Lewandowski says “the world is changing” and factors to the totally different pressures on younger gamers in the present day and the restrictions they’ve round their life.
This, although, is just not the setting to create elite-level strikers, he explains.
“The striker is a different position. You cannot learn to be a great striker from the academy.
“You have to be totally different. You have to be pondering totally different. I see that yearly much less and much less.
“It’s not only the skills. The mentality is the most important to thinking different to your team. You cannot do the same as all the team. You cannot stay in the position that the team or someone expects.
“No, the striker has to know the place it is best to go, the place the ball is coming as a result of solely you on the pitch is aware of. You have this type of feeling.
“I remember a conversation with Pep Guardiola many years ago. We were talking about the tactics. And he told me that he can help deliver the ball to the box, ‘but never listen to any coach who tries to tell you that you should go first post or second post’.
“He stated, ‘what I noticed, you realize precisely the place it is best to go’. I’ve this type of intuition, this type of feeling inside that I do know precisely.
“I need to have the freedom. If I have the freedom, I can deliver the best performance.”
Robert Lewandowski says Pep Guardiola modified the method he noticed the recreation
Lewandowski joined Guardiola at Bayern Munich in the summer time of 2014. In the subsequent two seasons below the Spaniard, he scored 67 objectives in 100 video games. It was a transformative time for the striker, which modified the method he seen the recreation.
“With Pep, I started to understand football from a different way,” says Lewandowski. “Not the way as a footballer, more a little bit like as a coach.
“So many individuals have been pondering that I’m so centered on scoring objectives that I do not care about ways. But it is not true.
“In the end, I know that if the team plays better, if we’re playing as a team tactically better, it’s easier to score the goal. It’s normal.”
Another criticism Lewandowski rejects is that his age is now impacting his physicality.
“‘He’s old so he cannot run’,” says Lewandowski, quoting a typical critic. “And I check my numbers and how I compare with the different strikers and offensive players – and I was [among the top] players who were doing the press during the games.
“Sometimes what is going on round is humorous as a result of it would not make sense. But for somebody it is simpler to discover the excuse, you realize, to write one thing about somebody.”
Lewandowski’s next move
Lewandowski admits he doesn’t yet know where he’ll be playing next season. His contract expires this summer and with his game time reduced this term, there is speculation about what he does next. But he is not rushing into a decision.
“What is nice is that I haven’t got strain,” he says. “At 30 or a few years [younger], this type of feeling goes to be totally different. ‘I would like to see the place I’m going to play’. But on this second, I haven’t got to know. I’ve endurance.
“I’ll give myself around three months to decide what I want to do. Me, just me.”
He is settled in Barcelona the place he and his household “have everything we need”.
A Premier League transfer seems prefer it was not meant to be. There was that well-known story of the volcano scuppering a doable take care of Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn, whereas he was additionally shut to becoming a member of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man Utd. “But at that time, when I was at Dortmund, they wouldn’t let me go. So, it’s like someone decided maybe that you should play there, not there… and in the end, OK, I’m very happy with my career!”
‘Rashford has all the pieces – consider in him’
Marcus Rashford and Robert Lewandowski
If he had made that transfer to United, his path might have crossed with Marcus Rashford sooner.
Interestingly, Lewandowski now sits alongside Rashford in the Barcelona dressing room.
Lewandowski has spoken about how he rails in opposition to misjudged perceptions of himself as a egocentric goal-getter. So was he stunned by the high quality and character of Rashford, who arrived on mortgage from Old Trafford at the begin of this season after months of adverse headlines?
“After a few training sessions, no. He has huge potential,” says Lewandowski. “He has everything. He has speed, he has technique, he has a shot, he has left foot, right foot, skills…
“But Marcus is the man, for those who give him confidence and he sees that you just consider in him, he may give you again 200 per cent.
“He’s a very nice guy. We spoke because we are sitting in the dressing room beside [each other]. We also play ping-pong. I see that this guy is very kind, very nice guy but also because of this he needs someone standing behind him.
“If he does have this confidence he can actually play his greatest soccer and on the greatest stage.”
The crucial follow-up question: who wins their ping-pong matches? “He improved however he could not win any video games in opposition to me! He has to change his opponent!”
Lewandowski laughs loudly again at his own competitiveness.
It is that can to win, mixed with the know-how of a 12-time league winner throughout his spells in Germany and Spain, which makes him a key consider the finale to Barcelona’s season. A fractured eye socket suffered in opposition to Villarreal will not sideline him for lengthy.
“The season is starting again,” says Lewandowski. “We have to be ready for the most important time in this part of the season.”
What makes the distinction in these moments?
“You always have to be ready. Always you have to think, what can I do better, what can I do more? You have to think 24 hours per day about your football. You need always this feeling that you’re hungry for more.”
Lewandowski’s starvation to rating, to win, stays insatiable.
Robert Lewandowski stars in the newest Protect Your Craft marketing campaign by Mackage, the international luxurious way of life model, which celebrates people whose mastery, self-discipline and artistic imaginative and prescient elevate their craft to the stage of artwork.
