“I see my record of 41 goals in 29 games… Wow!”
Even Robert Lewandowski finds it onerous to grasp his staggering goal-scoring numbers.
The legendary striker is talking to Sky Sports activities from his dwelling in Barcelona, the place he’s gearing up for a run-in which may see him add much more main honours to his CV.
However, in addition to chasing a LaLiga and Champions League double with Barcelona, Lewandowski, now 37, has additionally been keeping track of Harry Kane at his former membership Bayern Munich.
The England captain is threatening Lewandowski’s document for many targets in a 34-game Bundesliga season – though even with 30 in 24, Kane nonetheless has some approach to go within the last 10 video games of his league season to match Lewandowski’s unimaginable 2020/21 haul.
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Harry Kane scored his five hundredth profession purpose in type together with his second for Bayern Munich towards Werder Bremen within 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 chuckle. “Because of him, I can be more proud of my record now!”
It isn’t surprising {that a} participant who has scored over 700 instances in his profession for membership and nation speaks so proudly of his statistics.
However in a wide-ranging dialog, exploring the secrets and techniques of what it takes to be a star striker, it is clear Lewandowski thinks about extra than simply targets.
“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 within the sport to have his say on…
- Why the standard No 9 is a dying breed – and the important thing to his longevity
- How Pep Guardiola modified the way in which he understands soccer
- What’s subsequent for him together with his Barca deal set to run out this summer time
- And the important thing to unlocking the potential of his ping-pong rival Marcus Rashford
‘It is 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 prime flight taking maintain this time period.
However he has extra just lately seen 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 best way they wish to be taught, find out how to play soccer is like copy and paste. Just like the manufacturing facility.”
Robert Lewandowski celebrates together with his team-mate Fermin Lopez
Lewandowski says “the world is changing” and factors to the totally different pressures on younger gamers right now and the restrictions they’ve round their life.
This, although, shouldn’t be the surroundings to create elite-level strikers, he explains.
“The striker is a different position. You cannot learn to be a great striker from the academy.
“It’s important to be totally different. It’s important to be considering totally different. I see that yearly much less and fewer.
“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 you need to go, the place the ball is coming as a result of solely you on the pitch is aware of. You may 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 understand precisely the place you need 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 way in which he noticed the sport
Lewandowski joined Guardiola at Bayern Munich in the summertime of 2014. Within the subsequent two seasons beneath the Spaniard, he scored 67 targets in 100 video games. It was a transformative time for the striker, which modified the way in which he seen the sport.
“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 considering that I’m so targeted on scoring targets that I do not care about ways. However it’s 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.”
One other 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.
“Generally what is going on round is humorous as a result of it does not make sense. However for somebody it is simpler to search out the excuse, you understand, to write down 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 sweet is that I haven’t got strain,” he says. “At 30 or a number of years [younger], this type of feeling goes to be totally different. ‘I wish to see the place I’ll play’. However on this second, I haven’t got to know. I’ve persistence.
“I’ll give myself around three months to decide what I want to do. Me, just me.”
He’s settled in Barcelona the place he and his household “have everything we need”.
A Premier League transfer appears prefer it was not meant to be. There was that well-known story of the volcano scuppering a potential cope with Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn, whereas he was additionally near 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 things – imagine in him’
Marcus Rashford and Robert Lewandowski
If he had made that transfer to United, his path could have crossed with Marcus Rashford sooner.
Curiously, Lewandowski now sits alongside Rashford within the Barcelona dressing room.
Lewandowski has spoken about how he rails towards misjudged perceptions of himself as a egocentric goal-getter. So was he shocked by the standard and character of Rashford, who arrived on mortgage from Outdated Trafford at the beginning 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…
“However Marcus is the man, when you give him confidence and he sees that you just imagine 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 very best stage.”
The crucial follow-up question: who wins their ping-pong matches? “He improved however he could not win any video games towards me! He has to alter his opponent!”
Lewandowski laughs loudly again at his own competitiveness.
It’s 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 issue within the finale to Barcelona’s season. A fractured eye socket suffered towards 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 attain, to win, stays insatiable.
Robert Lewandowski stars within the newest Defend Your Craft marketing campaign by Mackage, the worldwide luxurious life-style model, which celebrates people whose mastery, self-discipline and artistic imaginative and prescient elevate their craft to the extent of artwork.
