Johnnie Victoria
What will Robert Lewandowski bring to wherever he goes?
Robert Lewandowski had one of the best seasons of his career this year. Now, he's requested a move away from Bayern Munich. Let's take a look at his season and what he will bring to wherever he goes.
Last week, Robert Lewandowski revealed his intentions to leave Bayern Munich this summer. Will this doesn't guarantee a move away, no team wants an unhappy striker who doesn't want to be there on their side.
So, the likeliness of a move for the Polish number nine is very high. And as such, there are multiple teams very interested in getting his signature.
First thing to remember about Lewa is that he isn't a young player anymore. He is 33 years old, and that factor should play in every interested party's minds.
However, he doesn't exactly play like a man in the final stretch of his career.
Here is what Robert Lewandowski will bring to wherever he moves to.
What he brings
Well let's start off with the obvious fact: this man is a goal machine. He has scored 237 goals in 252 games over eight seasons with Bayern.
This season alone has been his second most prolific season of his career. 35 goals this season is six shy of his best tally of 41, which he set just last year.
That means in the last two seasons, he has scored 76 goals in 63 games. Unreal.
He scores goals from anywhere, too. He's only missed four penalties in his league career from 44 attempted. He went five from five this season. Fun fact, even without penalties he would still be the top scorer in Europe.
Standing at six foot tall - although he seems a lot taller - he should be a moderate aerial threat. But instead, the man is an elite set piece finisher.
He has scored seven goals from set pieces this season, which is the most in the Bundesliga. In fact, not even just the Bundesliga. It is the most from any player in Europe's top five leagues.
Lewandowski knows exactly where the goal is. He has a 49% shot on target percentage, which from 157 is incredibly impressive. A 0.19 goals per shot and 0.39 goals per shot on target rate is incredible, too.
What's better is it's not just scoring the goals he's good at. He can create them, too.
He has only got three assists this year off of a 5.7 xA, so don't expect numbers like his teammate, Thomas Muller. But what he has got is pretty decent, still.
He has 104 shot-creating actions, which is fourth most on the team, and is also fourth for goal-creating actions with 15.
For comparison, he has more SCA this season than Sadio Mane, Raheem Sterling and Cristiano Ronaldo.
As for GCA, he has more than Kevin De Bruyne, Diogo Jota and Bruno Fernandes.
Robert Lewandowski is a literal gift from the goal scoring gods.
Where he could go
So who wants him? Well, most likely every club in the world does, starting with Bayern. They are reluctant to sell him, adamant that he will see out the final year on his contract. But as mentioned before, he wants to go.
Now we have to look at the teams that want, or maybe even need him most.
Let's start with Chelsea, because they have struggled to find their number nine for quite some time now. Timo Werner was a bust, and Romelu Lukaku who they forked out just shy of £100m for is not playing like he is worth that much/ Like, at all.
They will be very interested in all the developments, and chances are they have already enquired about him to gauge where things are. But most likely so have all interested teams.
It's not certain yet if Kylian Mbappe will stay with PSG or leave for Real Madrid. But should he leave, the seemingly endless pockets of PSG will offer the world for Lewandowski services.
Manchester United probably should get thrown in there. Yes, they don't really need a striker with Cristiano Ronaldo being their main man. Plus, two 30+ year old strikers isn't exactly looking to the future. But they need all the hope they can get.
The team that seems to be in pole position to sign him, though, is Barcelona. Xavi wants a big marquee signing this year, a veteran player to lead his team of youth and potential.
It's said that Xavi has already spoken personally with Lewandowski about a move, while the Mirror reported that the talisman took a call from Barca in the Bayern dressing room in front of his teammates.
If true, that is a pretty big sign of a guy not caring for his team anymore and wanting a move away right now.
All stats taken from fbref and whoscored.