"You broke records, and you, too, would have deserved to win this," Lionel Messi told Robert Lewandowski after the Argentine picked up his seventh Ballon d'Or in Paris in November. "You had an incredible season."
It was always believed that surpassing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in individual achievements is almost impossible and requires a different approach, and even different standards, no one can match their stunning numbers, and therefore those who surpass them in this new era must possess capabilities such as those of Robert Lewandowski.
Poland's Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich's top scorer, retained the award for the best player in the world at the "The Best" ceremony for the year 2021 on Monday, which may constitute partial compensation for his loss of the Ballon d'Or award to the Argentine Lionel Messi, the current star of Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite the impressive statistics possessed by both Messi and Ronaldo, Lewandowski entered the same circle of excellence as these two global stars, and we have to search for new vocabulary to describe his brilliance.
The Polish striker has achieved a lot in 2021 - the most goal-scoring player in consecutive Bundesliga matches, the most goal-scoring player in consecutive home matches, scoring in nine consecutive Champions League matches in multiple seasons. Moreover, he surpassed Klaus Fischer to become second in the list of players with the most goals scored in the history of the Bundesliga, and he passed Raul to take the third place in the list of the most goal-scoring players in the history of the Champions League.
Alongside Johan Cruyff, Lewandowski is the only male football player to have won a treble of a national title, national cup, and Champions League, while also becoming top scorer in all competitions.
Also, the 33-year-old broke Gerd Müller's 40-goal record in Germany’s top flight, a record that was regarded as untouchable, all in the season after winning the sextuple with Bayern and being voted world footballer of the year. These are numbers that catapult footballers to elite status, but there are few superstars who are as down-to-earth as the modest Pole.
And it is not only about scoring goals, as Lewandowski is an integrated player, as he is able to excel in physical struggles with the defenders of the rival teams, and he is still active and energetic as if at the beginning of his football career, but he may be in better physical form now than it was before, since it is clear that his muscular composition is now much better than it was when he joined Borussia Dortmund in 2010.
Lewandowski was born on August 21, 1988, in Warsaw, Poland. He is the son of Krzystof Lewandowski, a national judo champion as well as a soccer player for Hutnik Warszawa in the 2nd Division, and his mother Iwona Lewandowski, a volleyball player for AZS Warszawa, and party vice president Partyzant Leszno.
In his international career, Robert made 3 matches for the national under-21 football team in Poland, all in friendly matches against England, Belarus, and Finland, and participated with his country in 118 international matches, in which he scored 66 goals.
In October 2017, the day after scoring to help Poland qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Lewandowski finished Bachelor of Physical Education (BPhEd) with coaching and management at the Academy of Sport Education in Warsaw, concluding a decade of studies
The life and rise to stardom of Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski will be depicted in a documentary on Amazon Prime Video, set to be released in 2022. "We want to tell a story of ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses unfiltered - to present the events as they really happened," said Lewandowski.
"I want that the documentary will be an inspiration to the children who dream of achieving something big but do not believe that they can do It" added the Pole.
