🏆 Why Robert Lewandowski should win the Ballon d'Or 🇵🇱

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Lewis Ambrose·30 November 2019

🏆 Why Robert Lewandowski should win the Ballon d'Or 🇵🇱

In 2018, Robert Lewandowski tried to leave Bayern Munich and he wasn’t shy about it.

The Polish striker hired a new agent, tried to wiggle his way out of the club but a move, ultimately, didn’t materialise.

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“I wasn’t happy with the way my team helped me,” he grumbled after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pipped him to the Bundesliga’s top scorer award in 2017.

“I was annoyed, I was disappointed with the setup of the team.”

Let’s just say Lewandowski wasn’t the ideal team-mate. The sort of battle for personal glory that had inspired the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo served mainly as a distraction for the Pole.

But as Raphael Honigstein, of the Athletic, has noted, there is a “marked difference in attitude” nowadays.

In 2019, with no competition in the Bundesliga and no move on the horizon, he decided to make the most of his time at the Allianz Arena.

This Lewandowski stays behind for extra training sessions with young players and gifts penalties to Philippe Coutinho to help him get off the mark at the club.

This Lewandowski has signed a new contract to stay at Bayern until shortly before his 35th birthday.

This Lewandowski is doing everything for the team.

He has realised that he needs to work as part of a functioning side if he ever wants to get his hands on the Champions League trophy.

And the result is a fully-focused world-class striker.

There are no dips in form, only statistics like 45 goals (and counting) in 2019 for club and country.

That includes two in the quarter-final, two in the semi-final and two in the final of the DFB Pokal last season. It includes 27 in 17 Bundesliga and Champions League games this season.

For arguably the first time in his career – and certainly the first time since joining Bayern Munich – Lewandowski isn’t all about himself.

And it has made him better than ever.

There is not a player in elite level football with as many goals in 2019. If this isn’t the year he’s the best player in the world, there will never be one.