Lewandowski is expected to join Barcelona this summer, where he will be paid twice as much as he is at Bayern Munchen.
It’s hard to believe, but during Lewandowski’s entire career, transfer payments for the Pole amounted to over €5 million. At one time, the club Znich paid 15 thousand for the 18-year-old Legia double striker. Two years later, Lech bought him out for €380,000, and two years later, Borussia Dortmund paid €4.75 million for the top scorer in the Polish championship. Since then, they haven’t spent any actual money on Lewandowski.
Bayern Munich picked up the Bundesliga’s top forward eight years ago for free on the expiration of his contract. That deal was probably the best in Bayern’s history: Robert played 370 games for the Munich club, in which he scored 341 goals. With Bayern Munich, he has won everything he could, including the Champions League and Bundesliga (seven times already, with the eighth on the way). Since he departed from Dortmund, he has been the top scorer five times and will undoubtedly become the top scorer six times at the end of the season.
Lewandowski will be 34 years old in August. Not so long ago, that was considered a veteran’s age, but realities have changed. Modern medicine, players’ recovery technologies, and a proper approach to nutrition and sleep significantly prolong the careers of top stars.
Lewandowski takes a fanatically responsible approach to his health. He gave up dairy products, sugar, and all kinds of sweets, went to the gym at the club, and constantly worked out at home. He includes weightlifting and kickboxing in his personal training program. “Lewandowski is the most professional player I’ve ever met. He thinks 24 hours a day about proper nutrition, sleep, and training,” Guardiola said of the Pole.
Therefore, Lewandowski is definitely capable of spending 2-3 more seasons at the top level. He is already a Bayern legend, and to win the Bundesliga not eight but eleven times is not much of a motivation. Robert has been playing in Germany for 12 years and apparently doesn’t mind a change of scenery. The first reports on Lewandowski’s move to Barcelona appeared in the Polish press at the end of March. If you summarize all the information, you can highlight three main points:
- Barca is ready to offer Lewandowski a contract for 3-4 years.
- The transfer fee is €60 million, while the salary is €35-40 million per year before taxes (the forward currently receives just over €20 million)
Lewandowski has already agreed to the transfer, and now the clubs need to decide.
Lewandowski’s current contract with Bayern Munich runs until next season. The club’s management is not eager to let go of their top star, but a lot depends on the player’s position. The German club’s general director Oliver Kahn never tires of repeating that Bayern does everything to keep Lewandowski in the squad.
Judging by the news, Robert himself is serious about moving to Catalonia. He has already had several conversations with Xavi, and his agent Pini Zahavi is constantly in touch with Barca president Joan Laporta. Bayern is used to solving personnel issues in advance, so the story with Lewandowski should end soon. Then the Munich side will have a couple of months to find a replacement for their leading scorer.
For Barcelona, the transfer of Lewandowski will be an actual special operation. In addition to complex negotiations with the agent, the player and Bayern need to solve another critical problem. Getting rid of several players is necessary to not go out from under the salary ceiling. With the proposed Lewandowski salary of €35-40 million, at least five players will go out.
One question remains open in this whole story. Why does Barcelona need Lewandowski at all? Yes, he is one of the best strikers, but does he fit the Barca style? A classic center-forward doesn’t go well with the Catalan philosophy. Even Ibrahimovic went through that. But if Xavi has insisted on this transfer himself, he certainly understands how he can use the best qualities of the scoring Pole.
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Man City is the leading contender for Haaland, but the Norwegian has other possibilities.
Erling Haaland has very intelligently built his career in a step-by-step format. After Melde, Salzburg, and Borussia, it’s time to take another step. The Norwegian and his influential agent Mino Raiola are choosing from various options. Barcelona is out of the race and has switched to Lewandowski. Real Madrid is primarily targeting Mbappe. PSG is ready to flood Haaland with money, but the player is not interested in moving to the fifth strongest European championship. Among the top clubs, Man City remains the main contender.
According to transfermarkt.com, Haaland is the second most expensive player with a price of €150 million, but there is a tricky nuance in the contract of the Norwegian. Two years ago, Mino Raiola included an essential point in the agreement with Borussia: after two seasons in Dortmund, Haaland can leave the club for only €75 million.
However, €75 million, by all appearances, will not be enough. Raiola never forgets about himself – the expected bonus should be €40 million, and another €30 million will receive by Erling’s father – Alf-Inge. An important fact is that Alf-Inge Haaland played for Manchester City from 2000 to 2003.
Borussia Dortmund is keen to keep Haaland for another season, but that is unlikely. Manchester City is ready to make the Norwegian the highest-paid player in the EPL with a salary of £500,000 a week (£26 million a year). That offer is ready to be repeated by Man Utd, but in terms of trophy chances, the choice in favor of United looks weak.
This story is confused by the same aspect as Lewandowski’s move to Barca: both forwards do not really fit the model of their future teams. Guardiola’s Man City are generally used to playing without a nominal striker. Again, we can remember the season when Pep got Ibrahimovic at Barcelona and didn’t really know what to do with him.
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PSG could get 220 million euros for Mbappe, and now they will lose their star for free
Real Madrid wanted to buy Mbappe last summer – the club was ready to pay PSG €220 million, but for the owners of the Parisian club, even such an incredible price did not mean anything. And even though the player has only a year left on his contract, the risk of not getting any compensation in 2022 increased manifold. An adventurous but straightforward logic guided PSG: the main thing is to keep Kilian now, and then we will somehow agree on a new contract.
In March, different sources reported that Mbappe had agreed with Real Madrid on the move. His free-agent status does not mean that the move will cost Madrid nothing. The signing bonus is expected to be €100 million – an astounding amount, but at PSG, he was offered more fat terms. The club was ready to make Mbappe the highest-paid player in history with a salary of €100 million a year + very many millions more as a signing bonus. In Madrid, the striker will earn half as much.
The plan appears to have failed. The owners of PSG could not convince Mbappe to stay in Paris. Along with the star newcomers, Kylian was supposed to win the Champions League this season. Still, it ended badly in the return game against Real Madrid and the exclusion from the tournament. If the Frenchman had any doubts before that, the March fiasco finally convinced Mbappe that it was time to go.
The PSG bosses are making a last desperate attempt to keep Kylian – he has not yet signed a contract with Real Madrid, although legally, there is nothing to stop it. Six months before the end of the current agreement, any player has the right to negotiate a transition formally. Despite the best efforts of the Qatari owners, the breakup with Mbappe appears to be a done deal. It is very doubtful that in the remaining time, the PSG negotiators will be able to do what they failed to do in the previous ten months.
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