Lewandowski tried to join Real Madrid before Barcelona

Stuart Telford

• 15 Jan 2023 13:12 GMT
• 3 min read

Robert Lewandowski has scored prolifically for Barcelona since his €50 million transfer from Bayern Munich, but the Polish striker's first choice on leaving Germany was Real Madrid…

That's according to La Liga specialist Jorge Picon of Relevo, who claims that when Lewandowski decided to bring his eight-season stay at Bayern to an end, the first club super-agent Pini Zahavi offered his player to was Real Madrid.

"The Israeli began to contact different clubs, letting them know that the Bayern star was considering changing teams. However, the first of those calls was made to Real Madrid," he writes.

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"The player prioritised joining los Blancos. It was a club that had been interested in him before and a project that fit his career goals. In addition, both he and his family, specifically his wife, were crazy about moving to Spain."

Lewandowski started going public with his desire to leave Bayern for Barcelona when on international duty with Poland last June, the Blaugrana making their move when it became apparent they would have no competition from their Clasico rivals.

Benzema block

"Although the No.9 was desired by Florentina Perez in the past, Real ruled out his signing," Picon continued. "He was already 33 and [Karim] Benzema was having the best season of his career. The integration of both was totally incompatible."

READ: The five Real Madrid players who could leave in January

Benzema is nearly a year older than Lewandowski, but he has been at Real since he was 21, and the club have made a definite change to their transfer strategy in recent seasons, only paying big money for a player with the best of their career in front of them.

Cristiano Ronaldo - who tried to persuade Lewandowski to join him at the Bernabeu when Real met Bayern in the Champions League in 2014 - wanted to return to Madrid last summer and again this winter, but the 37-yer-old's calls also fell on deaf ears.