Why Lewandowski risks becoming too old like Ronaldo
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 12 Apr 2022 08:39 BST
- 4 min read
Robert Lewandowski has dominated the transfer headlines in recent days after an explosive report in Poland on Monday claimed that the striker had agreed a deal to join Barcelona this summer.
Lewandowski’s future in Munich is very much in doubt as his contract expires in 2023 and there has been little progress made over a renewal.
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Bayern have made it clear that either Lewandowski signs a new deal or they will be tempted into selling him this summer in order to not lose him on a Bosman Transfer a year later.
His future is still up in the air and nothing has been decided.
However, as former Bayern Munich midfielder Dietmar Hamaan points out, Lewandowski’s age must be taken into account when both Bayern and Barcelona decide their next steps.
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“With Lewandowski you have to see whether he wants more than two years. Then of course you have to think about,” Hamaan stated.
“At the end of the contract he would be nearly 37. You can see with Ronaldo that it gets more difficult with age.”
Barcelona think 25-30 million euros for Lewandowski is reasonable, not more than that. [@gerardromero]
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) April 11, 2022
Hamann is absolutely correct. Lewandowski may be the best striker in the world right now along with Karim Benzema. He may also be posting goalscoring numbers that are frankly ridiculous – this is the seventh season in a row he has broken the 40-goal barrier.
But Lewandowski turns 34 in August. Age is going to catch up with him very soon, just as it did with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was also still breaking the 40-goal mark at the age of 33. After that age he failed to do so again and, while his goalscoring numbers have still been the envy of most footballers, the Portuguese has clearly been in decline for the last few years.
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Ronaldo recently turned 37 and his age has really showed in the second half of this season. In 2022 he has scored in only two of his 14 games for Man Utd and he has become as much of a problem for his teams as he has a solution over the past two seasons at least.
If Lewandowski signs a three-year contract that he will request for Barcelona or Bayern, he will be 37 when that deal expires.
Given he is demanding a salary that could reportedly reach as much as €35-40 million, this is a hell of a lot of money for a player who could quite easily go into a Ronaldo-like decline in the next year or so.
