Lewandowski proving €50m well spent after electrifying Barcelona start

Stuart Telford

• 11 Sep 2022 08:10 CDT
• 4 min read

Robert Lewandowski has already scored six goals in La Liga, the Pole making a quicker start to his Barcelona career than any other striker in the 21st century, including Luis Suarez, Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Some questioned the wisdom in paying Bayern Munich a €50 million fee for a player who turned 34 in August, but Lewandowski has wasted no time in silencing the doubters, scoring six goals from his first five La Liga games, with a hat-trick in the Champions League for good measure.

Football Transfers compares his start to other great Barcelona strikers of the 21st century…

1) Robert Lewandowski

Lewandowski had a quiet debut, as a newly configured Barca played out a goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano on La Liga's opening day, but he has been making up for lost time since, with braces against Reals Sociedad and Valladolid in the next two games.

"I wouldn't change him for the world," Barca coach Xavi said recently. "He helps the young players a lot with his advice and his humility. He does us a lot of good."

Throw Lewy's two assists in beside his six goals, and he has enjoyed a La Liga goal-involvement every 47 minutes he has played.

2) Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not fondly remembered by Barca fans, spending just a single season at Camp Nou before returning to Italy with AC Milan - initially on loan - in 2010. But is easy to forget what an impressive start he made.

Zlatan scored five goals and assisted two more across his first five games in La Liga, giving him the second-best tally behind Lewandowski by this measure of all strikers to have played at Barcelona in the 21st century.

"You bought a Ferrari, but you drive it like a Fiat," Ibrahimovic later said of his coach at Camp Nou, Pep Guardiola.

3) Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang might feel aggrieved that Barcelona signed Lewandowski. The former Arsenal captain joined on a free in February and proceeded to score 13 goals in all competitions, ending the season as Barca's top scorer despite less than half a campaign.

He hit the ground running, too, scoring a hat-trick in his fourth game - a 4-1 win at Valencia. Now plying his trade with Chelsea, where his reunion with Thomas Tuchel lasted 59 minutes of football.

4) Samuel Eto'o

Samuel Eto'o became a global superstar at Barcelona after joining from Real Mallorca in 2004, and the Blaugrana's decision to gamble on his talent was quickly repaid, with the Cameroonian scoring five goals in his first five La Liga games.

That was one more goal than Aubameyang, but they also came at a marginally slower rate of every 76 minutes as opposed to the Gabon captain's every 74.

Later given to Inter Milan alongside €46 million in the swap deal that brought Ibrahimovic to the club.

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5) Luis Suarez

Last but by no means least is Luis Suarez, a club legend at Barcelona who concluded his Camp Nou career in 2020 with 195 and 113 assists from his 283 games - many of them as part of the fabled MSN from three with Lionel Messi and Neymar either side of him.

Curiously, he was goalless in his first five La Liga games, although he did provide four assists at a rate of one every 77 minutes he played. That's some way better than Thierry Henry, who didn't contribute any attacking return in his first five… before grabbing a hat-trick against Levante in his sixth outing.