Robert Lewandowski crowned European Golden Shoe winner

FT Desk

• 9 Nov 2022 15:32 CST
• 3 min read

Robert Lewandowski has received the European Golden Shoe as Europe’s best goalscorer of 2022.

Lewandowski scored a brilliant 35 goals for previous club Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga in 2021-22.

This was more than enough to see him retain the award that he also won in the 2020-21 season.

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He scored seven goals more than PSG’s Kylian Mbappe, who finished second in the European Golden Shoe rankings with 28 goals in Ligue 1.

Lewandowski was presented with the Golden Shoe on Wednesday evening and was delighted to take the prize.

What did Lewandowski say?

"Thank you very much, I’m very proud, I’m very happy, because I know how hard I had to work for this,” he said.

“Also, I want to say thank you for my ex-team mates, also to my former team and FC Barcelona.”

Lewandowski retained the Golden Shoe, having also won the award last year.

In 2020/21, the Polish striker surpassed the Bundesliga record set by the late Gerd Muller in 1971/72 by reaching 41 goals (and 82 points) for the season.

Lewandowski is also in the running to win the Golden Shoe for a third year in a row. He is currently second in the standings this season.

He has scored 13 goals for Barcelona in La Liga, and only trails Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland.

However, Haaland will prove a difficult opponent as he has already scored 18 goals for Man City in the Premier League.

Lewandowski joined Barcelona from Bayern Munich this past summer in a deal worth over €50 million.

The 34-year-old was looking for one last big challenge of his career.

Lionel Messi has won the most European Golden Shoe titles.

The PSG forward has triumphed on six occasions, most recently in 2018/19 for Barcelona.