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Lewandowski’s last dance on the international stage?

Lewandowski’s last dance on the international stage?

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There was more than a hint of poignancy to Poland’s exit from the last World Cup. Already 3-0 down to France and with eight minutes of stoppage-time played they won a penalty kick. Robert Lewandowski converted it, though it made little difference to the result of the match. Amid growing talk of his imminent retirement from international football it was a final, valedictory act from a player who, for all his brilliance, could never quite conquer the world.

By Ian King

It is reasonable to say that Robert Lewandowski has made Poland a better team. His 82 goals for this country is the fourth-highest tally for any European player in the men’s game, putting him behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Ferenc Puskas. As Lewandowski reached his peak in his mid-twenties, so Poland moved from being occasional qualifiers for major tournaments – a position they’d been in for the previous twenty years. They’ve qualified for every World Cup and European Championship finals since 2014. 

But they’ve only got as far as the quarter-finals once, and that was in 2016. This Poland team, even though it features one of perhaps the top two or three strikers of the 21st century, has never matched the team that won the third/fourth play-off at both the 1974 and 1982 World Cup finals. Poland’s decline as a footballing nation also coincided with the fall of the Berlin wall, though it should be added that correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

At club level, he’s not quite scoring at the level he was, but that has to be considered in light of what his previous record was. Lewandowski scored more than a goal a game in the Bundesliga for three consecutive seasons for Borussia Dortmund, including 41 in 28 games during the 2020/21 season. Even though he’s now approaching his 36th birthday, he’s still scoring a goal every other game; 19 in 35 last season and 42 in 69 over the last two. 

And it’s also worth bearing in mind that this has come at Barcelona, who ended last season as runners-up in LaLiga behind only Real Madrid. While their recent financial travails mean that Barcelona are still not quite the club they were not so long ago, they still demand excellence, and this seems to have created something of a dilemma for the club. 

Lewandowski was a franchise signing for Barcelona as much as anything else, but the statistics demonstrate that, while there is unhappiness from his club’s coaches that he isn’t delivering more, he is still delivering quite a lot. On the one hand, while he may not quite be the goal machine that he was three or four years ago, his combined goals and assists total of 27 was still the third highest in LaLiga, while his xG of 18.1 was behind only that of Artem Dovbyk of Girona. 

But at the end of April The Athletic reported that anonymous coaching staff “say they have had frustrations all season over Lewandowski’s struggles in duels with defenders, his link-up play, as well as him not being clinical enough at times” and that they may even be open to selling him during the summer. 

Much of his career has received a fraction of the attention of some of his contemporaries. Not for nothing was the documentary about him on Prime Video called Lewandowski: Unknown. That’s understandable, and perhaps that’s down to him being a great scorer of goals rather than a scorer of great goals. But it doesn’t make for great showreels. 

It seems quite plausible that in their relationship with their star player, Poland could be considered guilty of doing the same thing multiple times while expecting to see different results. At this point in his career, it’s inevitable that a player will start to diminish. What matters is how they leverage the sum of all their experience. Perhaps Poland might even benefit from playing Lewandowski slightly deeper rather than just hoping that he continues to do something that’s become more difficult for him these last couple of years. And now there’s an injury scare. During Poland’s last warm-up friendly Türkiye, Lewandowski pulled up after just 32 minutes with an apparent thigh injury. Head coach Michal Probierz told the press afterwards that, “Robert has a slight injury but there should be no problem.” Well, let’s hope so, Michal, because your team has been heavily dependent upon his goals over the years. 

The next highest goalscorer in the current Poland squad is midfielder Kamil Grosicki. He’s a few months older than Lewandowski – he’s 36 already – and made his debut for the national team in the same year, 2008. He’s scored 17 goals. Though it is worth pointing out that England are even more dependent upon Harry Kane for goals than Poland have been on Robert Lewandowski, and in the entire squad only Bukayo Saka has scored more than four.

The thigh injury is troubling. They are frequently connected to issues of fatigue, and Lewandowski made 49 appearances for Barcelona last season. And in a group containing France, the Netherlands and an excellent (if injury-ravaged) Austria, claiming second place would be a remarkable achievement, while even getting one of the third place spots looks tricky and would almost certainly require taking something off France and the Netherlands as well as beating Austria. If this is to be Robert Lewandowski’s international football farewell, making it a happy one might be a tall order. 

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from Euro 2024 live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Lewandowski’s last dance on the international stage?

There was more than a hint of poignancy to Poland’s exit from the last World Cup. Already 3-0 down to France and with eight minutes of stoppage-time played they won a penalty kick. Robert Lewandowski converted it, though it made little difference to the result of the match. Amid growing talk of his imminent retirement from international football it was a final, valedictory act from a player who, for all his brilliance, could never quite conquer the world.

By Ian King

It is reasonable to say that Robert Lewandowski has made Poland a better team. His 82 goals for this country is the fourth-highest tally for any European player in the men’s game, putting him behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Ferenc Puskas. As Lewandowski reached his peak in his mid-twenties, so Poland moved from being occasional qualifiers for major tournaments – a position they’d been in for the previous twenty years. They’ve qualified for every World Cup and European Championship finals since 2014. 

But they’ve only got as far as the quarter-finals once, and that was in 2016. This Poland team, even though it features one of perhaps the top two or three strikers of the 21st century, has never matched the team that won the third/fourth play-off at both the 1974 and 1982 World Cup finals. Poland’s decline as a footballing nation also coincided with the fall of the Berlin wall, though it should be added that correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

At club level, he’s not quite scoring at the level he was, but that has to be considered in light of what his previous record was. Lewandowski scored more than a goal a game in the Bundesliga for three consecutive seasons for Borussia Dortmund, including 41 in 28 games during the 2020/21 season. Even though he’s now approaching his 36th birthday, he’s still scoring a goal every other game; 19 in 35 last season and 42 in 69 over the last two. 

And it’s also worth bearing in mind that this has come at Barcelona, who ended last season as runners-up in LaLiga behind only Real Madrid. While their recent financial travails mean that Barcelona are still not quite the club they were not so long ago, they still demand excellence, and this seems to have created something of a dilemma for the club. 

Lewandowski was a franchise signing for Barcelona as much as anything else, but the statistics demonstrate that, while there is unhappiness from his club’s coaches that he isn’t delivering more, he is still delivering quite a lot. On the one hand, while he may not quite be the goal machine that he was three or four years ago, his combined goals and assists total of 27 was still the third highest in LaLiga, while his xG of 18.1 was behind only that of Artem Dovbyk of Girona. 

But at the end of April The Athletic reported that anonymous coaching staff “say they have had frustrations all season over Lewandowski’s struggles in duels with defenders, his link-up play, as well as him not being clinical enough at times” and that they may even be open to selling him during the summer. 

Much of his career has received a fraction of the attention of some of his contemporaries. Not for nothing was the documentary about him on Prime Video called Lewandowski: Unknown. That’s understandable, and perhaps that’s down to him being a great scorer of goals rather than a scorer of great goals. But it doesn’t make for great showreels. 

It seems quite plausible that in their relationship with their star player, Poland could be considered guilty of doing the same thing multiple times while expecting to see different results. At this point in his career, it’s inevitable that a player will start to diminish. What matters is how they leverage the sum of all their experience. Perhaps Poland might even benefit from playing Lewandowski slightly deeper rather than just hoping that he continues to do something that’s become more difficult for him these last couple of years. And now there’s an injury scare. During Poland’s last warm-up friendly Türkiye, Lewandowski pulled up after just 32 minutes with an apparent thigh injury. Head coach Michal Probierz told the press afterwards that, “Robert has a slight injury but there should be no problem.” Well, let’s hope so, Michal, because your team has been heavily dependent upon his goals over the years. 

The next highest goalscorer in the current Poland squad is midfielder Kamil Grosicki. He’s a few months older than Lewandowski – he’s 36 already – and made his debut for the national team in the same year, 2008. He’s scored 17 goals. Though it is worth pointing out that England are even more dependent upon Harry Kane for goals than Poland have been on Robert Lewandowski, and in the entire squad only Bukayo Saka has scored more than four.

The thigh injury is troubling. They are frequently connected to issues of fatigue, and Lewandowski made 49 appearances for Barcelona last season. And in a group containing France, the Netherlands and an excellent (if injury-ravaged) Austria, claiming second place would be a remarkable achievement, while even getting one of the third place spots looks tricky and would almost certainly require taking something off France and the Netherlands as well as beating Austria. If this is to be Robert Lewandowski’s international football farewell, making it a happy one might be a tall order. 

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from Euro 2024 live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.