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Robert Lewandowski 2021
Robert LEWAN DOWS KI LEWANDOWSKI
Cover star…back-to-back
2 0 21
Two in a row for Lewandowskiwando ki
Since the Wor ld Soccer awards awards fi first began in 19rst began in 82, only Michel , only Michel Platini, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho,Platini, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ro Ronaldo have ever been named Worldnaldo have ever been named World Player of the Year in back-to-back years. r of the Year in back-to-back years. Now, Robert L Robert Lewandowsew wski’s name can ki’s name can be added to that illustrious list.
Co Continuing where he left off in 2020,ntinuing where he left off in 2020, th the Bayern Munich and Poland strikere Bayern Munich and Poland striker was in sci s in scint ntillating goalscoring form once illating goalscoring form once again as he surpassed the seemingly again as he surpassed the seemingly unbreakable Bundesliga record of the unbreakable Bundesliga record of the late, great Gerd Muller. With 41 leaguelate, great Gerd Muller. With 41 league goals, he ovegoals, he overtook the Bayern legend’sook the B ern legend’s tally from the 1971-72y from the campaign, thereby campaign, thereby securing his first-ever European Golden Shoe. For most of our panel, that was enough to win their vote.
Still, missing out on the Champions League, or international glory with Poland, meant that Lewandowski’s competition for this year’s award was much stiffer than last year.
Winning the Copa America with Argentina put Lionel Messi right back in contention after finishing a distant third in 2020; Jorginho becoming a European champion for club and country made the Italian a popular choice, while Mo Salah’s breathtaking start to the season put him right among the contenders too.
UEFA Player of the Year Jorginho can console himself by being one of the key men in this year’s Wor ld Soccer Men’s Team of the Year: Italy. Their boss, Roberto Mancini, was also a runaway leader in the Men’s Manager of the Year, with only Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel rivalling them as challengers.
It is rare for a team to win the award while also ending their year so disappointingly. Italy’s failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup automatically was made all the more surprising by their excellence in the summer.
In the women’s categories, there was a clean sweep for European champions Barcelona, the coach that guided them to last season’s Champions League, Lluis Cortes, and their captain, Alexia Putellas.
But back to the men’s World Player award, and of all the elite players to have been overshadowed by the astonishing achievements of Messi and Ronaldo in the last decade, few have remained as consistently prolific as Lewandowski. He may have had to wait until beyond his 30th birthday, but the Poland marksman has now moved out of that shadow and established himself as the world’s best centre-forward.
Lewandowski… two-time winner
In 2020, he was rewarded for spearheading Bayern’s treble-winning outfit, recognised as the best player in the best team; the outstanding cog in an incredible machine. This year though, it’s been all about him. Other than their entirely predictable retention of the Bundesliga crown, the Bavarians failed to hit the heights of the previous season, and in doing so they proved just how much they rely on Lewandowski.
They missed him badly in the Champions League quarter-final defeat to PSG, when a rare knee injury ruled him out of both legs.
It is also hard to imagine that Bayern would have suffered their shock secondround exit from the 2020-21 German Cup to Holsten Kiel if their talismanic striker had started the match.
The sheer volume of goals that he scored was frightening. Gerd Muller’s record of 40 in one Bundesliga season had stood for almost 50 years before last season; not only did Lewandowski break the record, he did so having played five fewer games. Indeed, last season was the first time that the Pole had played fewer than 30 league games since arriving in Germany in 2010. That
didn’t stop him from producing his most prolific campaign, winning the first Golden Shoe of his career in the process.
There were plenty of other records that Lewandowski sent tumbling along the way, too. He scored in 13 consecutive home league games, a Bundesligarecord streak that included 24 goals; he broke a Bayern record by scoring in 19 consecutive games in all competitions, a run that ended in October; he won his fourth Bundesliga Golden Boot in a row, and sixth in total, moving within one of another of Muller’s all-time records; and he surpassed Klaus Fischer on the list of all-time league top scorers to move into second place – again, behind Muller.
After 12 games of the current campaign, Lewandowski had already scored 14 Bundesliga goals, taking his overall tally to 291. Muller is on 365, while the Germany legend also leads in the Bayern record books, with 563 goals to Lewandowski’s 319.
Lewandowski turned 33 in August and, usually, it would be fair to assume that time is running out for him to catch Muller. But his exploits over the last few years have forced us to reconsider what a player’s peak years should be.
“It’s how football is now,” said his old manager Jurgen Klopp recently. “33, 34 – that’s the best age of a footballer: you understand the game better, you can judge the pitch better, you can see situations long before they will happen.”
Ronaldo and Messi continuing to score goals well into their 30s could be explained as part of their usual convention-defying excellence, but the Bayern man’s form hints at a wider trend. The likes of Neymar, Salah and Harry Kane, who are all approaching their 30th birthdays, will be taking note: their best years may yet be ahead of them.
“Age is only a number and, with my experience and preparation, I know I can play on at the top level for a few years
longer,” said Lewandowski recently, after collecting the Golden Shoe trophy. “Maybe, like wine, I can grow even better with age.”
Bayern certainly hope so, as do Poland. He scored three goals for his country at Euro 2020 – his best-ever return at a major tournament – but it wasn’t enough for them to advance from the group.
Even with his ability to defy the ageing process, Qatar 2022 may be his last opportunity to play at a World Cup. He has done everything within his power to get there: Poland lost two games in qualifying – 2-1 defeats to England and Hungary – the only two games in which the captain did not play. He had a hand in more than a third of their total goals, scoring eight and assisting another four. They will need Lewandowski to deliver once again in the play-offs.
Getting to Qatar, and then reaching the knockout stages, will be among the top of his targets for 2022, as will reclaiming Bayern’s European crown. The evidence of this year shows that, as long as he’s playing, both teams have every chance of achieving their goals.
And if he does tick off all of those objectives? This time next year, we’ll probably be discussing the first player to win this award three times in a row. Jamie Evans
Top 10 Players of 2021
Player Club Country Points
1) Robert Lewandowski Bayern Munich Poland 223 2) Lionel Messi Barcelona/PSG Argentina 171 3) Jorginho Chelsea Italy 123 4) Mohamed Salah Liverpool Egypt 122 5) Karim Benzema Real Madrid France 59 6) N’Golo Kante Chelsea France 54 7) Kevin De Bruyne Manchester City Belgium 43 8) Gianluigi Donnarumma Milan/PSG Italy 40 9=) Kylian Mbappe Paris Saint-Germain France 31 9=) Erling Haaland Borussia Dortmund Nor way 31
European champions…Donnarumma and Jorginho made the top ten
Other World Soccer Award winners 2021
Azzurri…Italy coach Mancini and captain Giorgio Chiellini
TEAM OF THE YEAR: Italy MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Rober to Mancini, Italy
League of her own…Putellas also won the Women’s Ballon d’Or and UEFA Player of the Year prizes
WOMEN’S AWARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Alexia Putellas, Barcelona & Spain TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona COACH OF THE YEAR: Lluis Cortes, Barcelona
