Advertisement

Robert Lewandowski is widely regarded as one of the finest centre-forwards of modern football.

The Polish international has been a goal machine for every club he has played for but his best, probably, came while with German giants Bayern Munich. 

A surprise move to Germany

In 2010, when a certain Sam Allardyce was in charge of Blackburn Rovers, head of recruitment Martyn Glover recommended Lewandowski to the Premier League side. The forward had completed the 2009-10 season with 21 goals for Polish club Lech Poznan a potential £4 million move to England was brewing.

However, volcanic ashes erupting from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull mountain cancelled most of the flights to the UK at the time and German side Borussia Dortmund pounced at the opportunity. The Black and Yellows hijacked the deal for the Poland forward in what would eventually turn into one of the best pieces of business done by the German side.

Lewandowski spent four seasons with Dortmund, scoring 103 goals across all competitions before moving to the BVB’s Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich in 2014.

Robert Lewandowski’s stats at Bayern Munich

Across his seven seasons with Bayern, Robert Lewandowski has scored a whopping 344 goals in 374 appearances for the German giants. While 238 of these came in the Bundesliga, 69 were scored in the UEFA Champions League.

Competition Matches Goals
Bundesliga 252 238
UEFA Champions League 78 69
UEFA Super Cup 1 1
DFB-Pokal 33 29
DFL-Super Cup 8 6
FIFA Club World Cup 2 2

Robert Lewandowski’s records at Bayern Munich

In only his second season with Bayern, Lewandowski set a Bundesliga record by scoring five goals in a mere 8 minutes and 59 seconds. He also scored Bundesliga’s fastest hat-trick (three goals in four minutes) and also set a Bundesliga record for most goals scored by a substitute (five).

The Poland forward was awarded four certificates by the Guinness World Records for this achievement; quickest hat-trick, 4-goal haul and 5-goal haul, and most goals by a sub.

Such has been Lewandowski's influence at Bayern Munich that it took him just two and a half seasons (137 games) to reach the century of goals for the Bavarians.

Here’s the list of other records Lewandowski set during his time with Bayern:

5: Lewandowski has finished as the Bundesliga top scorer for five consecutive seasons. His goal records read, 35, 41, 34, 22, 29.

7: Lewandowski, with German legend Gerd Muller, jointly holds the record for winning the most Golden Boot awards (seven) in Bundesliga history.

7: Lewandowski is the first player in Bundesliga history to score on Matchday 1 for seven consecutive years.

16: Hat-tricks scored by Lewandowski in Bundesliga. Only Gerd Muller (32) has scored more in the league.

19: During the 2021-22 campaign, Lewandowski scored an impressive 19 Bundesliga goals away from home - the most away goals ever scored by a player in a single season of the league.

34+15+6: In the 2019-20 season when Bayern won a historic sextuple, Lewandowski set a unique record of his own. With 34 goals in Bundesliga, 15 in the UEFA Champions League and six in DFB Pokal, the forward ended up being the top scorer in every competition. He is the first player to do so.

41: Lewandowski’s tally of 41 goals in the 2020-21 season is the most goals any player has ever scored in a single Bundesliga campaign.

81: Goals scored by Lewandowski after 100 Champions League appearances. His return is significantly better than Lionel Messi (77) and Cristiano Ronaldo (64).

100: Games taken by Lewandowksi to score 80 goals in the UEFA Champions League. He is the quickest player to do so.

312: Lewandowski is Bundesliga’s second-highest and the highest non-German scorer with 312 goals. The second player on the list (non-German), Claudio Pizzaro, is 115 goals behind Lewandowski’s tally.

374: The Poland international is Bayern Munich’s second-highest top scorer with 344 goals in 374 matches across all competitions. His goals per match ratio of 0.92 is only second to Gerd Muller, who is Bayern’s all-time top scorer.

Who are Robert Lewandowski’s favourite opponents?

Interestingly enough, his former side Borussia Dortmund have been Lewandowski’s favourite opponents. The Polish striker having scored an impressive 27 goals in 26 matches against them. Lewandowski has also scored 20 or more goals against as many as seven different teams in his club career.

Opponents Matches Goals Assists
Borussia Dortmund 26 27 3
Wolfsburg 26 26 8
Augsburg 19 23 5
Schalke 16 21 7
Mainz 18 20 5
Werder Bremen 21 20 2
Freiburg 16 20 7

This includes Wolfsburg, Augsburg, Schalke, Mainz, Werder Bremen and Freiburg.

Furthermore, it is against the La Liga sides that the Poland forward has excelled the most in the Champions League. In a total of 27 games against the Spanish teams, Lewandowski has scored 14 goals. He has also scored 10 goals in 17 outings against the English Premier League teams.

Featured photo: AFP / Ronny Hartmann

Advertisement

Related tags:

Bayern MunichRobert Lewandowski - Forward Bundesliga