Lewandowski: The Reject Who Beat 2 All Times Greats In One Breath

Last night, Polish goalscoring machine, Robert Lewandowski, beat Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the highly coveted FIFA Balon D’or award. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Lewa has been the name on the lips of many football fans, not necessarily for last night’s accolade, but for his astounding performances for Bayern Munich in recent years.

The Poland forward was without equal in the 2019-20 season, scoring 55 goals in 47 appearances as Bayern swept to a Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal treble – with Lewandowski the top scorer in all three competitions.

While last night may echo as predictable for most football fans, for Lewandowski, that reality may very well still be covered in fogs, especially given the Pol’s journey to global football stardom.

Only 10 years ago, aged 22, Lewa was still plying his trade in his native Poland with local side, Lech Poznan. His wasn’t the conventional, precocious, promising talent story like that of most football stars. At 22, the Pol had struggled to exhibit any glimpse of promise and was even rejected by a newly promoted La Liga side.

In June 2008, Lech Poznań signed Lewandowski from Znicz for 1.5 million PLN. Earlier that month, Lewandowski’s agent Cezary Kucharski offered him to his former team Sporting Gijón, which had been promoted to the Spanish top league after ten years in the second tier. However, Sporting rejected him.

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To further exacerbate the talismanic forward’s chances of improving his estate, a proposed move to the Premier League was thwarted. English coach, Sam Allardyce, said that Lewandowski was about to join Blackburn Rovers in 2010, but the volcanic ash clouds caused by the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull which suspended all flights in and out of the UK, in addition to other financial worries, prevented the potential transfer. Moreover, Lewandowski was also about to join Italian club Genoa, before president Enrico Preziosi decided to cancel the transfer.

After series of disappointments and failed transfer, Lewandowski joined Bundesliga side, Borrusia Dortmund in 2010. Within the next few years the Pol had risen to become one of the most lethal marksmen in world football. He went on to help the hitherto, sleeping giants win two consecutive Bundesliga titles before he was snapped by Bayern Munich in 2014.

There is genuinely no doubt that Lewandowski has been in the Balon D’or conversation for quite some time; and, if the Pol had been lucky enough to be born out of time, could possibly have won the coveted award before yesterday.

Defying all odds, Lewa continued to demonstrate why he is being dubbed as fine wine, getting better and better with age and consequently putting behind the disappointments of his breakout years.

While the Lewandowski’s accolade last night may very well be covered in mist for the player, many years from now the talismanic Pol will be able to soak in the reality of beating two all time greats on the same night to become only the second player after Paulo Cannavaro to win his first Balon D’or after the age of 30.