Robert Lewandowski no longer wants to play for Bayern Munich. The club still wants to keep him. This is FCB’s right, but the process does not do justice to the status of the world footballer.
“He has a contract until 2023. He will fulfill this contract. Basta!” With these clear words in mid-May, Bayern boss Oliver Kahn actually wanted to end the back and forth about a possible change from Robert Lewandowski. But the Fifa world footballer no longer wants to play for FC Bayern – and makes no secret of it. “My story at Bayern is over! I don’t see any more chance of playing for this club anymore,” said the Pole with unmistakable openness on Monday.
But Lewandowski also knows that he does not have to decide that alone. “I don’t want to play there anymore! Bayern are a serious club and I don’t think they will keep me just because they can,” he continued. A transfer is the best solution. “I hope they don’t stop me.”
As Kahn put it directly: Lewandowski has to play for the German record champions for another year if they insist. A contract is a contract is a contract. Lewandowski had to experience that in 2013 when he wanted to switch to Bayern and BVB didn’t let him go. So he had to play in Dortmund for another year.
Robert Lewandowski shot Bayern from title to title
But the situation was different anyway. In contrast to BVB at the time, FC Bayern had the size and the means to lure an adequate replacement to Munich. So far, however, those responsible have slept through it. Lewandowski is not suddenly 33 years old out of nowhere. Nonetheless, one on Säbener Straße seems to have no better advice than to keep the man who has been shooting Bayern from title to title for eight years against his express will for another year. Probably also because you failed to reach an agreement with Erling Haaland. The wooing of the Norwegian is said to have offended Lewandowski. A lose-lose situation.
Lewandowski simply didn’t deserve such a transfer haggling. He scored almost 350 goals for FC Bayern. Lewandowski has won the championship with Bayern eight times in a row, won the cup three times and won the Champions League once. In six of eight years he was top scorer in the Bundesliga, twice in a row he was world footballer. Even if it’s a phrase: Lewandowski has done a great job for the club.
Of course you can now stand up and say: He has signed a contract, so he has to fulfill it. That is theoretically correct. In practice, however, there is a 33-year-old professional in the autumn of his career who has achieved everything and wants another great adventure: the Spanish league, most likely FC Barcelona. Blocking such a deserving player from this path would be unworthy. Bayern would be right, but without style. Those responsible should now let Lewandowski go.
