He outdoes himself. The world has never seen anything like this before

Will Lewandowski do it? In the evening, all eyes were on the Pole

Robert Lewandowski outdoes himself and mocks the laws of nature. At an age when other greatest strikers in the history of football were so far past their peak that they could barely see it or were already retired, the Pole is having the season of his life.

What’s more, no one before him had managed to return to the top after leaving it. If someone was leaving it, the trail only led in one direction. And “Lewy”? He made a spectacular turn and planted his flag on the roof of the football world again.

Record pace

At the age of 36, he is as effective as ever. In the 2024/25 competition, he scores an average of 1.19 goals per match for Barca – more than in his record-breaking 2019/20 season, after which he was a clear favorite for the Ballon d’Or, and his goals gave Bayern the triple crown.

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This is a renaissance of form that the world of top-level football has never seen before. After all, last season was Lewandowski’s worst in almost a decade. Then, year to year, his achievements decreased by 28 percent. It was a collapse he had never experienced before.

Meanwhile, now his achievement is very impressive. He has already scored 19 goals for Barca – only seven fewer than in the entire previous season. Back then, he accumulated such achievements only in March, after playing 38 matches. Now 16 appearances were enough for him. Hansi Flick resurrected the “monster” he created in Munich.

From above to legends

Thanks to this, Lewandowski is climbing Barcelona’s all-time goalscoring chart at a dizzying pace. As if it was launched by SpaceX. When the current season started, he was only 44th in the ranking with 59 goals, and this season he may enter the top 10. This is not a pipe dream!

Now he has 78 goals and is 32. He looks down on legends such as Johan Cruyff (60), Michael Laudrup (54), Gary Lineker (51), Thierry Henry (49), David Villa (48), Ronaldo ( 47), Hans Krankl (45), Luis Figo (45), Romario (39) and Diego Maradona (38). His last “victim” is Quini (74, i.e. the five-time top scorer in LaLiga.

And he will soon deal with another Barca icon. He is only two goals away from Luis Suarez, the winner of the 1960 Ballon d’Or. It is possible that he will equal or exceed him in Sunday’s match against Real Sociedad San Sebastian. This season he has already scored six doubles and once completed a hat-trick.

And further in sight “Lewy” has Txiki Begiristain (81), Sandor Kocsis (82), Xavi (85), Julio Salinas (85), Josep Samiter (86), Ronald Koeman (86), Bernd Schuster (89), Jose Mari Bakero (94) and Ronaldinho (94).

Only Messi was better

It’s unbelievable, but true. It is almost certain that “Lewy” will break the mark of one hundred goals scored for Barcelona this season. However, it is possible that the Pole will even enter the top 10 in Barcelona’s scoring classification.

The entry threshold is 120 goals, so he is 42 goals short. That’s a lot, but if he maintains his current pace, the top 10 won’t be a problem. Taking into account that Barca will play another 48 games this season, it can be estimated (with the current average) that Lewandowski will score another 57 goals.

Therefore, it has a large reserve in case of a drop in performance or a pause. And if he doesn’t use it and continues to score at such a frequency (there is no indication that he will slow down), at the end of the season with over 130 goals he will land just below the podium of Barcelona’s all-time goalscoring ranking. Behind Messi (672), Cesar Rodriguez (226), Uruguayan Luis Suarez (195) and Laszlo Kubala (190), and ahead of Rivaldo (130) and Eto’o (130).

The achievements that Lewandowski has accumulated in Barcelona after 111 matches are impressive, and the speed at which he is accumulating them is astonishing. The Pole scores 0.7 goals per match. In the 21st century, only Leo Messi scored more often (0.86). This means that strikers such as Luis Suarez (0.69), Samuel Eto’o (0.65), Neymar (0.56), David Villa (0.4) and Thierry Henry (0.4) did it less often .

What’s more, among the players who scored at least 10 goals for Barca in the 124-year history of the club, only eight scored goals more often than Lewandowski. Apart from Messi, these are Ronaldo (0.96), Paulino Alcantara (0.94), Mariano Martin (0.9), Angel Arocha (0.88), Josep Samiter (0.83), Laszlo Kubala (0.76) and Hans Krankl (0.74).

However, it is worth mentioning that in modern history only Messi (2004-2021) and Ronaldo (1996-1997) have achieved this. Krankl played for Barcelona in the 1970s, Kubala two decades earlier (1950-1961), Alcantara, Arocha and Samiter before World War II, and Martin during and just after it.

Lewandowski will have a chance to improve his achievements and score his 20th goal in the 2024/25 season on Sunday evening. In the 13th round of LaLiga, Barcelona will play away against Real Sociedad San Sebastian. The match starts at 21. Broadcast on Canal+ Sport 1. LIVE text coverage on WP SportoweFakty.

Maciej Kmita, journalist of WP SportoweFakty

Club (1st team) achievements of Robert Lewandowski in individual seasons: