In the past 17-18 years, year after year, both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have put up alien-like numbers for their respective teams. But there is only one player who has time and again looked to rival and even surpass their superhuman tally of goals and assists. And that player is the Polish superstar Robert Lewandowski.
First at Dortmund, then at Bayern Munich during his peak years, and now at Barcelona under Hansi Flick. Robert Lewandowski has been wreaking havoc consistently across Europe. After holding pretty much every goalscoring record in the Bundesliga and for Bayern Munich, he has now set his eyes on scripting his name in Barcelona’s and UEFA Champions League’s history books.
Earlier in the season, it was reported that Robert Lewandowski had set at least 2 goals for himself in his playing career before he considered moving away from Barcelona or Retiring from Football. The first is to complete 100 goals in Europe’s premier football competition, the UEFA Champions League. And the second one was scoring 100 goals for FC Barcelona.
Last night at the Olympic Montjuic Stadium in Catalonia, Robert Lewandowski inched closer to both these personal milestones as he scored a brace in Barcelona’s win over BSC Young Boys in the UCL. He has now taken his tally in the Champions League to 96 goals and 68 goals to go with 19 assists for FC Barcelona in all competitions in just 105 appearances for the Spanish Club. Some serious numbers who turned 36 years old in late August.
What’s even more impressive is the rate at which he has been scoring his goals in the UEFA Champions League. The Polish marksman has a better goals-per-game ratio than both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo! Yes, you heard that right! At 0.79 goals per game, Lewandowski is tied with Messi but that’s with 47 fewer games played. Cristiano Ronaldo has a Goals-per-game ratio of 0.77 and ranks at number 2 on the list.
Moreover, Lewandowski is inching closer to yet another Cristiano Ronaldo UCL record. That was the highest number of goals scored after crossing the age of 30 in the European competition. Robert Lewandowski has 51, while Ronaldo is the only one ahead with 68. With many more European nights to come for the 36-year-old Pole, he might surpass Ronaldo in this regard as well.
The deserved winner of the 2020 Ballon d’Or doesn’t get the flowers he deserves. After all, he is one of the few who has time and again challenged the stronghold of Messi and Ronaldo in Europe. He is also the highest goalscorer in the Champions League amongst the players currently playing in the UCL. Does this make him the undisputed new Mr. Champions League? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
