Why Bayern Munich never really loved Robert Lewandowski

in may 2019 the alliance arena crowd was awash with joy but also sadness club legends iron robin and frank ribery starred in their last home game for my munich club president ulihunas was one of many supporters crying in the stands amid the general outpouring of love gratitude and regret that greeted the iconic duo's departure even robert lewandowski a man who can rarely be accused of excess sentimentality appeared deeply moved [Music] after eight fantastically successful years lewandowski has bid bayern farewell leaving in the dead of summer rather than in front of 75 000 supporters with bouquets of flowers in hand quite a contrast lewandowski's stealthy departure feels sadly out of step with his extraordinary body of work for the club 344 goals in 375 games in all competitions but then again star players don't always leave bayern in the right way franz beckham bowers farewell in 1977 was cool and business-like as financial disagreements over his transfer to the original new york cosmos problems with the tax authorities and unsavory tabloid headlines about his private life forced him to up sticks to the u.s bayern felt sufficiently guilty over their treatment of de kaiser so much so that they arranged a belated testimonial for him 33 years later the late gerd muller left in even more ignominious circumstances three months before the end of the 1978-79 season the club's greatest ever goal scorer was substituted by coach pal chernai eight minutes before time with brian two-nil down to frankfurt a couple of days later he was off to america too joining florida's fort lauderdale strikers muller never played in germany again but an icy parting of ways doesn't necessarily impact on a player's historical standing beckenbauer and muller will forever be universally adored legends of bayern whether lewandowski achieves the same status is less clear for all the goals he's scored and trophies that he's won he's never struck up much of a connection with bayern the supporters or munich described as a unique machine by teammate manuel neuer in light of his phenomenal physical shape and reliability lewandowski's seemingly computerized dependency delivered for the club on an industrial scale but never truly touched the soul a devoted self-optimizer who reached a world-class level through hard work and game intelligence lewandowski didn't have time for fraternization he never hid the fact that goals were his sole motivation either to the point that whoever's shirt he was wearing at the time he scored them might have felt almost incidental to him after two seasons under pep guardiola and one year with carlo ancelotti failed to bring a champions league trophy that he coveted above all else lewandowski went public with his frustrations he also blamed his teammates for missing out on the leading goalscorer trophy on the last day of the season in 2016-17 finishing one behind pierre-emerick aubameyang who is not happy with the way the team helped me in the last game i was angry and disappointed about the team's attitude he said lewandowski wasn't shy about showing his misgivings on the pitch either a winger's failure to find him was often greeted by an ostentatious shake of the head in 2018 he hired penie zahavi as his agent with a view to facilitating a move to spain's la liga but uncharacteristically poor performances against real madrid in a 2017-18 champions league semi-final defeat killed any chance of a transfer rival interest from chelsea in england was met with bayern intransigence but when further attempts to engineer a move came to nothing a remarkable transformation seemed to happen at the start of 2019-20 lewandowski was suddenly much more of a team player staying behind after training to help and advise bayern's youngsters and playing a far less egotistical game for a long time he wanted to score many goals now he wants to score goals to win games with the team teammate thomas muller said of his fellow forwards newly found collective streak club sources felt that lewandowski's transformation could be explained by the fact that he'd at last stopped fretting about a transfer and he became even better as a result and so did bayern finally winning the champions league in the pandemic enforced eight club mini tournament uefa couple together that august in lisbon lewandowski was desperately unlucky that the ballon d'or was not awarded that season again because of covid19 but he did win the first of two consecutive fifa player of the year awards to mark yet another milestone the following year saw him break gerd muller's single season scoring record a barely believable feat made possible by the concerted effort of the team but last season interests diverged once more bayern were sounding out airling horland over a move from dortmund and with us unprepared to offer lewandowski a lengthy new contract the player reacted by saying something had broken inside of him and openly agitating for a move relations inside the dressing room had also deteriorated while lewandowski and head coach julian nagelsmann had differing ideas on tactics a number of players were resentful that everything at bayern seemed to revolve around the center forward they will miss his goals if not the drama and many bayern fans one suspects will feel the same lewandowski's hard-nosed professionalism isn't the only reason that they fail to warm to him though strangely enough for the best bundesliga player of modern times his enduring excellence has made a relatively small mark on bayern's psyche part of that has to do with timing their decade of uninterrupted domestic dominance it's important to remember started two seasons before he arrived under yup heinkes with whom bayern won the treble in 2012-13 while playing mario mandzukic up front the club then pulled further away from their german competition with false nine aficionado guardiola in charge the following year lewandowski's arrival for the 2014-15 season encouraged guardiola to reconsider his ideas of how a team should play and made bayern's national hegemony unassailable eight more titles in a row have been largely inevitable but the law of diminishing returns meant that every goal and every league win was slightly devalued by the last meanwhile a combination of freak injuries and poor team performances so lewandowski never scored that one unforgettable pivotal goal in the champions league the competition that really mattered to him and his club truth be told he was even largely peripheral in the three one-off knockout ties bayern won in lisbon including that 8-2 hammering of barcelona his lack of emotional impact on and off the pitch can of course not detract from the objective sustained brilliance of his performances nor his historic achievements but it does explain why his legacy in munich unlike that of robbery and the greatest of the 70s will remain contested for a man of such monumental numbers lewandowski leaves behind rather little love [Music] if you like this video please consider subscribing to the channel the athletic is home to some of the world's best sports journalists including david ornstein daniel taylor ollie k amy lawrence and raphael honigstein there are journalists dedicated to each premier league team so every fan gets the coverage they deserve not just the big clubs and you can try it for free now for 30 days see the link in the description

Channel: Tifo Football

Views: 1,352,432

Keywords: tifo football, tifo football youtube, youtube tifo football, tifofootball, tifofootball youtube, bayern, munich, fcb, bundesliga, lewandowski, robert lewandowski, lewandowski bayern, dortmund, borussia, bvb, poland, striker, lewandowski and muller, german football, levandovski

Id: V5Dc3RKvPtw

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 10 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/bayernfan25]

Tifo has been awful since being taken over by the Athletic, very anti Bayern. Lewandowski has always been a mercenary, a talented one

[u/[deleted]]

Tifo just make a video called fuck bayern at this point

[u/dominik-braun]

The difference between Robben/Ribéry and Lewandowski is that Lewandowski still had a valid contract when playing his last home game...

[u/Batsinvic888]

I have never been in Munich, or Germany for that matter, so I can't say what it was like locally, but I feel like this analysis is kinda off. I don't think anything pointed out was necessarily wrong, but the Lewandowski chants, the record chasing, and the moments of brilliance are all things that I fondly remember. I really can't imagine people looking back at Lewa's tenure at Bayern and not seeing him as a legend.

[u/JOKER69420XD]

Why Robert Lewandowski never really loved Bayern Munich

Because it was just a job to him, wich is perfectly fine!

[u/scarlet_stormTrooper]

Why do we need more posts about a player that isn’t on the team

[u/bobernaut]

Good old tifo, just makes shit up and hopes for the best

[u/BogusBogmeyer]

He never scored that one winning goal and got whiny when he felt that the Team didnt create enough Chances for him.

He's a great striker and played in one If not the strongest bayern Teams ever.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[u/Idoindeedexist]

I'd say give it 10 years and people will talk about Lewandowski as a certified club legend. People just need time to let their wounds heal.