Bundesliga
Lewandowski conjures another 40-plus goal campaign
The goalscoring king has done it again: for a seventh successive season, Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski has hit the 40-goal mark to leave the watching world in awe of his supreme ability and longevity.
Not that it was ever in doubt, Bayern Munich's Prolific Pole needed to find the net just once more this season to reach his latest magnificent milestone, and the 33-year-old surpassed that with an incredible eleven-minute hat-trick against Salzburg in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. The Best FIFA Men's Player for the past two years, Lewy has been banging in the goals for as long as Bundesliga fans can remember. Since season 2015/16, when the living Polish legend registered 42 in all competitions, he has either hit the magical 40 or surpassed it in subsequent seasons.
Last year brought a sensational haul of 48 goals in a single season, which included that new Bundesliga high of 41, which took Lewandowski past the division's previous record holder, Gerd Müller. Looking to surpass those figures this time around, the Warsaw native has now registered 42 in 35 games with plenty of the season remaining yet in order to set an even higher standard to follow.
And who knows where it will all end for Bayern's brilliant No.9? With well over a century of goals scored since turning 30, Lewandowski is on a list of experienced world stars who have chalked up 100 plus goals since they've entered into their third decade on the planet; a roster that contains the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
For many mere mortals, the hunger may well have already subsided after having won all there is to win on the domestic and European fronts. Not so for Lewy, who recently said, “Winning a tenth league title in 10 years [would be] something historic. In the future, people will say, ‘Wow. Who was that group? Who was in it?’ We have a chance to be the first team to do this in the Bundesliga." With Robert Lewandowski on board, Bayern can feel confident of reaching the historic milestone.
Watch: All 28 of Lewandowski's Bundesliga goals so far in 2021/22
Scoring at least 17 goals in 11 successive Bundesliga seasons being more than worthy enough of high praise, Lewandowski now having reached 40 in all competitions in the past seven campaigns is truly colossal. It begs the question as to how many he can complete one more historic campaign with. For the rest of us looking on, we can simply sit back and enjoy the Robert Lewandowski goal show.