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in 10 of his dozen seasons. A major menace for goalkeepers and a huge headache for defenders, Lewandowski ranks second all-time in the Bundesliga with 312 tallies, and Barca fans can’t wait to watch him inflict similar damage in La Liga. He erupted for a league-record 41 goals during the 2020–2021 season, and he has been a model of stunning consistency, as his 35 goals in 34 matches in 2021–2022 earned him his fifth straight league scoring title and his whopping seventh overall. HAVOC MAKER A masterful mover and terrific tactician, Lewandowski is outstanding at initiating attacks all over the pitch, and attempts at moving him off the ball border on the impossible. Making him doubly dangerous— but exciting and entertaining for fans to watch—he is also supremely talented without the ball at his feet. He exploits weaknesses in defensive formations, sabotages strategies devised to corral him, and creates space for receiving passes that he often flips into wonderful scoring opportunities. Taking over as captain of the Polish national team in 2013, Lewandowski sparked a resurgence that has pulled them back into the World Cup conversation after enduring a lengthy drought of qualifying round heartbreak. He struck 16 times during an epic scoring spree over 10 qualifying matches leading up to the 2018 World Cup, and he delivered the decisive goal against Sweden to propel Poland into the draw of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. An eleven-time recipient of the Polish Footballer of the Year award, he is his country’s all-time leading scorer and unquestionably its greatest player of all time. A husband and dad of two with a massive social media following and a diversity of interests away from the pitch, he is one of the sport’s most fascinating figures. With a stack of stunning numbers that he keeps adding to, the Barcelona forward is indisputably one of the best in the game.

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World Class Footballers: Robert Lewandowski