It takes a lot, it seems, to draw a smile out of Robert Lewandowski now that the winter has closed in and supporters are being kept away from German stadiums. Television viewers note that his last few goals have not been celebrated with his trademark gestures nor barely a grin.
Look carefully, though, on Friday at the reaction, should the most reliable elite marksman currently at work end his extraordinary 2021 with a 69th competitive goal for the calendar year. That would take him to the same tally as Cristiano Ronaldo registered for 2013. Notch up a double against Wolfsburg in the last fixture before the Bundesliga goes into its mid-season break and Lewandowski would eclipse Ronaldo’s record.
It may be that the lack of fans in stadiums, because of reinforced public health protocols, have dampened 33-year-old Lewandowski’s enthusiasm for the post-goal celebration. He has tried-and-tested rituals - fists pressed together; arms crossing his chest with fingers pointing upwards - but none were on show after his brace in Bayern’s 5-0 victory over Stuttgart on Tuesday.
Two goals in a match may simply have come to seem routine. He started his sensational year with a double against Mainz. There have been eight further braces since for Bayern, plus a quartet of two-goals-in-a-match for Poland. And hat-tricks? Five so far in 2021.
All of which contributed to Lewandowski being named Striker of the Year at Ballon D’Or ceremony earlier this month, a prize that felt like the organisers’s compensation for Lewandowski’s not winning the vote for the Ballon D’Or itself, which went to Lionel Messi for the seventh time in Messi’s career.
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2021 BALLON D'OR FULL RESULTS: 1) Lionel Messi (Barcelona/PSG/Argentina) AFP -
2) Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland) EPA -
3) Jorginho (Chelsea/Italy) AP -
4) Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/France) AFP -
5) N'Golo Kante (Chelsea/France) Getty Images -
6) Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus/Manchester United/Portugal) Getty Images -
7) Mohamed Salah (Liverpool/Egypt) AFP -
8) Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City/Belgium) PA -
9) Kylian Mbappe (PSG/France) AFP -
10) Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan/PSG/Italy) Getty Images -
11) Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund/Norway) Getty Images -
12) Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan/Chelsea/Belgium) AFP -
13) Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus/Italy) AFP -
14) Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy) AP -
15) Raheem Sterling (Manchester City/England) Getty Images -
16) Neymar (PSG/Brazil) Reuters -
17) Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid/Uruguay) AFP -
18) Simon Kjaer (AC Milan/Denmark) AP -
19) Mason Mount (Chelsea/England) Reuters -
20) Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City/Algeria) Getty Images -
=21) Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United/Portugal) Getty Images -
=21) Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan/Argentina) AFP -
23) Harry Kane (Tottenham/England) AP -
24) Pedri (Barcelona/Spain) Reuters -
25) Phil Foden (Manchester City/England) AFP -
=26) Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan/Italy) Reuters -
=26) Ruben Dias (Manchester City/Portugal) Reuters -
=26) Gerard Moreno (Villarreal/Spain) Getty Images -
=29) Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia) AP -
=29) Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea/Spain) AP
It is hard not to feel for the Pole for finishing second in the year the award resumed, after a 2020 when it had been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As Messi said, Lewandowski should have won it in 2020. A factor in Messi’s edging him into runners-up spot a year later was Messi’s having captained Argentina to victory in the delayed Copa America. For all Lewandowski’s many goals for Poland, his country are not candidates to win major titles.
Until Lewandowski reached his 30s, the sort of surreal goalscoring statistics Messi and Ronaldo used to trump one another with seemed exclusively theirs. Messi’s 91 goals for Barcelona and Argentina in 2012 is the outlier number, and marked one of three different years when he has passed 50. Ronaldo has also exceeded a half-century of goals in a single year three times. But Lewandowski has joined them on the more refined list. Once each they have passed 60 goals for a calendar year.
A striker can only reach those summits with team-mates well-tuned to their wavelength. Ominously for any opponent who imagines the Lewandowski juggernaut may soon be slowing down, the most enduring sharer of Lewandowski celebrations, be they subdued or ecstatic, is also peaking as a provider of assists.
Thomas Muller has just set a new landmark for the number of goal-making passes in the first half of a Bundesliga season. He assisted for the 12th time in 16 matches against Stuttgart.
Muller’s part in Lewandowksi’s charge into the history books can hardly be understated. In seven and a half seasons as colleagues, Muller and Lewandowski have directly combined for 75 goals. This year they have helped one another to 13. Sometimes they come across as an unlikely duet - the wiry, inelegant Muller, 32, and the sleek, primed Lewandowski; the German chatterbox and the Pole who is cool and understated - but beware the Bayern head coach who doubts the benefit one provides for the other.
Julian Nagelsmann, appointed Bayern’s head coach last summer, is the first to credit them for the records that are heading his way. He has already overseen a new high for goals in the first half of a league campaign - the Wolfsburg match, the 17th of a 34-game season, will mark the midpoint - with the 52 Bayern have scored so far.
It puts them on par to, by May, eclipse the 101 Bayern scored in the 1971-72 league campaign. Lewandowski has now equalled the 42 Bundesliga goals Bayern’s Gerd Muller scored in the year 1972, having last season beaten Gerd's long-standing record of 40 goals in a season.
Breaking that mark, on the last day of 2020-21, led to exuberant celebrations, shirt ripped off, beaming smiles. Nagelsmann is confident new records will stimulate the same buoyant displays again. And again and again. “He’s been in a good mood and the body language is good,” says his coach. “I’ve seen no change in his hunger for goals.”
