DUBAI: With 69 goals in 2021, Robert Lewandowski is described as “the best No 9 in the football world right now.” But the striker for German club Bayern Munich – and captain of the Poland national team – already has his sights set on 2022, and explained during a visit to Expo 2020 Dubai on Tuesday why his club is a serious contender in the Champions League.
Lewandowski said: “I’m always up for a new challenge. You have to find something extra for yourself from inside. Right now I’m focused on this season, and on winning the Champions League for Bayern Munich.”
The head coach of Bayern Munich, Julian Nagelsmann, has developed a reputation for being an innovator, who does things a little differently, and Lewandowski says the tactics of the record-breaking coach are paying off: “There’s a connection between Nagelsmann and the players. Everything’s going well because there is good communication, and we all understand what we need to do and which way we need to go.”
Lewandowski was in town to attend Monday’s (27 December) Dubai Globe Soccer Awards, where he collected the Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year and the TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year Award. He is looking forward to returning to the region for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
He said: “I know the World Cup next year in Qatar is going to be special. It’s the first time a World Cup is being played during winter, and the first time in the Middle East, so it’s going to be different. But when you come to the UAE and see how they do things here – just look at the amazing construction of the Expo 2020 site – you know that it’s going to be top-notch. Especially when you see how perfectly they do things in Dubai.”
Poland faces a series of playoffs to reach the finals, taking on Russia first in March. Lewandowski is up for the challenge of leading his team to World Cup triumph: “For us to go in the playoffs is for sure the difficult way, but we are ready to win, to use our best skills, to stay positive and go all the way.”
With Arsene Wenger recently making a case for a biennial World Cup, Lewandowski countered that if fans wanted to watch the highest levels of football, then competing in a competition of that size and stature every two years was not feasible.
“Playing 60 games every season without a break for the summer is impossible if fans are expecting the same type of quality. We are humans, not robots. We will not be able to play at the same intensity. Sure, it may be possible for those who only want to play football for a few years, but not if you want to have an extended career in the game. For the new generation it is already much tougher as expectations are so high and every year the game is getting faster and more intense.”
When asked about his secret to getting even better with age, the 33-year-old laughingly replied: “Oh, I have many secrets to share!”
Not only does he agree with the sentiment that with age comes knowledge and self-awareness, but he has also learnt more about his physicality – and today is in the best shape of his life.
“The most important point for me is to listen to my body to understand it better, to know when I can exert it more, and when it needs to relax,” he said.
As taxing and distressing as COVID-19 has been on the world, Lewandowski used lockdown to work on himself: “When you’re playing matches every three days, you don’t have enough time to do the training that your body needs, so I took this bad period of our lives to focus on training sessions that could help me to keep up with the high intensity required for my life on the field.”
The potent striker was attending a football freestyling event at Al Wasl Plaza, where fans came out in their droves to see him and to watch a riveting performance, combining break dancing and football, by two-time Freestyle World Champion Séan Garnier, together with three leading UAE players.
