Robert Lewandowski, born on 21 August 1988, is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Barcelona and captains the Poland national team.
Recognized for his positioning, technique, and finishing, Lewandowski is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time.
As well as one of the most successful players in the Bundesliga and FC Bayern Munich.
He has scored over 500 senior career goals for club and country.
Early life and Education
Robert Lewandowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, on August 21, 1988.
His father, Krzysztof Lewandowski, was a national judo champion as well as a football player.
While his mother, Iwona Lewandowski, was a former AZS Warsaw football player and the vice president of Partyzant Leszno.
Milena, his sister, was a member of Poland’s Under-21 volleyball squad.
Lewandowski graduated from the Sports Education Academy in Warsaw with a Bachelor of Physical Education in coaching and management in October 2017, capping off a decade of studies.
He is also fluent in German and English.
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Career
Club Career
Robert began his career at MKS Varsovia Warsaw, where he spent seven years.
He later transferred to Delta Warsaw, where he made the first team.
He played effectively, and in 2006-07, he was the best goal scorer in Poland’s third division, with 15 goals.
The following season, he led the Polish second division in scoring with 21 goals.
Lewandowski moved to top-flight Lech Pozna after being the top scorer in the third and second tiers of Polish football with Znicz Pruszków.
He moved to Borussia Dortmund in 2010, where he won two consecutive Bundesliga titles as well as the league’s top goalscorer award.
He also appeared in the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final for Dortmund.
Lewandowski agreed to join Dortmund’s domestic rivals, Bayern Munich, on a free transfer prior to the start of the 2014-15 season.
He won the Bundesliga title in each of his eight seasons in Munich.
Lewandowski was instrumental in Bayern’s treble-winning UEFA Champions League victory in 2019-20.
He is one of only two players, along with Johan Cruyff, to win the European treble while scoring the most goals in all three competitions.
And he is the first to do so as the sole top scorer.
Lewandowski won the Best FIFA Men’s Player Award (which he retained in 2021) and the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award in 2020.
He has twice been named to the UEFA Team of the Year.
He is the third-highest goalscorer in Champions League history.
Lewandowski has won the VDV Bundesliga Player of the Season award five times in a row.
He has over 300 goals in the Bundesliga (second-highest goalscorer in Bundesliga history, trailing only Gerd Müller’s 365 Bundesliga goals).
Having reached the century mark faster than any other foreign player, and is the league’s all-time leading foreign goalscorer.
In 2015, while playing for Bayern, he scored five goals in less than nine minutes against VfL Wolfsburg.
The fastest in Bundesliga history as well as any major European football league, for which he received four Guinness World Records.
Also, he has won the Bundesliga Top Scorer Award seven times, most notably in the 2020-21 Bundesliga.
When he scored 41 goals in a single season, breaking Gerd Müller’s previous Bundesliga record of 40 goals set in 1971-72.
He finished second in the Ballon d’Or on November 30, 2021, just 33 points behind winner Lionel Messi.
International Career
In 2007, Lewandowski made his international debut with Poland’s under-19 team.
He’d also play three times for Poland’s U21 team, in friendlies against England, Belarus, and Finland.
His senior national team debut came three weeks after his 20th birthday, on September 10, 2008, against San Marino.
Where he came on as a substitute and scored a goal in a 2-0 away win in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.
Lewandowski has been a full international for Poland since 2008, earning 140 caps.
Representing the country at the UEFA European Championships in 2012, 2016, and 2020, as well as the FIFA World Cups in 2018 and 2022.
With 78 international goals, Lewandowski is Poland’s all-time leading scorer.
Europe’s third-highest men’s international goalscorer, trailing only Ferenc Puskás (84) and Cristiano Ronaldo (118).
He received the IFFHS World’s Best International Goal Scorer Award in 2015 and 2021.
As well as the IFFHS World’s Best Top Goal Scorer Award in 2020 and 2021.
He was also named the IFFHS World’s Best Player in 2020 and 2021, as well as the European Golden Shoe in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Lewandowski has also been named Polish Footballer of the Year ten times and Polish Sports Personality of the Year three times.
Personal Life
Robert Lewandowski and Anna Lewandowska have been married since June 2013.
She is also a sportswoman, having won a bronze medal in the 2009 Karate World Cup.
In 2017, he and his wife welcomed their first child, a daughter called Klara. Laura, their second daughter, was born in May 2020.
