Why Is Robert Lewandowski Underrated?
Roger Gorączniak, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (No changes made)
Polish captain and striker Robert Lewandowski is a prolific goalscorer, having scored 344 goals in 375 games for German giants Bayern Munich in just 8 seasons. He also achieved 30 or more league goals in 5 out of 8 seasons with the club, which is a remarkable achievement.
In this Elastico article, we ask, why is Robert Lewandowski underrated? We discuss the reasons why he is underrated, including a lack of international success and playing in unpopular domestic leagues. Read on to find out our verdict.
Table of Contents
Why Is Robert Lewandowski Underrated?
Despite winning 19 top goalscorer awards, Robert Lewandowski has been underrated because he’s spent the majority of his career playing in the Bundesliga, which doesn’t get significant global coverage. Furthermore, Lewandowski plays for Poland, who are not a successful international side. He was also unlucky not to win the Ballon d’Or in 2020 due to the COVID-19 virus.
Reasons Why Robert Lewandowski Is Underrated
There are a number of reasons why Robert Lewandowski is underrated, including – he’s never played in the Premier League, a lack of international success, a low-key personality and media attention going to other similar players.
He’s Never Played in the Premier League
One of the main reasons why Robert Lewandowski is underrated is because he’s never played in the Premier League. The English top flight is the most watched league on the planet, with the most global reach.
With Lewandowski spending the majority of his career in the Bundesliga, he’s not had much media limelight across the world, which means that his performances and records have gone under the radar. This has subsequently made him underrated by football enthusiasts. If he had put in the same performances in the Premier League, his abilities would be more globally recognised.
There was a time when Lewandowski almost moved to the Premier League, when Blackburn Rovers wanted to sign the Polish striker under Sam Allardyce in 2010. Before signing for Borussia Dortmund, Lewandowski met with Allardyce in Poland to discuss a potential move.
The reason that this move never materialised is because of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption. It meant that Lewandowski’s scheduled flight to England was cancelled, meaning Blackburn couldn’t complete the move after agreeing a deal for just €8million with Lech Poznań. We ask ourselves what could have been if the move had gone through?
Lack of International Success
In addition to not receiving much limelight in his domestic career, Lewandowski has had a relatively quiet international career playing for Poland. Despite winning Footballer of the Year for Poland on 10 occasions, the striker is yet to win a trophy for his country, and it looks like things might stay that way, too.
Some top-level players are fortunate enough to play for countries who regularly compete for international honours, but Lewandowski is not one of those. There’s not much he’s been able to do about that, though!
Low-Key Personality and Reserved Attitude
Another key factor to why people underrate Lewandowski is because he comes across as reserved, with a low-key personality. When listening to his interviews, it’s easy for people to assume that the Polish striker is reserved, but this might just be his professional attitude shining through.
The most likely reason that Lewandowski doesn’t have a public persona is because he’s a focused and dedicated athlete. During his time at Bayern Munich, he got given the nickname “The Body” by his teammates due to the dedication he had regarding his physique. This demonstrates that he’s a true professional who has kept himself in elite shape in order to play at the top level for many years.
Media and Public Attention
Some of the biggest strikers in the world tend to have lots of media and public attention around them, but again, Lewandowski is not one of those players. Unlike players such as Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Mbappé, Haaland etc, the camera doesn’t tend to follow Lewandowski around too much.
We believe that this has also contributed to the fact that Lewandowski is an underrated striker. If he’s receiving less publicity than other strikers, again, his goalscoring records and achievements will be going under the radar with the focus going to players with more limelight.
Some strikers like the attention and want the camera to follow them around, however, Lewandowski’s personality doesn’t fit this brief. He’s a true professional who is solely focused on performing at the highest level.
Lewandowski’s Achievements
Now we’re going to look at Lewandowski’s achievements across his footballing career, as this will help us to work out if he is fairly underrated by football enthusiasts across the world.
Professional Honours
Lech Poznań
- 1x 2008/09 Polish Cup Winner
- 1x 2009/10 Polish Champion
- 1x 2009/10 Polish Super Cup Winner
Borussia Dortmund
- 2x German Champion – 2010/11, 2011/12
- 1x German Cup Winner – 2011/12
- 1x German Super Cup Winner – 2013/14
Bayern Munich
- 8x German Champion – 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22
- 3x German Cup Winner – 2015/16, 2018/19, 2019/20
- 5x German Super Cup Winner – 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2020/21, 2021/22
- 1x Champions League Winner – 2019/20
- 1x UEFA Supercup Winner – 2020/21
- 1x FIFA Club World Cup Winner – 2021
- 2x German Footballer of the Year – 2020, 2021
- 1x UEFA Best Player in Europe – 2020
- 2x The Best FIFA Men’s Player – 2020, 2021
Barcelona
- 1x Spanish Super Cup Winner – 2022/23
Poland (International)
- 10x Polish Footballer of the Year – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021
Goal-Scoring Records
In addition to his domestic honours, Lewandowski has achieved a high number of top goalscorer awards. In fact, he’s won 19 of these awards:
Znicz Pruszków
- 2006/07 2 Liga (East) – 15 Goals
- 2007/08 2 Liga – 21 Goals
Lech Poznań
- 2009/10 PKO Ekstraklasa – 18 Goals
Borussia Dortmund
- 2011/12 DFB-Pokal – 7 Goals
- 2013/14 Bundesliga – 20 Goals
Bayern Munich
- 2015/16 Bundesliga – 30 Goals
- 2016/17 DFB-Pokal – 5 Goals
- 2017/18 DFB-Pokal – 6 Goals
- 2017/18 Bundesliga – 29 Goals
- 2018/19 Bundesliga – 22 Goals
- 2018/19 DFB-Pokal – 7 Goals
- 2019/20 DFB-Pokal – 6 Goals
- 2019/20 Bundesliga – 34 Goals
- 2019/20 UEFA Champions League – 15 Goals
- 2020/21 Bundesliga – 41 Goals
- 2021/22 Bundesliga – 35 Goals
Barcelona
- 2022/23 Supercopa – 2 Goals
Poland (International)
- 2015/16 European Qualifiers – 13 Goals
- 2016/17 World Cup qualification Europe – 16 Goals
Conclusion Based on Achievements
Although Robert Lewandowski has never played in the Premier League, he has an incredible honours list, having dominated German football for over 10 years. Very few players would have been able to achieve as many goalscoring records as the Polish captain, who even broke the 40 league goals barrier in the 2020/21 season with Bayern Munich.
He’s also a Champions League winner, one of the ultimate honours in world football, as well as winning domestic leagues and cup competitions in Germany, Spain and Poland. It’s safe to say that Robert Lewandowski is underrated based on his impressive list of achievements throughout his career.
Comparison With Other Top Strikers in the World
We’re now going to compare Lewandowski with some other top strikers from around the world. We’ve chosen to compare him against Karim Benzema, Luis Suárez and Zlatan Ibrahimović. All the following data is up-to-date as of March 2023 and is taken from TransferMarkt. It also includes all goals in both domestic and international matches.
Lewandowski vs Benzema
| Total Appearances | Total career goals | Goals per game | Total assists | |
| Lewandowski | 849 | 612 | 0.72 | 171 |
| Benzema | 879 | 445 | 0.50 | 211 |
The first player we’re going to compare Lewandowski to, is French striker Karim Benzema. Looking at the above data, Lewandowski’s goals per game ratio is much higher in comparison to Benzema’s.
Benzema has recorded 40 more assists than Lewandowski, but a striker’s main priority is to score goals. It may be the case that Benzema has played in more false 9 roles throughout his career, taking up slightly deeper positions during attacks.
Lewandowski has scored 167 more goals than Benzema, and neither player has spent time in the Premier League during their career. Arguably, La Liga and Bundesliga are similar in terms of standard, so it would be safe to assume that Lewandowski is the better striker and has been underrated throughout his career.
This is especially surprising considering that Karim Benzema has won the coveted Ballon d’Or. He won the award after winning the Champions League in the 2021/22 season, scoring 15 goals in 12 games in the competition, as well as 27 goals in 32 league matches.
On the other hand, in the 2019/20 season, Robert Lewandowski won the Champions League with Bayern Munich, scoring 15 goals in just 10 matches, as well as scoring 34 goals in 31 league matches, but subsequently didn’t win the Ballon d’Or. This was because the Ballon d’Or award was cancelled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lewandowski vs Suárez
| Total Appearances | Total career goals | Goals per game | Total assists | |
| Lewandowski | 849 | 612 | 0.72 | 171 |
| Suárez | 864 | 520 | 0.60 | 285 |
Another great striker we can compare Robert Lewandowski to is Luis Suárez. The Uruguayan international has been a nuisance in the final third of football pitches for several decades, having incredible stints at both Liverpool and Barcelona.
As of March 2023, Suárez has played just 15 professional matches more than Lewandowski, having scored 520 league goals at a rate of 0.60 goals per game. Similarly to Benzema, Lewandowski comes out on top, having scored 92 more goals than Suárez.
Where Suárez comes out on top is the number of assists, having recorded a whopping 285 during his career. This means that he’s recorded 114 more assists than Lewandowski, being much more than just a goalscorer on the football pitch. This is an impressive statistic for an out-and-out centre forward.
Suárez has also spent time in several leagues, including the Premier League, demonstrating his ability to adapt to different styles of play while still achieving elite-level output in terms of goals and assists. On an international level, Suárez won the Copa América with Uruguay in the 2010/11 season, which is more than Lewandowski has won with Poland.
Lewandowski vs Zlatan Ibrahimović
| Total Appearances | Total career goals | Goals per game | Total assists | |
| Lewandowski | 849 | 612 | 0.72 | 171 |
| Ibrahimović | 941 | 555 | 0.59 | 227 |
The final striker we’re going to compare to Robert Lewandowski to help us work out if he’s underrated or not is Swedish legend Zlatan Ibrahimović. As of March 2023, Ibrahimović is 41 years old and still playing for AC Milan.
He’s played almost 100 more games than Lewandowski, scoring 555 goals at a rate of 0.59 goals per game. Again, similarly to both Benzema and Suárez, Lewandowski comes out on top for goals, having scored 57 more than Ibrahimović.
On the other hand, he again loses out when it comes to total assists, with Ibrahimović having recorded 56 more than him throughout his career.
In terms of honours, Ibrahimović holds the unlucky record of having made the most Champions League appearances (124 games) without ever winning the competition. With Lewandowski winning this competition, you could say that the Polish striker has been underrated throughout his career.
On an international level, these two players are quite similar, as Sweden and Poland haven’t enjoyed any international success throughout both striker’s careers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, after careful analysis into his career, it’s safe to say that Robert Lewandowski is underrated by the majority of football enthusiasts. He’s the 11th highest goalscorer of all time, has won the Champions League, was unlucky not to win a Ballon d’Or, and has won 19 top goalscorer awards in all competitions.
The main reasons why he has been underrated for the majority of his career is because he’s spent the majority of his time playing in a less popular league and has been unlucky with regard to any international success.
On the other hand, in the modern game, it’s only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who are above his level in terms of goalscoring. Considering this, it’s probably about time we gave Robert Lewandowski a bit more respect.
We hope you enjoyed this Elastico article and learned something new today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lewandowski One of the Best of All Time?
Having scored over 600 goals in his career for club and country, Polish striker Robert Lewandowski is statistically one of the best strikers of all time. In addition, he’s also one of the most successful Bundesliga players ever.
Is Robert Lewandowski Better Than Haaland?
It’s too early to say whether Robert Lewandowski is better than Erling Haaland because of the age difference between the two strikers. A key difference between the two is that Haaland has already moved to the Premier League in his career, which is the ultimate test.
Who Scored 5 Goals in 9 Minutes?
Robert Lewandowski scored 5 goals in 9 minutes during the second half of a Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg in 2015. He was on the bench for the first half of the match and went on to break a Bundesliga record for the fastest five goals scored by one player.
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