The revelation of an incident from two years ago is likely to spark plenty of debate.
Have you ever heard of a club telling its own player not to score? It may sound unbelievable, but that is exactly what reportedly happened to Robert Lewandowski at Barcelona!
Polish author Sebastian Staszewski, who wrote a book titled The Real Lewandowski about the national football star, describes an incident from Lewandowski’s first season at the Catalan club, making this surprising claim.
Lewandowski joined Barcelona in July 2022 after leaving Bayern Munich. He quickly adapted to his new club and began scoring one goal after another. That season, Barcelona secured the league title comfortably well before the final rounds.
According to Staszewski, just before the last two rounds of the league, a Barcelona board member told Lewandowski, “Robert, we want you not to score in the last two games.”
The reason behind this unusual request? Before the final two matches, Lewandowski had already scored 23 goals. If he reached 25 goals in the league, Barcelona would have had to pay Bayern an additional €2.5 million, as per a clause in his contract.
Despite being asked not to score in those final games, Lewandowski still won the top scorer award for the season.
Football journalist Guillem Balagué also shared this news on social media with astonishment, explaining the reason behind it.
At the time, Barcelona was in severe financial trouble—the very reason why the club’s legend Lionel Messi had to leave against his wishes the previous year.
Balagué believes that now, with this two-year-old incident coming to light, it will likely trigger a lot of discussion and controversy.
