As well as his sixth title within a year, Robert Lewandowski has the chance to win a completely different award at the FIFA Club World Cup. After the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League, the Best FIFA Men's Player could also become the top scorer in his fourth club competition. The main rival standing in his way is André-Pierre Gignac of cup final opponents Tigres UANL. fcbayern.com puts the spotlight on the two goal-getters.
Goal guarantors for their teams
FCB progressed to the final of the Club World Cup with a 2-0 win against Al Ahly, and Lewandowski scored both goals. Tigres have scored three times so far on their way to the final, and on all three occasions Gignac's name was the one that flashed up on the scoreboard. So the Frenchman is currently one goal ahead of Lewandowski in the standings. "In Gignac, Tigres have a dangerous striker who gets their goals. We have to keep him out of the penalty area and prevent them from creating chances," warned Manuel Neuer at the press conference on Wednesday.
No strangers to top scorer prizes
Only Gerd Müller (7 times) has won the Bundesliga top scorer canon more often than Robert Lewandowski (5).
With the title of top scorer at the Club World Cup, both would add to their large individual award collections. Lewandowski's trophy cabinet already has a stack of top scorer trophies. Among other things, the 32-year-old has already won them five times each in the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup and once in the Champions League. But Gignac, too, has been crowned several times. The 35-year-old was top scorer once in France, twice in Mexico as well as in the last CONCACAF Champions League season.
Clinical finishers
The two strikers show hardly any nerves at all. When Lewandowski or Gignac step up to take a penalty, it's virtually a foregone conclusion that they'll score. The Frenchman has already shown this at the Club World Cup - he's taken two penalties and converted both. This brings his tally to 13 consecutive converted penalty kicks. Lewandowski's run even reached 17 successful attempts in a row before it ended last Friday in Berlin when he failed to beat Rune Jarstein. "That can happen. The important thing is to take something positive out of such a negative experience and do better next time," the Pole said in Tuesday's press conference when asked about the miss.
Legends at their clubs
The influence both players have on their clubs is immense. Since Lewandowski joined FC Bayern in 2014, he's scored an incredible 275 goals in just 316 appearances. This puts him second in the club's internal rankings behind the legendary Gerd Müller (566 goals in 607 games). Gignac moved to Tigres from Olympique Marseille in 2015 and even became the most prolific striker in the club's history, scoring 147 times in 246 games.
Learn more about Bayern's cup final opponents Tigres UANL here:
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