Ballon d’Or nominee Robert Lewandowski hasn’t just racked up numerous goals, assists and titles in 2021, but also several records. Although there are still five competitive matches left of the year, fcbayern.com is looking back at his achievements so far ahead of Monday’s vote for the best player of the year:
1. Record year 2021
42, 43, 41, 40, 55, 48 – that’s how many competitive goals Lewandowski has scored in each season since 2015/16. What a record for the star striker! Remarkably, The Best FIFA Men’s Player is on course for another record-breaking year with stats of 1.25 goals and 1.35 goal involvements per game so far this season. Can Lewy break his own records again? Incidentally, 2020/21 was the Pole’s most prolific campaign in the Bundesliga: 41 goals (a record), seven assists, 1.4 goals per game and 1.7 goal involvements per game are all personal bests.
2. Germany: Lewangoalski and der Bomber
Lewandowski has scored 30 or more goals in four separate Bundesliga seasons. Only Gerd Müller has done so more often (five). In fact, the pair are the only players in Bundesliga history who have achieved this feat in multiple seasons. The 33-year-old has also scored 116 Bundesliga goals away from home, one more than Müller and only one less than Klaus Fischer’s record of 117.
The striker is currently on 38 league goals for 2021 – only Gerd Müller with 42 goals in 1972 and namesake Dieter with 39 goals in 1977 have surpassed that figure within a calendar year. For the Pole it’s already a personal record.
3. Europe: Top goalscorer on the continent
Lewandowski is also the leading marksman in Europe’s top five leagues this calendar year with 53 goals in all competitions, way ahead of second-placed Erling Haaland on 37. This is already the Poland captain’s most successful year since his arrival in the Bundesliga, beating his previous best of 48 goals in 2019.
Since his move to Munich in 2014, the two-time Germany Footballer of the Year has netted 65 goals in 73 appearances in the Champions League, a tally only topped by Cristiano Ronaldo (73). However, when it comes to minutes-per-goal ratio during this period, Lewandowski is just ahead of the Portuguese (every 96 minutes) having found the net every 95 minutes.
Lewandowski made his 100th Champions League appearance at the start of November and crowned it with a hat-trick. He scored his 81st goal against Benfica (now on 82), the most goals that any player has netted in his first 100 games in the competition (ahead of Lionel Messi with 77 and Ronaldo with 64).
We’ve picked out nine special moments from Robert Lewandowski’s incredible 2021:
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