Lewandowski’s Clarifying Conversation With Klopp: “It Was Necessary”

After a sensational season, scorer Robert Lewandowski made it to the top of the Olympics. But his road was long and stony. Looking back, the Pole sees a clarifying conversation with Jürgen Klopp as a key moment.

In an interview with “Goal”, the Bayern Munich forward retraces his difficult phase with the juniors, when he was not entrusted with success due to his thin stature. Lewandowski was settled in his favorite club, Legia Warsaw, at the age of 17. “It hurt me a lot,” he says. After that, he wanted to show everyone what he was made of. With hard work in the weight room, he built muscles, which helped tremendously.

At the third division club Znicz Pruszkow was the top scorer, Lech Posen sprinted. Borussia Dortmund bought him in the summer of 2010. But for the first few months the striker was mostly just a noble joker. After a losing match in the Champions League in Marseille, he went to visit then-manager Jürgen Klopp, he recalls. “We talked for almost two hours, I told him what I had in mind – and he explained what he expected of me.”

After the interview with Klopp, “everything worked out better”. “I needed this interview,” Lewandowski said. “I was very young and lived abroad for the first time in my life. I have not yet spoken the language perfectly and consequently I have not understood everything he said to me. But it didn’t matter, the situation had to be clarified “.

After four successful years at BVB, he moved to Monaco. This summer, after beating PSG, he was finally able to lift the Champions League trophy and his biggest dream has come true, the 32-year-old reveals. “The feeling right now is incredible, I’ve never experienced anything like it before. You realize that the hard work you have done in over twenty years will be rewarded. “

Lewandowski: “We are still in winning mode”

After the perfect season with his team, it was an advantage that it wasn’t long before the season started. «We are still in winning mode. As long as you play football, you have to stay hungry. Getting to the top is difficult. But staying at the top is even more difficult. Now we have to give even more percentage. At the end of your career you can look back and enjoy the titles you have won. “

The 114-time national team player has scored 55 goals in all competitions. “Obviously I’m happy with my records, but in the end we are only talking about numbers that are not really decisive: all these goals are not worth much without a title.”

He was voted European Footballer of the Year for his outstanding achievements. As no world footballer of the year was crowned due to the crown pandemic in 2020, he received a Ballon d’Or made of LEGO from a Polish rapper.