Lewandowski on “the best time” at Bayern & the broken deal with Manchester United

Apologies to FC Bayern

In an interview with “Sport Bild”, Robert Lewandowski gave an insight into his difficult last few months at FC Bayern before moving to FC Barcelona and a failed transfer to Manchester United. About his time with the record champions, the 34-year-old top striker said with some distance: “While Hansi Flick was the coach in Munich, I had my best time at Bayern.”

“We won everything, I was able to fulfill my dream of the Champions League. It was a great, great time,” said the Pole, who scored 344 goals in 375 competitive games for FCB between 2014 and 2022 and prepared 72 more before moving to the Spanish LaLiga after eight years. According to him, Flick’s successor Julian Nagelsmann played no role in his previously unpleasant departure to the Catalans. Nevertheless, he revealed: If he had stayed longer in Munich, he would probably have lost his enthusiasm for football. “Of course I would have continued to work, but more because it was a duty than a pleasure. I didn’t want that feeling, it wouldn’t have been good for the club and me,” the two-time world footballer told the magazine.

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The separation from Nagelsmann last week was a “surprise” for him too, Lewandowski attested and described Nagelsmann’s successor Thomas Tuchel as a “super coach” who could give Bayern his “own signature”: “Tuchel can Bayern many titles bring, this season as well as in the future. As long as the team continues to develop, there will be no reason for criticism.” But you can see from the example of Flicks: “Everything was great with him, we showed top performances and won titles – and in the end he was gone too. From my point of view, that was a bit strange, difficult to understand. But that’s the business, I’m just a part of it.”

Lewandowski apologizes to FC Bayern: “Transfers are a business”

In this context, Lewandowski also commented on the criticism he was exposed to from some quarters as part of his departure from Munich: “I knew that it hurt a lot of Bayern fans. But you didn’t get everything at the moment and didn’t understand why I wanted to take this step. Transfers are a business, a business. Sometimes it’s a mix of battle and play. The relationship with Hasan Salihamidzic, for example, was great before my transfer to Barcelona and is now at a good level again. I once said sorry to FC Bayern: I will never forget what the club made possible for me. I will always be grateful and I want to say again to the fans: sorry for the goodbye and thank you for everything.”

In his long career, Jürgen Klopp drove him the most during his time at Borussia Dortmund, Lewandowski continues. During his early days at BVB, it happened for the first time “that a coach drew my attention to my body language. . Klopp, Michael Zorc and Hans-Joachim Watzke met me at the beginning of my second season in Dortmund. Shortly after that I started scoring goals. They said: ‘If you show 70 percent of what you do on the training ground in the game, then we’re satisfied, Robert!’” In September 2011, after losing the Champions League game at Olympique Marseille, he had one and a half hours at night talked to Klopp, but didn’t understand everything because of his not so good knowledge of German: “But: I felt as if a father figure was sitting opposite me. That night Jürgen Klopp became my surrogate dad.”

In his second season with the Westphalians, Lewandowski was able to almost triple his hit rate in the Bundesliga and the market value also rose sharply – after the first half of 2011/12, this doubled from six to twelve million euros after the end of the season he was appraised at 20 million (TM database: Lewandowski’s market value development in detail).

When Klopp canceled a move to Manchester United: “No chance, Robert”

But it was also his former mentor Klopp who prevented the then 22-year-old from moving to Manchester United this season. United legend Alex Ferguson called the Pole and wanted to lure him to England: “I remember the moment clearly. We were preparing for a friendly with Dortmund, against Bochum I think. I was substituted at half-time. I looked at my cell phone while I was still in the cabin: there was an SMS with the sender +44, i.e. the English area code. Ferguson had tried calling me, then texted me saying he’d like to speak to me.”

“I was still in the dressing room, took a shower and called him back. In a quiet corner in the locker room. My English wasn’t as good as it is today, he has a strong Scottish accent. I was so focused to understand what he means! Alex Ferguson tried to be considerate, spoke slowly. I was 22 years old, that was a special moment. I spoke to Aki Watzke and Jürgen Klopp at the training camp. I wanted to go to Man United! But they said: ‘No chance, Robert. We need you. You have to stay.’”

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