Lewandowski Breaks Silence: Those Shocking Barcelona Rumors Were Actually Real

Robert Lewandowski disclosed that Barcelona actually asked their forward to cease finding the back of the net.

This revelation emerged following Lewandowski's inaugural season in Catalonia. Barcelona had already clinched the 2022–23 La Liga championship mathematically with a win against city rivals Espanyol on May 14, leaving four fixtures still to play. Having been eliminated from all other tournaments, Xavi Hernández's squad could relax toward a successful finish.

Lewandowski found the net in following losses to Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid, bringing his individual count to 23 La Liga goals with two games left. At this juncture, the Polish striker held a six-goal advantage in the competition for the league's leading scorer honor and appeared determined to extend that lead. Then Barcelona's executives intervened.

The club's leadership summoned their striker for a discussion, explaining that he would be wise to refrain from scoring for the remainder of the season, according to Sebastian Staszewski's book Lewandowski. Prawdziwy (Lewandowski. The Real One) published in November.

Barcelona's executives were fully conscious of the provision in Lewandowski's Bayern Munich transfer agreement that would have obligated the Catalans to pay a €2.5 million ($2.9 million) incentive if the Polish player reached 25 league goals.

This was largely rejected as fiction when the book was published, but now Lewandowski has remarkably confirmed Staszewski's assertions.

Lewandowski: It Wasn't a Small Amount

"There are matters I prefer not to discuss. I hold great respect for Barcelona and those who work there," Lewandowski shared with Bogdan Rymanowski in an exclusive conversation.

"I understood the club's circumstances. There were numerous other matters that required attention for the club's benefit. Simply put, it was an incentive payment, and everyone understands that Barcelona was monitoring every euro at that time, and it wasn't a modest sum.

"For me, it made no difference. I have no issue with that, but it remained in my thoughts and I questioned whether to find the net or not."

Lewandowski failed to score in those concluding two fixtures against Mallorca and Celta Vigo despite featuring for all 180 minutes available. Though it wasn't exactly due to lack of effort. The striker who had been given guidance took a game-high six attempts against Mallorca—compared to an average of 4.3 per 90 throughout the preceding nine months of the season, it appeared that Lewandowski was more determined to score than before.

Nevertheless, he managed only two attempts against Celta. Over both fixtures, he set up four opportunities for his colleagues—a significant increase from the one per match he had previously averaged—and completed far more passes than typically expected (34.5 compared to 24.4).

Even if he wasn't intentionally trying to avoid scoring in those final appearances, his approach did unconsciously shift.