Latest news with #RobertLewandowski
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Deadly stat emerges over Robert Lewandowski's goalscoring prowess
Robert Lewandowski continued to smash goal scoring records for Barcelona in their 2024/25 treble winning season. Despite suffering an injury in the final weeks of the campaign – which saw him lose out to Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe in the Golden Boot race – the Poland international was spectacular for Hansi Flick. Advertisement The duo's strong relationship from Bayern Munich was heralded by the boss throughout 2024/25 as he remained confident over the 36-year-old leading his attack. Flanked by the superb Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, Lewandowski showed little sign of slowing down, and his deeper numbers from the season show just how brilliant he was in front of goal. Robert Lewandowski's 2024/25 in numbers 27 La Liga goals from 34 games is his highest league tally in the three seasons he's spent at Barcelona since joining in 2022/23. A grand season tally of 42 is also his highest in Catalonia including 11 scored on route to Barcelona's defeat in the UEFA Champions League semi finals. Advertisement However, a look at the stats shows how potent he is, with a league goal scored for every 93.5 minutes – effectively a goal per game. Robert Lewandowski That's higher than any other Barcelona player in 2024/25 with Ferran Torres second on one goal per 101 minutes played. Barcelona's summer plan for Lewandowski Lewandowski has already agreed a contract extension until the end of 2025/26 with the option for another 12 months on the table. As he turns 37 in August, Barcelona want to manage his game load carefully, and the incoming summer break will do just that. Lewandowski has pulled out of the Poland squad for their June games due to exhaustion from his domestic campaign. Advertisement 'Due to the circumstances and the intensity of the club season, the coach and I have jointly decided I will not participate in the Polish national team's training camp in June.' That call has drawn criticism, with one of Poland's two games as key 2026 World Cup qualifier against Finland, but Barcelona can now see effectively 7-8 weeks off for the striker.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Hansi Flick's incredible Barcelona tactics explained
Barcelona still have a number of problems off the pitch, but on it, Hansi Flick has done something spectacular this season. By combining the experience of Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczęsny, with the energy and brilliance of Yamine Lemal and Pedri, they've become the most unpredictable attacking side in Europe. Adam Clery breaks down their system to show why teams are so scared of them, and their own glaring weakness.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kylian Mbappé vs Robert Lewandowski: Who has more goals in all competitions this season?
Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé on Saturday increased his advantage over Barcelona counterpart Robert Lewandowski when it comes to goals scored in all competitions this season. This comes owing to the Frenchman's efforts in Rea Madrid's latest outing. Los Blancos marked their return to action yesterday afternoon, playing host to Real Sociedad as part of the final round of fixtures of the La Liga campaign. Frontman Mbappé for his part featured from the off in the clash, and proved himself the star of the show by way of both goals in a 2-0 Real Madrid triumph. All told, the summer arrival in Spain has now found the net on a whopping 43 occasions across all competitions this season. With just one game of his own to play, Barcelona hitman Robert Lewandowski, meanwhile, sits three back, on 40 goals all told. The latter therefore requires a hat-trick against Athletic Club later today to draw level with Mbappé in the list of top goalscorers across Europe's top-five leagues in 2024/25. 1 – Most goals scored by players from the top five European leagues this season in all competitions:🥇 KYLIAN MBAPPÉ – 43🥈 Robert Lewandowski – 40🥉 Harry Kane – 38Insatiable. — OptaJose (@OptaJose) May 24, 2025 Conor Laird – GSFN
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Lamine Yamal's new Barcelona contract: Inside the deal that could be worth nearly €40m a year
It's not often a footballer putting his signature on a piece of paper feels like a club winning a major trophy. Lamine Yamal's future at Barcelona has been secured. The dazzling teenager has signed a new long-term deal that will keep him at the club until 2031. The contract is active from now, rather than when Yamal turns 18 on July 13, and it puts him alongside the squad's top earners such as Robert Lewandowski. Advertisement If Yamal achieves all the performance-related bonuses in his new deal, then the total package of salary, bonuses and signing-on fee would reach just shy of €40million (£33.5m; $45.3m) a year before tax, making him Barcelona's highest-paid player. Around 50 per cent of this will be paid in tax, in line with Spanish regulations. At no point in the last year has Yamal's future at Barcelona been in doubt. The player wanted to stay and, unsurprisingly, the club wanted the same. Exactly how Barcelona would address the situation regarding his contract was at the forefront of the key decision-makers' thoughts. Yamal's previous contract extension was signed in October 2023, when he was 16 and had become the youngest player to start a league game for Barcelona's first team. He had already played and scored for Spain, too, breaking two more records in the process. That deal in 2023 had an automatic extension that would have been triggered as soon as the player turned 18 on July 13 of this year. However, the winger's rapid progression has meant he soon outgrew the terms that were previously agreed for that extension. Last summer, as Yamal inspired Spain to the European Championship title in Germany, there was already an assumption from both Yamal's camp and Barcelona's executives that his contract would need to be revisited. This is not a unique case at the club — the same thing has happened with Pau Cubarsi. The club rewarded the centre-back with an improved contract shortly before his 18th birthday in January, even though he had an automatic extension built into his previous deal that would have kicked in when he turned 18. The magnitude of Yamal's deal, though, is something else. His agent, Jorge Mendes, has flown into Barcelona twice in the past two weeks to finalise the contract before Yamal joined up with Spain for the Nations League, and so that the teenager could then go off on holiday and relax knowing that everything is sorted. Advertisement Negotiations have been quick and straight to the point. Mendes, who also represents Yamal's team-mates Alejandro Balde and Ansu Fati, was fully aware of the salary structure in the squad, as well as the impact Yamal is having for Barcelona and the salary for which he could ask. The club's president, Joan Laporta, and sporting director, Deco, were able to structure the deal in a way that suits them financially, allowing them to adhere to financial regulations set out by La Liga. Sources from La Liga, speaking anonymously to protect their jobs, told The Athletic they were yet to see the full contract but expected Yamal's status as a graduate from Barcelona's academy would help facilitate its registration. Deco's recent appearance on the local radio station RAC1 gave Barcelona fans an idea of what to expect in the summer transfer window. 'We can't talk too much about other players because, to me, it's much more important to improve with what we already have at the club,' he said on May 22. 'The key of the project is to give stability to that same group of players.' 'The best signing to do in summer? Lamine Yamal signing a new contract,' he added. 'We are on the right track with it. I want him to win a Ballon d'Or with Barca.' Yamal's camp told Barcelona that the winger was ready to become the club's top earner. 'Lamine himself has not asked that,' Deco said in the same interview. 'Mainly because we don't speak with players about those issues. We prefer to get in touch with their agents and their trusted people.' Sources involved in the negotiations, who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, confirmed that was the case. After an outstanding season, Yamal's camp believe he is the biggest difference-maker in Hansi Flick's double-winning team, and therefore entitled to be compensated as such. It is hard to make an argument against that claim. Yamal has been outstanding for Barcelona during their brilliant season under Flick, scoring 18 goals and providing 21 assists as they won La Liga and the Copa del Rey. The pressure attached to being an integral part of such a big club while still only a teenager is not something that has bothered Yamal so far, as he stated in his press conference before the Champions League semi-final against Inter in May. 'Fear while playing the game? I left all my fears in the park of my neighbourhood, back in Mataro, a while ago,' the 17-year-old said. 'As long as I keep winning, haters can't say anything to me.' Advertisement Barcelona's top earner, for now, is Lewandowski. The Poland international, who turns 37 in August, will be earning around €36m in the last year of his contract, according to club sources. Senior executives at Barcelona have known for months that Yamal's deal would be close to those figures. Yamal's base salary for 2024-25 was around €3m a year. That has now been multiplied by at least 10. According to sources involved in the negotiations, his base salary will be set at around €30m a year before tax. Throw in all the performance-related bonuses and signing bonuses, and this would take Yamal above Lewandowski to become Barcelona's top earner. It is a dramatic pay rise for a player who is still only 17, but something that has been on the cards for some time as Yamal has quickly established himself as the club's crown jewel, on and off the pitch. He is a key figure for big brands too, including Adidas, who used Lionel Messi to convince Yamal to choose them over Nike. Barcelona will play with the structure of the deal to make it more affordable to their books, as Laporta hinted in an interview to the Catalan television station TV3 on May 19. 'It will be interesting to see how we address it regarding the duration of the deal,' Laporta said. 'Barca right now can afford a deal of a certain extent, and we hope that there is a willingness from their side as well. 'The salary needs to match the importance of the player in the team, no matter the age he has. He is a special case and needs special treatment.' There was a sense that Barcelona 'owed' Mendes from last summer, when the club chose not to extend or make permanent the loan moves of Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix, two other Mendes clients. When both loan moves were secured on deadline day in the summer of 2023, Barcelona and Cancelo's camp reached a gentlemen's agreement in which the club promised to work on signing him again for the 2024-25 season. The agreement included Cancelo forgoing a share of his salary at Manchester City in order to facilitate his registration at Barcelona. Advertisement Then the 2023-24 season ended and Barcelona told Cancelo's camp they were not in a financial position to proceed with the deal. Mendes dealt with it and moved Cancelo to the Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal instead, but it gave him decent leverage in future negotiations. Recent talks to finalise the details of Yamal's new deal were short and sorted before the player went on his summer holidays. Yamal is planning to visit Brazil, where the chance to meet his childhood idol, Neymar Jr, is on the cards. Having this resolved allows Yamal to spend a summer free of rumours about his future. Industry sources now wonder what Barcelona will be able to offer Yamal when he turns 24, and is likely to have become an even more influential player. In the back of everyone's mind there is Messi's succession of contracts at the club. In 2017, the Argentina star signed his most lucrative contract extension at Barcelona, under the tenure of the former president, Josep Maria Bartomeu. That deal had a base salary set at €75m after tax. Adding in all bonuses, that figure rose above €100m per year. For now, Deco and Laporta have secured their biggest signing of the summer — and he just so happens to be one of the brightest stars in world football. (Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Daily Tribune
4 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Tribune
Lewandowski passes century as champions Barca sign off in style
La Liga champions Barcelona celebrated a successful season with a 3-0 win at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday in their final match, with Robert Lewandowski netting twice to pass his 100 goal milestone for the club. The veteran Polish forward, 36, reached 27 league goals for the season, although he finished behind Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe on 31. Barcelona wrapped up a domestic treble with Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cups wins, while fourth-place Athletic also had a fine season and returned to the Champions League for the first time in 11 years. Athletic defender Oscar de Marcos made his 570th and final appearance for the club, behind only Jose Angel Iribar, a goalkeeper who played 614 times in the 1960s and 70s, in the club's history. Even Iribar might not have saved Lewandowski's opener after the striker was fed by Fermin Lopez, brilliantly scooping over current Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon to put Barca ahead and rack up the Catalans' 100th league goal of the season. It also brought up a century of goals for Lewandowski in a Barcelona shirt since joining in 2022 from Bayern Munich, and another was soon to follow. Thre e minutes later Lewandowski nodded in at the back post after a corner was flicked into his path. 'I am very happy, very proud to be part of this team, this club, it's been something amazing,' Lewandowski told Barca One. 'I try to do my best, not only with goals but my attitude on and off the pitch -- and there are so many young players we have to take care of them. 'We did something great (this season) but we know we can still do a lot (more) things.' Lewandowski missed two good chances in the second half as Barca tried to stretch their lead and sign off in style.
