opinion
World footballer
Lewandowski’s defeat is a failure of the Bundesliga
Robert Lewandowski was named the best striker, but again it was not enough for the title of world footballer.
© Franck Fife / AFP
Robert Lewandowski looks into the tube in the election for world footballer. The problem is not Lewandowski’s performance, but rather the standing of the Bundesliga.
Second place is the first loser – a common phrase in sport. Seldom has it been as good as it was on Monday evening. As a big favorite in the race for the Ballon d’Or, Robert Lewandowski only ended up in second place. Lionel Messi, who received his seventh award as a world footballer, was able to cheer again. Messi received 613 votes from the 180 trade journalists who vote for the world footballer. Lewandowski was just behind the Argentine with 580 votes. Lewandowski won the newly introduced “Striker of the Year” category, but that will only be a consolation prize for the Pole. Especially since the award makes little sense if Messi, also a striker, is recognized as a world footballer, but at the same time is not the best striker.
Without question, giving Messi the title of world footballer is never a wrong decision. The Argentine has shaped world football too much in recent years for the cup to simply pass him or a Cristiano Ronaldo by. This year, however, the attacker, revered as “La Pulga” (the flea), weakened. In his last season with FC Barcelona only third place jumped out behind Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, in the Champions League Barcelona failed miserably against the million dollar troop from Paris Saint-Germain, to which he moved in the summer. But things are not going well on the Seine so far, Messi only scored his first league goal for PSG against Nantes on November 20, and the 34-year-old has scored three goals in four games in the Champions League. The award is much more than a reward for being on the national team. With the triumph at the Copa America, Messi celebrated his first major title with the Argentine national team. With four goals and five assists, the striker played a decisive role in winning the title.
Ballon d’Or: The Bundesliga is the flaw in Lewandowski’s vita
For Robert Lewandowski, the goal scoring would have spoken in 2021. Lewandowski scored 64 competitive goals this calendar year. The Pole is the first player in the five top European leagues to have scored more than 60 goals in a calendar year since 2014. With his 41 goals in just 29 league games, Lewandowski even broke Gerd Müller’s age-old record in the Bundesliga.
The numbers speak for themselves and yet they have one flaw: Robert Lewandowski plays in the Bundesliga. Even if you don’t like to hear it from the people in charge at DFL and Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga doesn’t have the glamor that other European leagues exude. Clubs like FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus Turin or Manchester United not only have a large number of fans worldwide, they also act differently than the Bundesliga clubs.
Choice for world footballer: money rules the world
Because money does not play a role at most European top clubs, even if there is none left, like with FC Barcelona, which is pushing a mountain of debts in the billions. Clubs like PSG, Manchester City or Chelsea have become the plaything of multi-billionaires, who buy new clubs in a row and don’t mind paying dizzying transfer fees to see superstars in their own jerseys. In the Bundesliga, the perverse tossing around with the millions (even more perverse than already) fortunately prevents the 50 + 1 rule, which excludes investors from German football, but also keeps the superstars and thus the high quality away. In contrast to the other four top leagues in Spain, Italy, France and England, the Bundesliga lacks the superstars to take the competition to a new level.
Even the Bavarians, as German long-term champions, do not want to join the squandering of the money, solid management is the top priority, as with all other German clubs. Instead, you have to buy the top players in your own league in order to bring at least a certain star factor to the Isar or, alternatively, to slowly lead young players like Jamal Musiala into a star role. Lewandowski himself once flirted with the move to Madrid, which Bayern prevented with a huge increase in wages. And so Lewandowski’s career will always be accompanied by the question of whether he would have scored 41 goals in one season in England or Spain.
Dortmund, Leipzig and Co. are only talent forges for Europe
The worst pursuers from Dortmund, Leipzig and Leverkusen, on the other hand, have meanwhile become permanent trainers for top talents for European clubs. Players like Christian Pulisic, Jadon Sancho, Kai Havertz or Timo Werner get big in the Bundesliga, but their clubs are weak when it comes to redeeming millions. Even an Erling Haaland will not be able to last long for Borussia Dortmund. The transfer fee in the three-digit million range is far too tempting for BVB, the salary of 25 million euros and up for the exceptional Norwegian striker is far too tempting. Even a Florian Wirtz is unlikely to play much longer in Leverkusen.
Conversely, this means that the Bundesliga does not get the attention it needs from international sports journalists to win the award. When Bayern and Lewandowski meet VfL Bochum, but at the same time Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé play for PSG or Liverpool and Chelsea duel in the Premier League, the focus of international journalists and international football fans is clearly set and far removed from the Bundesliga . This will also be in a bind in the future: money rules the football business and for more money the Bundesliga would have to overturn the 50 + 1 rule. With the risk of completely making fun of the German fans, as the annual general meeting of Bayern and the role of Qatari sponsorship showed last week. Without further sums it will be difficult to establish a world footballer from a German professional league in the next few years. Even if he deserved it, like Lewandowski!