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None of this makes much sense. Barcelona remains over $1 billion in debt. It must cut its annual wage bill by $144 million to satisfy La Liga’s stringent financial regulations. It has announced the signings of two players it has not yet been able to register while it sorts out the budget. And yet somehow Barcelona has gone ahead and decided to spend a reported $50 million on a player who turns 34 next month, who had only one year left on his contract and was desperate to leave his previous club.
That Robert Lewandowski is a brilliant footballer can hardly be doubted. He has scored 312 goals over the past 12 seasons in the Bundesliga. In 78 Champions League games for Bayern Munich, he scored 69 times (including two against Barcelona in last season’s group stage and one vs. Barça in the infamous 8–2 quarterfinal drubbing in 2020). He is the model of the modern center forward, as he is mobile, happy dropping deep and attacking from wide and lethal in front of goal. He can head, and he can press. Had he not been a near-contemporary of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, he would probably have won multiple Ballons d’Or. As it stands, he has won the last two FIFA Best Men’s Player awards.
