Barcelona midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has joked that teammate Robert Lewandowski might have won a Ballon d’Or if his proposed transfer to Blackburn Rovers early in his career went through.
Lewandowski has enjoyed bundles of success across spells at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and now Barca, scoring 579 goals in his club career on top of a further 81 for the Poland national team.
He has won a staggering 28 major honours during his time as a senior professional, and his crowning glory came in 2020 when he led Bayern Munich to Champions League glory.
While he claimed the FIFA Best Men’s Player award two years running, Lewandowski was not able to win the prestigious Ballon d’Or, which was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and won in 2021 by Lionel Messi.
Lewandowski was the recipient of the two first editions of France Football’s Gerd Muller Trophy, which was seen as a roundabout way of rewarding the striker for his previous exploits as the world’s best player.
During a video segment with Movistar+ ahead of this weekend’s Clasico against Real Madrid, Lewandowski quizzed Gundogan about his career.
Lewandowski asked: “To which team was I supposed to go to, before the famous eruption of the Icelandic volcano [in 2010]?”
Gundogan was unsure of the club but assumed it was one in Italy, with Lewandowski informing him it was actually Blackburn, who were a consolidated Premier League side at the time but now play in the EFL Championship.
“Maybe if you signed for Blackburn you would have won a Ballon d’Or already!” Gundogan joked, much to the bemusement of Lewandowski.
The Poland striker said to those off-camera: “Did he just say that?!”
Lewandowski’s failed move to Blackburn has become part of folklore at Ewood Park, with Rovers’ long stay in the Premier League coming to an end two years after his transfer to the club collapsed.
He instead joined Borussia Dortmund from Lech Poznan in 2010 and would go on to win two Bundesliga titles alongside Gundogan and under the guidance of current Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
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