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          Bayern's Robert Lewandowski breaks Bundesliga goals record: 41 things about the ultimate penalty-box predator

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          Goalscorer Extraordinaire: All of Lewandowski's record 41 goals (1:41)

          Watch Robert Lewandowski break Gerd Muller's Bundesliga goals record with 41 in the 2020-21 Bundesliga season. (1:41)

          • Chris Wright, Toe Poke writerMay 22, 2021, 12:17 PM ET

          It took almost half a century, but Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has finally surpassed Gerd Muller's record for goals scored in a Bundesliga season. And what a dramatic way to do it!

          The Poland international had equalled Muller's record the previous weekend when he scored his 40th league goal of the season in the 2-2 draw at Freiburg, and he marked the occasion by revealing a T-shirt bearing the message: "4EVER GERD."

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          But he went one better on the final day of the season on Saturday, scoring in the 90th minute of Bayern's 5-2 thrashing of Augsburg (stream the replay on ESPN+ in the U.S) to take his personal tally for the 2020-21 campaign to an incredible 41 goals, out of the 99 his team scored in the Bundesliga.

          Bayern great Muller scored 40 of his team's 101 goals when they won the German league in 1971-72. The forward known as Der Bomber remains the Bundesliga's all-time top scorer with 365 goals in 427 games, but his single-season record has gone after 49 years.

          By surpassing Muller -- who won five Bundesliga titles and three European Cups with Bayern, as well as the World Cup and European Championship for West Germany -- Lewandowski has cemented his position as one of European football's greatest centre-forwards.

          In honour of his record-breaking haul, here are 41 amazing things to know about Lewandowski, from his goal-scoring feats all the way back through his career to his life off the field.

          Jump to: This season | Awards | Bayern career | Pre-Bayern career | Transfers | Internationals | Early life | Off the pitch

          THIS SEASON

          1. How he broke Muller's record

          Muller played 34 Bundesliga games in his 40-goal season -- an exceptional return by anyone's standards. But Lewandowski surpassed even that amazing feat by netting 41 goals in just 29 league appearances in 2020-21. That works out at a stunning goals-per-game ratio of 1.41.

          Unsurprisingly, it's all a numbers game for Lewy, whose 137 shots were more than anyone else in the Bundesliga this season -- and seven of those came against Augsburg in a desperate search for goal No. 41. One of the reasons that the striker is clinical is that he has become the world's ultimate penalty-box predator, with 92.68% of his goals coming from inside the area. But even though so many of his chances come at close range, he still scores many more than he has any right to: his expected goals for the league season was just 32.98, far fewer than the 41 he ended up scoring.

          And still he could have had more! No Bundesliga player hit to crossbar and/or post of the goal more often than the 5 times Lewandowski did this season.

          2. Hats amazing

          Bayern were crowned 2020-21 Bundesliga champions for the ninth consecutive season on May 8 when their closest title rivals, RB Leipzig, lost 3-2 in a thrilling match at Borussia Dortmund (stream the replay on ESPN+ in the U.S.). By way of celebration, Bayern unleashed a merciless 6-0 drubbing upon Borussia Monchengladbach later that evening, with Lewandowski scoring three goals for his 14th league hat trick for the club (stream the replay on ESPN+ in the U.S.). No player has scored more hat tricks in the Bundesliga than the Polish poacher, who has now also successfully passed the 40-goal mark in all competitions for Bayern six seasons in a row.

          3. Cannon fodder

          Lewandowski's goal rush in 2020-21 has landed him yet another Torjagerkanone award as the Bundesliga's top scorer. This is the fourth consecutive season in which he has got his hands on the prize, which takes the form of a distinctive miniature model of a cannon. It's also his sixth time overall, putting him one behind Muller's all-time record of seven.

          In fact, Lewandowski has only twice failed to reach the 20-goal mark for a Bundesliga season, once during his first season in Germany with Dortmund and again in the first campaign after joining Bayern.

          4. The golden shoe fits

          This season, Lewandowski has claimed his first-ever European Golden Shoe award, becoming the first ever Polish player to win it and the first player from the Bundesliga to do so since Muller in 1972. The award is given to the highest goal-scorer across the top divisions of every single European league. Lewandowski has already bettered his total of 34 goals from last season, when he finished runner-up to Lazio striker Ciro Immobile (36).

          5. Lionel who?

          In terms of goals and assists, no player has been more industrious in Europe's top five leagues this season than Lewandowski. The Bayern Munich striker outranks his rivals by having had a direct involvement in 48 goals during the 2020-21 league campaign (41 goals and 7 assists). Lionel Messi is second on the list with 39 (30 goals, 9 assists) with Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur third with 37 (23, 14).

          6. Champions charge

          Lewandowski is no stranger to the top of the goal-scoring charts. He has carried over his form from the 2019-20 campaign, when he netted 55 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions as Bayern rampaged to the Treble. As well as topping the Bundesliga scoring chart with 34 goals last season, the Polish striker pitched in with 15 goals en route to Bayern lifting the Champions League trophy in Madrid, just two shy of Cristiano Ronaldo's single-season record. It was the first time a player not named Ronaldo or Messi had claimed the Champions League golden boot for 13 years.

          Lewandowski also scored in every single game in the competition bar two: Bayern's last group-stage outing (a 3-1 win over Tottenham for which he was rested) and the final itself. He scored in nine consecutive games up to the final and, as if to firmly seal his credentials as European football's apex predator, seven of his 15 goals were scored from inside the six-yard box.

          7. On the podium

          Lewandowski's five Champions League goals this season took his career tally to 73, making him the third-highest Champions League goal-scorer of all time. Ronaldo is top of the chart with 134 goals, with Messi second (119 goals) and Lewy in third. He recently nudged Real Madrid great Raul (71 goals) off the podium and into fourth place, only for Karim Benzema to then leapfrog the Bernabeu legend later in the season.

          AWARDS

          8. Ballon d'Or heartbreak

          After seeing him put up the kind of incredible Champions League numbers required to finally disrupt the Messi/Ronaldo duopoly, Lewandowski was cruelly denied a Ballon d'Or in 2020. Bayern won every trophy available to them in 2019-20 with Lewandowski averaging a goal every 0.8 games throughout, only for that season's award to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

          However, at least he was able to console himself by taking home the FIFA The Best Men's Player award after beating both Messi and Ronaldo in the vote. He also technically got his hands on a Ballon d'Or trophy too, though sadly it was made of Lego.

          9. Respect your elders

          While the common wisdom is that players naturally begin to decline after they turn 30, Lewandowski bucked the trend to such an extent that in 2020, at the age of 32, he was arguably the best player on the planet. An insanely strong campaign saw him earn a glut of individual awards including Bundesliga Player of the Year, UEFA Men's Player of the Season and FIFA The Best Men's Player.

          10. No Puskas nod... yet

          For the hundreds of goals he's scored during his career, Lewandowski has never once been nominated for a Puskas Award, FIFA's goal of the year prize. That's not to say that the Polish poacher hasn't scored his fair share of absolute beauties though, with his exquisite volley against Frankfurt right up there with the best of them.

          BAYERN CAREER

          11. Fit and proper

          Lewandowski has only recently returned to action after missing six matches through injury, including both legs of Bayern's Champions League quarterfinal loss to Paris Saint-Germain, but his latest layoff was a real rarity. According to Transfermarkt, before 2021 there had only ever been three occasions on which the striker had been forced to miss more than one game at a time due to injury. Furthermore, he'd only ever been forced to sit out of two consecutive games once before this season, when shin injury that forced him to miss three games in February 2020.

          12. No place like home

          No player has scored more goals at Bayern's Allianz Arena than Lewandowski, who has found the net 163 times at Bayern's home stadium since it first opened in 2005-06. His first goal at the Allianz actually came while still playing for Dortmund, while goal No. 100 came during the 27th minute of a 3-1 win over Schalke in February 2019.

          13. Outlandish goal record

          Lewandowski is also the highest scoring non-German player in the history of the Bundesliga, a record he broke with two goals against Wolfsburg in March 2019. The first of those two goals saw him overtake the previous holder of the record, Peru international Claudio Pizarro -- formerly of Bayern, Werder Bremen and Cologne. By the end of the game, Lewandowski had scored 197 goals in 281 Bundesliga appearances over the course of nine years since first arriving from Lech Poznan. To date, he's scored 277 goals in 350 appearances in the German top flight.

          14. Spot-kick specialist

          Lewandowski is something of a penalty specialist, having successfully converted 61 spot kicks during his career, including 34 in the Bundesliga (which places him in the league's all-time top five). Amazingly, the Bayern striker went two whole years without missing a penalty, scoring 17 in a row between January 2019 and February 2021, when the streak came to an end at Hertha Berlin. Lewandowski also appears to have passed his prowess on to his daughter, with young Klara seen burying a penalty past her father in a post on Instagram. She even celebrates like a true striker in the making.

          15. Human after all

          Strikers are a different breed when it comes to ego and drive, and Lewandowski is no different. For example, he scored 30 league goals for Bayern in 2016-17 yet still wound up finishing second in the race for the Torjagerkanone award, one goal behind Dortmund rival Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Lewandowski let his pride get the better of him when he publicly blamed his teammates for his shortfall, admonishing them for not creating enough chances for him to top the list.

          "It doesn't hurt [to have missed out on the award] anymore, but it did at first," he said. "Maybe because I wasn't completely satisfied with the way my team helped me. Immediately after the last game, I felt anger. I was disappointed with my team. That was the feeling I had."

          As we said, typical striker -- though it seemed to escape Lewandowski's notice that he might have finished level with Auba were it not for a truly horrific miss against Werder Bremen on the opening day of the season. Proof that even the greatest strikers are only human, after all.

          16. 500 and counting

          Lewandowski is one of only five currently active players to have scored more than 500 career goals for club and country. Once again, Ronaldo and Messi occupy the top two slots overall with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lewandowski, and Luis Suarez in third, fourth, and fifth respectively. For the record, Muller finished his career having scored 735 goals in 793 games, making him a member of the ultra-exclusive 700-goal club.

          17. Celebrating in style

          Lewandowski has a couple of trademark goal celebrations in his repertoire, with the double-fist bump being one of his favourites. It was rolled out quite a lot in 2019 and 2020, with the Bayern striker frequently congratulating himself by knocking his knuckles together.

          However, Lewandowski can also often be seen celebrating by quickly crossing his arms across his chest and pointing his fingers to the sky, which is a special message he shares with his young daughter.

          "The celebration has something to do with [Klara]," he told Bayern's YouTube channel. "I don't want to go into details, it's a little secret! I want to show that my family are always behind me, as that has helped me a lot in my career as a footballer."

          18. What's in a name?

          Lewandowski goes by a couple of nicknames, with Bayern teammate Thomas Muller responsible for the best of the bunch. Who can forget the gleeful look on Muller's face when he christened his prolific colleague "LewanGOALski" during a news conference last year? As with all comedy, the secret is all in the delivery. Thankfully, Muller is a better footballer than he is a stand-up comedian.

          Lewandowski's actual day-to-day nickname is "Lewy" -- and not "Lewa" as sometimes mistakenly used. The latter, while a simpler shortening of his surname, would actually be the feminine version of his abbreviated moniker in Polish.

          Still, both are preferable to "Lewandoofski" (roughly translated as "Lewandumbski"), the name briefly bestowed upon him by German tabloid Bild in 2011 after he missed couple of easy chances for former club Dortmund in a 1-1 draw with struggling Stuttgart.

          PRE-BAYERN CAREER

          19. Welcome to Germany

          Lewandowski came up against several famous names when he made his Bundesliga debut for Borussia Dortmund on Aug. 22, 2010. Dortmund hosted a Bayer Leverkusen side containing vastly experienced players such as Sami Hyypia, Michael Ballack and Arturo Vidal and managed by Jupp Heynckes. Lewandowski made his first ever appearance in the German top flight by coming off the bench in the 63rd minute but ultimately failed to make much of an impact as Dortmund fell to a 2-0 home defeat. He'd soon become a lot more decisive.

          20. Member of the exclusive '2x4 Club'

          There are only two players who have scored four goals in a single Champions League game twice: Messi and Lewandowski. Messi scored four goals for Barcelona against Arsenal (a 4-1 win on April 6, 2010) and then five goals against Bayer Leverkusen (7-1, March 7, 2012). Lewandowski scored four goals for Borussia Dortmund against Real Madrid (4-1, April 24, 2013) and four goals for Bayern Munich against Red Star (6-0, Nov. 26, 2019). The latter's four-goal haul against Red Star was also the fastest "poker" ever scored in Champions League history, taking just 14 minutes and 31 seconds.

          21. Un4gettable

          That first four-goal haul for Lewandowski in Europe firmly announced his arrival among the elite. Dortmund were unbeaten in the 2012-13 Champions League heading into the semifinals but few expected them to oust Real Madrid in quite such spectacular fashion. Dortmund won the first leg 4-1 at Signal Iduna Park or, rather, Lewandowski did. His first came after just eight minutes and, by the 55th minute, he had become the first player in history to score a Champions League hat trick against Madrid. He then added another in the 66th minute for good measure. Real won the second leg 2-0 at the Bernabeu but it wasn't enough to stop Dortmund advancing to the final.

          22. Credit from Klopp

          The manner of his Dortmund departure (a free transfer) may have been a little acrimonious, but Lewandowski remained in Jurgen Klopp's good books even after jumping ship to a direct rival. The striker has credited Klopp with transforming him into a world-class talent, singling out his former Dortmund boss as the person responsible for "giving him the belief" to do so -- as well as the financial incentive. He told The Times in 2017: "[Klopp] was the one who gave me belief. In the first three or four months in training, we would have this game, him against the striker, a bet between me and him. In the first few sessions he was always winning -- but after that, not so much. It was €50 a game and by the end I had a positive balance! But I saw for the first time how important it was to train. Jurgen Klopp made me the footballer I am. I haven't changed anything at Bayern, I'm just using different weapons in my artillery. But I shaped my career in Dortmund."

          Lewandowski went on to score 103 goals in four highly successful seasons under Klopp at Dortmund, winning back-to-back Bundesliga titles, before moving on to pastures new. When asked to name the best player he's ever coached, Klopp returned the favour by singling out Lewandowski, telling Bild earlier this year: "It actually won't be fair to say that about any other player except Lewy. What he has made out of his potential, how he pushed himself to become the player he is today, that's extraordinary. Lewy took every step he needed to take to be that goal machine. Every one. He has immersed himself in the game, he just knows in every situation what he has to do, where he has to go. Lewy is an absolute machine."

          TRANSFERS

          23. Best free transfer ever?

          After scoring 103 goals in 187 games for Dortmund, Lewandowski was among the best players in world football come the summer of 2013. However, rather than being able to build a team around their ascending star, Dortmund instead saw Lewandowski defect to join direct rivals Bayern Munich just a year after they had beaten Klopp's side in the Champions League final at Wembley, and on a free transfer to boot. After months of speculation, the 25-year-old striker struck a deal with Bayern in January 2014, six months before his contract at Dortmund was due to expire.

          He was immediately instrumental for Bayern upon arrival, winning the Bundesliga title in each of the seven seasons he's subsequently spent at the Allianz Arena -- topping the league scoring charts in five of them.

          As a free transfer, it's hard to beat, though it's worth mentioning that several other superstars moved clubs for nothing too. Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan to Juventus) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain to Manchester United) are just two good examples but we'd wager that Lewandowski's return outstrips them all.

          24. Linked with every top club (and Blackburn Rovers)

          Lewandowski has been linked with just about every single top European club throughout his career. As per Transfermarkt's record of media coverage, Liverpool were the first big name rumoured to be interested in his signature, with reports emerging as far back as October 2011. Then came various links with Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Juventus, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Napoli and Barcelona between 2011 and 2013.

          The rumour mill went into overdrive in 2014, speculating over a potential move to Bayern Munich, with links to Manchester United (again), Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain all following between 2015 and 2018 even after he had made his move to the Allianz Arena.

          However, for all the big names constantly chasing him, the closest Lewandowski actually came to plying his trade in the Premier League was in 2010, when he found himself on the cusp of a move to Blackburn Rovers. Unfortunately for the club, who were managed by Sam Allardyce at the time, the transfer was scuppered at the 11th hour by an Icelandic volcano, of all things.

          Lewandowski was in the process of securing a transfer from Lech Poznan to mid-table Blackburn, who were desperate to sign a goal scorer to bolster their barren attacking ranks. However, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano then erupted for the first time in 180 years, filling the skies over much of Europe with a thick ash cloud that grounded planes across the continent for the next week or so. Lewandowski was unable to travel for talks at Rovers, with the club's then-head of recruitment Martyn Glover later revealing the prospective fee was somewhere between £3m-£4m.

          "We'd seen a lot of Robert and we knew we were dealing with a top-class striker," Glover told Sky Sports in 2019. "Discussions with the [Poznan] club president went as planned, so we sat down with Robert [...] and had an outline proposal in place for him to join Rovers. After that, whatever could have gone wrong, went wrong."

          Unable to conclude negotiations with Rovers, Lewandowski instead chose to sign for Borussia Dortmund thus forever missing out on the chance to play under Big Sam.

          "I had the opportunity to join Blackburn, but I wanted to see how Blackburn looked, the training ground, the place," Lewandowski told The Times. "I met with Sam Allardyce. It was in Poland after a game. I thought he was a good guy, a very good coach. He was prepared to take a young player who was something new and might be something special. He wanted to come to Poland to see me. That was nice."

          He added: "I think it would have been fine if I had gone to Blackburn, but [...] I couldn't go because of the cloud. It was the volcano with the ash cloud. It was one week and nobody could fly in Europe. The flight was booked, but we couldn't leave. It changed my life. If I had gone to Blackburn maybe I would have stayed there."

          25. No comment

          Perhaps understandably for a man who has found himself at the epicentre of rumour mill rumblings for the best part of a decade, Lewandowski doesn't really have much time for transfer speculation. Finding himself strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid in summer of 2017, the Bayern striker was asked to address the gossip during a preseason interview with Bayerischen Rundfunk.

          "I don't have to comment every time on every bit of nonsense, whether it means something or not," he replied. "I don't have to say anything about this bulls---."

          A definitive response if ever there was one.

          26. Man United near-miss

          Having previously flirted with Blackburn, Lewandowski came close to a Premier League switch for the second time a couple of years later when Manchester United were reported to be interested. The Polish striker claimed he was contacted by Sir Alex Ferguson while at Dortmund in 2011-12, with both parties keen to make a switch to Old Trafford happen.

          "After my second year in Dortmund, I had a conversation with Sir Alex Ferguson," Lewandowski told France Football in December. "He wanted me in Manchester. I was very interested. I can even say I was ready. But Dortmund did not want to let me go. That didn't upset me very much because things were going well with Dortmund."

          United signed Arsenal's Robin van Persie instead, so it worked out well enough for all parties.

          INTERNATIONALS

          27. Home hero

          Lewandowski has become the most capped player in the history of the Poland men's national team (118 appearances) and their all-time top goal scorer (66 goals) since making his senior international debut in 2008 at the age of 20. He represented his country at the 2018 World Cup and is set to compete at his third European Championship this summer. He scored the first goal of Euro 2012 as the co-hosts drew 1-1 with Greece in Warsaw.

          28. Multi-award winner

          Lewandowski has been crowned Polish Footballer of the Year (as voted by Pilka Nozna magazine) nine times in the last 10 years. The striker won every year between 2011 and 2017, then again in 2019 and 2020. The only other player to muscle into the frame was goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, who won the award in 2018 while at Swansea City.

          EARLY LIFE

          29. Sporting DNA

          It was probably Lewandowski's destiny to be a sporting superstar, given that most of his immediate family also have strong athletic backgrounds. His father, Krzysztof, who passed away in 2005, was a former Polish judo champion-turned-coach who also played football with second division club Hutnik Warsaw.

          "We played football every Sunday. Krzysztof was in love with this sport," Lewandowski Sr.'s former Hutnik teammate Wojciech Borowiak once told Sport.se.pl. Lewy impressed with his technical training. He concentrated on passing the ball, not scoring goals like his son."

          Lewandowski's mother, Iwona, was a professional volleyball player, with sister Milena following in her mother's footsteps by taking up the same sport. And his wife Anna is a highly decorated WFF (World Fudokan Federation) karate champion who won a total of 38 medals at national, European and world level before bowing out in 2014 with a bronze at the World Cup.

          30. Primed for stardom

          Lewandowski was primed for international stardom by his parents, who decided to call their son "Robert" because then his name would be familiar and therefore simple to pronounce for people all around the world. The couple's presumption that their boy would grow up to become a superstar athlete proved rather shrewd.

          "My husband knew we were going to raise a footballer and that's why he is called Robert," Iwona recalled. "Travelling through Europe, Krzysztof witnessed how important it would be to have an internationally recognisable name."

          Sadly, Lewandowski's father didn't live to see his son become the world's finest striker, passing away three years before Robert made his senior debut for Lech Poznan in 2008.

          31. Joyrider

          While the footballing talent was clearly there, Lewandowski has admitted that his focus wasn't solely on sport as a youngster growing up in Warsaw. Writing in his autobiography, the striker revealed he made a habit of "borrowing" his mum's car and driving it around despite being underage and not having a license.

          "I repeatedly took my mum's car, though of course I know now that it wasn't right," he recalled. "My record speed was 320 kmh (almost 200 mph)."

          He also admitted to throwing "yoghurt pots and banana peels" at the local police station in his hometown -- a pursuit he describes as a "wild hobby."

          32. Smoke signal

          As well as the vehicular transgressions and unruly behaviour, Lewandowski also got into trouble as a kid after getting caught smoking cigarettes at a football camp. His punishment was to "take care of a fire extinguisher for six months," which apparently entailed carrying it around and treating it as though it were a baby.

          OFF THE PITCH

          33. He's got moves

          Let's face it, not many footballers have put their official TikTok accounts to such exemplary use as Robert "Lord of the (Dad) Dance" Lewandowski.

          34. GIF royalty

          That said, Lewandowski is no stranger to viral success after accidentally becoming one half of one of the most successful GIF double-acts ever. The lingering look exchanged between Lewy and former Dortmund teammate Marco Reus, on their first meeting since the former's move to Bayern, has become a social media staple over the years.

          35. Coffee break

          When he's not guzzling down lashes of Paulaner at Oktoberfest or while celebrating another Bundesliga title, Lewandowski enjoys the odd cup of his very own branded "RL9" coffee. In collaboration with his wife, Anna, the Bayern striker's signature range features espressos and cremas and even Lewandowski-approved oat cookies for dipping.

          It's not just coffee that bears the "RL9" branding: Lewy has also lent it to his own personal edition of UNO. The card game is popular among many soccer players, who use it to kill time while on the road.

          36. The Lewandowski Diet -- eat meals in reverse

          Signature coffee forms but a small part of the Lewandowski diet, which was once revealed in detail by Anna, a professional nutritionist and fitness coach. The Bayern star's daily menu is definitely one of conditioning and health benefits over taste and enjoyment, with some incredibly odd food combinations thrown into the mix.

          In an interview with Bild in 2019, Anna detailed the various elements of the couple's usual daily intake which apparently consists of an inordinate amount of "high quality fish" and spiced beetroot juice. Among the other nourishing goodies listed were porridge, pancakes with matcha tea, and millet -- delicious, delicious millet.

          Lewandowski is so committed to making his nutritional regimen as efficient as possible that he even eats his dessert first. In an interview with Tageszeitung, he revealed: "As desserts are sweet, they can be digested quicker," Lewandowski explained in an interview with Tageszeitung. "Soups too. But proteins take longer to digest. If I eat something sweet at the end and it mixes with the protein in my stomach, then it's harder to process as well.

          37. He can rock the Lederhosen look

          Every year, the whole Bayern squad and their partners don traditional Bavarian dress to celebrate Oktoberfest with the rest of the German region. Lederhosen aren't the easiest item of clothing to pull off, but Lewy has managed the look effortlessly.

          38. Cover star

          Lewandowski has graced the cover of the FIFA football game franchise several times, but you might not know that his first appearance came as far back as FIFA 10 in 2009. The striker took his place on the cover of the Polish version of the game while he was still 21 and playing for Poznan, flanked by Premier League stars Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney.

          39. #Blessed

          Lewandowski, a practising Catholic, was especially thrilled to personally meet Pope Francis after Bayern Munich had travelled to Italy to face Roma in the Champions League group stages in October 2014. The Bavarians thrashed the hosts 7-1 at the Stadio Olimpico before spending the following day taking in the sights and splendour of Vatican City. Lewandowski shared a photo of his meeting with Pope Francis with the caption: "Big Moment!"

          40. Model student

          Lewandowski possesses a bachelor's degree in Physical Education, which he completed the day after Poland qualified for the 2018 World Cup. Presenting a thesis based on his own football career, Lewandowski was awarded the highest possible grade by the marking panel at the Warsaw School of Education in Sport.

          41. Hype man

          Lewandowski has revealed that when it comes to music, he is a big fan of Polish rap and R&B. He even teamed up with Polish rapper DON (under the pseudonym "RL9") to contribute to a song called "Mansa Musa," which appears to be about a Malian emperor from the 14th Century.

          Stephan Uersfeld contributed to this report.