Barcelona Allegedly Asked Lewandowski to Stop Scoring in 2022/23 to Avoid Bayern Bonus

A new book, "The Real Lewandowski" by Polish journalist Sebastian Staszewski, has revealed a surprising incident at Barcelona. The Catalan club reportedly asked its Polish striker, Robert Lewandowski, to stop scoring goals in the final rounds of La Liga during his first season with the team. This request was allegedly made to avoid paying an additional €2.5 million bonus to Lewandowski's former club, Bayern Munich, as stipulated in his transfer agreement. The incident occurred after Lewandowski had already secured the Pichichi award for top scorer, and Real Madrid had already won La Liga, rendering the remaining matches competitively insignificant.

According to Staszewski, "important" individuals within Barcelona's management asked the player not to score any more goals. This reportedly shocked Lewandowski, who is accustomed to receiving requests to score goals, not the opposite. The author notes that Lewandowski did not take the request seriously, and his failure to score in those matches was not a response to orders from Barcelona officials, but simply because he was unsuccessful in finding the net.

It is worth noting that Barcelona was later compelled to pay the bonus after Lewandowski scored 27 goals in the subsequent season, but according to the contract, it was paid only once to Bayern Munich.