display
Within seconds, his previous life passed him by.
Robert Lewandowski was recently in his bed, next to him the world football trophy he had just won.
At the height of his career, the FC Bayern star striker thought of how his late father Krzysztof asked the priest before his son's first communion in his Polish homeland to bring the ceremony half an hour earlier so that his Robert could be on time for the game of his youth team creates.
And he thought of Jürgen Klopp, who made a bet with him during their first season together in 2010 at Borussia Dortmund.
His coach at the time said: “If you score ten goals in one training session, you will get 50 euros from me.
If you stay below this quota, you pay me 50 euros. ”At first Lewandowski always had to pay, he played very little back then.
After months he almost always managed his quota, and Klopp said: “Enough.
You are ready."
And how ready he was.
Lewandowski recently wrote about these memories in The Players' Tribune.
Eleven years after starting in the Bundesliga, he is the best striker in the world.
In the top game this weekend, he will meet the striker who is expected to have a similarly great career: Erling Haaland.
On this Saturday evening (6.30 p.m., in the sports ticker of the WELT), the German record champions receive BVB, the duel of the goal scorers is the focus of the German Clásico.
Lewandowski against Haaland, that is the present against the future in the absolute top of the world-class striker.
“Haaland can own the future,” says Flick
display
At Bayern they have enormous respect for Haaland.
“He's how a center forward has to be.
He has this enormous hunger for goals, which Lewy embodies, ”says Munich coach Hans-Dieter Flick.
“The future can belong to him.
He has everything you need for it. "
Lewandowski, 32 years old, has won almost everything that can be won at club level and has achieved numerous top scores.
He did not score more goals in competitive games against any other club than against Dortmund.
In this game he can come closer to Gerd Müller's special record from the 1971/1972 season: 40 goals in one season.
Haaland, 20 years old, can keep the championship exciting with his team.
And with a win against Lewandowski's Bayern, his market value will continue to rise and the hype around him will become even greater.
Lewandowski leads the list of goalscorers with 28 goals, Haaland follows in third place with 17 goals.
In the Champions League, Haaland is even ahead of the superstar, leading there with eight goals.
“When I score a goal, I always think: one more thing to catch up with,” said the young Dortmund star on “Viaplay” about the competition with Lewandowski in the league.
"But then he just shoots another hat trick, as if it were the most normal thing in the world." It is just crazy what Lewandowski can do.
display
Haaland says he sees every Bayern game and learns a lot from their players.
Especially from Lewandowski.
“He always manages to be in the right place and complete their attacks.
Above all, he is very good technically and in combination play.
I can learn a lot from that ”.
Since Haaland's competitive debut for Dortmund, only Lewandowski has scored more goals (59) than the Norwegian (43).
In comparison, however, Haaland is already on a par with the world footballer in many categories.
Of the Bundesliga players with more than ten goals, Haaland is even the most effective: On average, he hits every 87 minutes this season - Lewandowski every 104 minutes.
Dutch striker legend Marco van Basten believes Haaland can do even better than Lewandowski.
They are two very different types of strikers.
For a long time Lewandowski was very fixated on his successes and only developed into a leading player in recent years.
Although he and his wife Anna market themselves internationally, they recently started their own coffee brand.
But they spend their free time quietly with their two children.
Here you will find content from Instagram
In order to interact with or display content from Instagram and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
display
Haaland is in a different phase of life, like Lewandowski, he lives for football.
He relies on organic hacking, his father Alf-Inge is an important contact person for him.
Since moving to Dortmund a little over a year ago, he says he has put on seven kilos and has grown half a centimeter.
He is just a better football player now, said Haaland.
Flick also sees it this way: "The intensity with which he pursues an 80-meter sprint is simply great." His team has to exert pressure on the ball during the game so that Haaland cannot be hit by his colleagues in the first place.
This is where you will find third-party content
In order to interact with or display content from third parties, we need your consent.
Activate external content
I consent to content from third parties being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
Dortmund have great hopes for their goalscorer this Saturday.
The balance sheet in Munich reads bitterly for BVB: Borussia lost the last six league games there.
Goal difference: 3:26.
“I didn't get the impression of eye level,” says sports director Michael Zorc.
"But we dare to make a new attempt." It is a slightly different constellation than in previous years, "but both teams need every point to achieve their goals." The Munich team are vulnerable, they have already conceded 32 goals, as many as throughout the preseason.
Lewandowski has pushed his former dream of Real Madrid far aside, signing with Bayern until the summer of 2023.
The big transfer is yet to come at Haaland: His advisor Mino Raiola recently spoke of BVB in the past tense.
Real should want to sign Haaland if the targeted transfer Kylian Mbappés from Paris St. Germain does not succeed in the summer.
Bayern could also try to get him one day.
A game system with two strikers, Lewandowski and Haaland, is hardly conceivable.
Haaland is more of a candidate for the time after Lewandowski.
Here you will find content from Twitter
In order to interact with or display content from Twitter and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
With the speculation about Haaland they live quite well at BVB.
They know that when it comes to their center forwards.
It was the same with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before Lewandowski.
Nevertheless, the chances are good that Haaland will play at least one more season in black and yellow.
The rumored exit clause in his contract - there is talk of a fixed transfer fee of 75 million euros - could probably be drawn in 2022 at the earliest.
“It becomes clear to everyone that at some point after his time at BVB Erling cannot, does not want to or will not switch to every club.
I don't even come up with ten clubs that would be eligible, ”said Zorc.
“We are happy that we have him here.
I can only say that we continue to plan with him and that he doesn't feel uncomfortable here. ”To keep it that way, qualifying for the Champions League again would be extremely helpful.
In contrast to Lewandowski's early years at BVB, Borussia is currently not the Bayern pursuer, this role is played by RB Leipzig.
Here you will find content from Twitter
In order to interact with or display content from Twitter and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
The self-image of being number two in German football is not formulated as aggressively at BVB as in previous years - the course of the season so far forbids that.
But it is unbroken.
The Dortmunders have made an internal promise: There must be no other Bayern hunter with more promising prospects in the future.
BVB is currently working its way into this role again: with a more aggressive style of play, which Flick has warned his players against in recent days.
"We are a few points ahead, but Dortmund has the quality to play along," said Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich.
"So in the end, the mentality may make the difference."
And the form of the day of the two goalscoring teams.
This is where you will find third-party content
In order to interact with or display content from third parties, we need your consent.
Activate external content
I consent to content from third parties being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.