If you read who Robert Lewandowski (34) as his toughest and most unfair opponent, one is no longer really surprised …
In an interview with the Polish magazine “Kwartalnik Sportowy”, Barça star Lewandowski unpacks who it is and why he is more motivated than frustrated by fouls.
Robert Lewandowski played in the Bundesliga from 2010 to 2022. He remembers one opponent in particular: Carlos Zambrano (33). The Peruvian played for Schalke in the 2009/2010 season, for St. Pauli in 2010/2011 and for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga from 2012 to 2016.
Carlos Zambrano has been playing for Boca Juniors since 2020
Foto: Getty Images
Lewandowski on Zambrano (quoted after “Goal”): “All he wanted was to break my legs. He didn’t even look at the ball.” That annoyed Lewandowski: “It annoyed me that the referee didn’t see it. Defenders are often allowed to do more than strikers, it’s not an equal fight.”
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Goalkeeper fouls own player
Source: Sportdigital
The Polish world footballer (2021) also explains why he is not discouraged by fouls (quoted from “Spox”): “I think mostly it helps me to wake up, be more concentrated and try to outsmart my opponents. Sometimes I even get annoyed if nobody kicks me during a game – things like that give me energy.”
However, it is interesting to look at Lewandowski’s performance record against Zambrano. Overall, the two met five times in the Bundesliga and in the DFB Cup. In those five games, the world striker did not score a single goal. Could he possibly be intimidated by the tough central defender? Zambrano received 52 (!) yellow cards and two yellow-red cards in 137 games in the Bundesliga.
For comparison: Lewandowski scored 312 goals in his 384 Bundesliga games. Normally he hits like on an assembly line. After eight years at Bayern, he moved to Barça in the summer. There, too, he got off to an excellent start, scoring 11 goals in eight games in La Liga and the Champions League.
Only against Zambrano did Lewandowski not want to score goals…
