Robert Lewandowski passes Giovane Elber on the Bundesliga scoring charts

Last Friday, in the first Bundesliga game of 2017 between SC Freiburg and FC Bayern Munich, two goals from Robert Lewandowski, including the match winner in injury time, secured all three points for Bayern to start them off on the right foot in the new year. But, the goals were also significant on a personal level for the Polish striker, pulling him ahead of Bayern legend Giovane Elber on the list of foreign-born goal scorers in Bundesliga history.

Goals number 134 and 135 allowed Lewandowski to break the tie with the Brazilian, and move into sole possession of second place. He only trails another well-known former Bayern player, the timeless Claudio Pizarro. The Peruvian stands at 190 tallies over his German career, and is still toiling away at Werder Bremen trying to add to his total.

What’s even more impressive? The rate at which Lewandowski is running up his stats. To date, he has scored 0.64 goals per game (roughly two every three games), which bests Elber pretty easily (0.51 gpg), and blows away Pizarro (0.45 gpg). Not only that, but, since arriving at Bayern, he has upped his pace to an astounding 0.76 tallies every match.

Will Lewandowski surpass Pizarro? The answer is “highly likely”, assuming he honors his Bayern contract which runs through the summer of 2021. Considering the rate at which Lewandwoski is scoring, especially when playing in red, he should be passing Pizarro (and his gorgeous hair) sometime during the 2018/19 season.