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France Football’s decision to cancel the coveted Ballon D’or this year due to “exceptional circumstances” caused by the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t well received by many people, especially the majority of Bayern Munich fans who were looking forward to Robert Lewandowski finally winning the award.
In an interview given to Onet Sport (via Goal) the Polish goal scoring machine spoke about how he feels about the cancellation of the award: “We won everything there was to be won. I was the top scorer in every competition. I think if a player has achieved that much, he should win the Ballon d’Or.”
5⃣5⃣ Saisontore ⚽@Bundesliga_DE-Torschützenkönig ✅@ChampionsLeague-Torschützenkönig ✅@DFB_Pokal-Torschützenkönig ✅
— CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE (@FCBayern) August 28, 2020
Was für eine UNFASSBARE Saison von @lewy_official!#MiaSanChampions #FCBayern pic.twitter.com/NlaIaMeRiw
“I didn’t think about it. We had a lot of games ahead of us then. I realized that my priority was the Champions League. I didn’t think about any individual awards”, he added.
Lewandowski recalled Bayern’s extraordinary season — which was concluded by a commendable few weeks of the Champions League knockout rounds and finale – by talking about the club’s intimidating squad depth and their historical victory against Barcelona. He said, “If Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perisic come on in the 80th minute, then the opponent knows what is going on: they realize that we do not intend to stop pressing. That makes them insecure.”
“Before the game, Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich met me. We knew we were going to beat Barca. They didn’t ask whether we would win this game, but whether we would win the Champions League. I answered: ‘Yes. Some even said it would be a 5-1 - but an 8-2 is something completely different. We were very confident.”
Describe this UCL classic in one word...@FCBayernEN | #UCL pic.twitter.com/UerRdylYCB
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 28, 2020
Around the beginning of this month, there were reports of Lewandowski almost joining Real Madrid back in 2014. Alongside that, there were rumors of interest from the Spaniards in recent seasons as well. Responding to the questions regarding interest from other clubs, he said, “During this phase I felt the support from FC Bayern, which was sometimes a little lacking before. Ultimately, I believed in the FC Bayern project. I want to play at the highest level after 2023. And I’m not yet thinking about what I’ll do afterwards.”
It is incredibly unfortunate that France Football decided to cancel the award this year because it’s safe to say that Lewandowski totally deserved to win it this year more than any other player.
#JusticeForLewandowski