Report: Bayern Munich rejects Barcelona’s third offer for Robert Lewandowski + Final price set (Updated)

According to a new report by Bild (paywalled), Bayern Munich have officially rejected Barcelona’s latest offer for Robert Lewandowski. The Catalans had allegedly bid €40m + €5m in easily achievable add-ons, but Bayern are holding out for at least €50m guaranteed (if not more). It remains to be seen if Barca will raise their bid a fourth time, and meet the Bavarians’ demands.

As for the player himself, Lewandowski was spotted meeting Xavi at a restaurant in Ibiza. A Barca journalist was present to photograph the incident. What a coincidence, right?

As preseason edges closer, both clubs will want a quick resolution to this transfer saga. In Bayern’s case, this is the first time they’ve responded with a definitive answer to a bid from Barcelona. All earlier offers were met with frosty indifference. This indicates that the Catalans are actually getting close to the club’s valuation for Lewandowski. If Barca raise their bid one more time, that’s all it might take to get a deal done.

Of course, the question remains — can Barcelona afford Robert Lewandowski? Frenkie de Jong is yet to be sold to Manchester United, so Joan Laporta will have to look elsewhere for funds. Luckily for him, money might be forthcoming very soon ...

If Barcelona do manage to activate these so-called economic levers (which sounds like something you’d do in Yu-Gi-Oh and not a transfer negotiation), then paying Bayern’s €50m asking price for Robert Lewandowski shouldn’t be an issue for them. Of course, the Bavarians could then turn around and demand even MORE money, starting the whole process all over again. After all, Florian Plettenberg did say this ...

Let’s keep a watch and see what happens. If Robert Lewandowski goes on more dinner-dates with Xavi, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Update

We found out what Lewy and Xavi chatted about:

“Not a planned meeting”, yeah right. Meanwhile, Barcelona have managed to pull their first lever. They have sold 10% of their TV Rights to Sixth Street for €207.5m, which means they made a profit for this financial year.

And that’s not all! Prepare for the funniest tweet you’ll see all week.

This is peak trolling by Bayern. Apparently, Barca were forced to send their latest offer via burofax (fans of the Messi transfer will know what that is). It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it’ll definitely get under Laporta/Alemany’s skin.