Robert Lewandowski returned to Bayern Munich alone amid death threats and toxicity (PSA: don’t)

Polish outlet WP Sportowefakty reports that Robert Lewandowski made the July 12 deadline for return to Bayern Munich but without his family owing in part to death threats. It’s way, way past time for everybody to turn the temperature down. From the report:

In recent weeks, as the transfer game began, articles regularly appeared in the German media putting Lewandowski in a bad light. That he’s selfish, that he doesn’t integrate with Bayern’s young players, and so on and so forth. The result?

This time he returned to Munich alone. Threats in the background [...]

The whole environment that has been created around Lewandowski also has other repercussions. WP SportoweFakty reports that Robert, via social media, has recently received various threats, including those of the heaviest caliber, namely deprivation of life.

Of course, it’s not that every such post makes Lewandowski fearful and that he will be afraid to be in Munich, but there’s no denying it - it’s not pleasant. On the other hand, as mentioned, Lewandowski was not planning any strike and hence his return to the club.

There are no reasons that anyone should be on the receiving end of this kind of behavior. It doesn’t matter who they are — Robert is a club legend, but even if he weren’t, he’s a human being.

Let’s keep it in perspective. Lewy is involved in nothing more than a contract dispute. At the end of the transfer window, Bayern will go on being one of the major football clubs in Europe and Lewy will go on being a fantastic striker for some team. Both parties will be fine.

On a personal level, Lewy’s desires to move are eminently understandable. First, he’s long been rumored to have wanted a La Liga adventure at some point in his career, and this could be his last, best chance. Second, he reportedly wants to avoid having to change school systems for his children frequently, which means the kind of long-term contract Bayern would likely have balked at offering.

Sure, it is sad from a Bayern perspective that he’s become unhappy here and saying so out loud. But that’s fully his right. As it is the club’s to insist on being tough in negotiations with FC Barcelona. The saga has been fiery, interesting, tense — but there are no heroes or villains here, just two parties trying to get what they each fairly want.

So please, let’s all be a little less angry at everyone. And that applies to every situation! This isn’t the first time this has come up and nor, sadly, can we expect it to be the last. It’s up to us to put our foot down every time we see it.

Let us not use our fandom as an excuse to be abusive.