Robert Lewandowski lauds agent Pini Zahavi, says Bayern Munich will be fine without him

Regardless of the nature in which Robert Lewandowski left Bayern Munich for Barcelona, he leaves both a club and Bundesliga legend, there’s no argument there. Despite what had been reported about his posturing and behavior, too, Thomas Muller had recently confirmed that there’s absolutely no bad blood between the Polish striker and any of his now-former Bayern teammates. He wanted to make the move, and was very forward about it along with his agent, Pini Zahavi, who Bayern have had some tricky dealings with in the past.

In a recent edition of SportBild (via Sport1), Lewandowski praised Zahavi’s efforts in brokering his move to Barcelona, which is something the striker has always wanted; at least the chance to play in La Liga. “Pini never gave up, that’s unbelievable. I thanked him on the night from Friday to Saturday. It was perhaps the most complicated transfer of my life. But we made it. I am very grateful to him for helping me to take this step. Pini is not selfish, he only has one thing on his mind: the well-being of his players and clients. I think those responsible at Bayern know: He’s a professional,” Lewandowski said of his agent and the role he played in the move.

Lewandowski had previously said that Real Madrid was his dream club, much to the chagrin of a lot of Bayern fans after he ultimately landed at Barcelona. For him, he said that’s he’s always wanted to play in the Spanish league and didn’t want to look back on his career and ten years’ time having regretted not taking the chance to do so when it was there for the taking. “I didn’t want to stand in front of the mirror in ten years and say to myself: I didn’t get everything out of my career, I couldn’t fulfill this dream of the Spanish league. It was in my head that this step is now exactly the right one,” he explained.

With the time he spent in Munich, Lewandowski has nothing but the fondest of memories, having won a boat load of of titles, both as a club and individually. His crowning achievement in the Bundesliga came with the last kick of the football for Bayern in the 2020/21 season, when he finally broke Gerd Muller’s single season goals record with his goal against FC Augsburg on the last match day of the season. He’s going to miss his time spent with Bayern. “I lived in Germany for twelve years and played for Bayern Munich for eight years. I can say with a clear conscience and a clear heart: I gave everything for the club that was in my power. This story will stay with me forever, I will never forget it. The experiences, the titles, the goals. I have not only found colleagues here, but also friends with whom I would like to keep in touch,” he sentimentally said.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Looking forward, Lewandowski knows Bayern still has the quality to make up for his loss, and he doesn’t feel they will struggle too much without him in the squad. Personally, he doesn’t even feel that the club needs a direct, like-for-like replacement for him at the striker’s position. Julian Nagelsmann has already mentioned that he plans on using both Sadio Mané and Serge Gnabry as center forward’s, though Bayern is still in the running to potentially sign Mathys Tel from Rennes in Ligue 1. “I think FC Bayern has so many talented attacking players that it doesn’t necessarily need a number nine, a real center-forward! FC Bayern’s attack is outstanding, they can manage that very well, even without a one-to-one replacement for me,” Lewandowski said.

He also mentioned that attacking players like Kingsley Coman, Gnabry, Leroy Sané, Mané, and company can “play more flexibly, develop a new identity.” He also added, “I think Julian Nagelsmann has a lot of ideas. It doesn’t need a classic centre-forward. The coach’s idea can go very well with FC Bayern. here’s Kingsley Coman, Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller, Jamal Musiala: The players are given more responsibility for scoring goals and can grow in this role.”