In an announcement which has caused shockwaves across the landscape of elite football, L'Équipe, the Paris-based football magazine responsible for the awarding of the Ballon d'Or, stated that the honour will not be presented in 2020 due to the extreme circumstances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
While such a response is perfectly understandable given all that has happened, there is one player who will undoubtedly be extremely dismayed about this decision. A player who has had by far the best season of his career. A player who, over the last two to three years, has made the leap from just being among the leading players of this generation to being a true all-time great. A player whom not many would have selected as a potential Ballon d'Or winner just a year ago, but would likely have claimed the award had it been presented this year.
That player is none other than Bayern Munich legend (yes, we can call him that now) Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski led Bayern to a come-from-behind Bundesliga title victory by scoring an astonishing 34 league goals. The Pole claimed the European Golden Shoe by doing so. Lewandowski's 34 goals were the most in the Bundesliga since Dieter Müller netted the same number in 1977. Over the past decade, only four players have scored that many over the course of a major European league campaign - Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suárez, and Gonzalo Higuaín. What makes Lewandowski's achievement even more impressive is the fact that he did in the Bundesliga. Unlike other leagues which have seasons running for 38 matches, Germany's top flight uses a 34-match schedule. Adjusting for this factor, Lewandowski would have scored 38 league goals in a 20-team league.
Lewandowski has also been killing it in the Champions League as well. He has already amassed 11 goals in the tournament even though the round of 16 is yet to be completed. It is likely that he will add to his tally in the second leg of Bayern's tie against an overmatched Chelsea. If Bayern make a deep Champions League run, there is a distinct possibility that Lewandowski's season could reach historic levels. This will probably happen as the Bavarian club are currently the favourites to win it all, thanks in no small part to Lewandowski's outstanding play.
Lewandowski hasn't just been putting up empty numbers. His goals have directly translated to wins for Bayern. He was the scorer of over a third of Bayern's league goals this past season. Such was his level of marksmanship that he scored more goals than Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund and Wout Weghorst of VfL Wolfsburg, the third- and fourth-highest goalscorers in the league, combined. Take away his 34 goals and Bayern would likely not even come close to defending their Bundesliga crown.
While Lewandowski's absence would not have had quite the same effect on Bayern's Champions League campaign owing to their relatively easy path thus far, it will nevertheless be Lewandowski who will serve as the focal point of Bayern's attempt to win European football's most prestigious honour for the sixth time.
Such has been Lewandowski's dominance this season that on many an occasion, teams which play against Bayern centre their entire game plan around stopping Lewandowski. He has become a game-changer on the level of the likes of Ronaldo and Messi in their primes. Not even the most die-hard fan of Die Roten could have seen this coming when the club signed Lewandowski from arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund in 2014.
Obviously, Lewandowski has become one of the greatest centre-forwards of all time. If he were to lead Bayern to Champions League glory this season, it would elevate his legacy even further to one of an inner-circle legend. What's more, if it turns out that his missing out on the Ballon d'Or ends up fueling him, every other team ought to be put on notice because Robert Lewandowski might just be about to unleash hell on Europe's leading clubs in a manner which has seldom been seen before.
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