Raise a toast to Robert Lewandowski

The prize for being a contemporary of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is anonymity irrespective of whatever the player can do on the football field. Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski is in the form of his life; yet he wouldn’t get the recognition that his goals richly deserve. Messi and Ronaldo have established such lofty high-water marks for excellence that few measure up to them.

Even if Lewandowski continues to score goals by the truckload and, in the process, help Bayern win a treble, there is no guarantee that he would be the front-runner for the Ballon d’Or in January. Ronaldo, the reigning champion, has already predicted that Messi is favourite for the award this season. Make no mistake. Messi and Ronaldo are from another planet but spare a thought for other exceptional players who are condemned to a lifetime in their shadows.

Lewandowski is like a blast of fresh air in a football world denuded of classical strikers. There isn’t a more complete No. 9 today. In these days of false nines he is the real deal. His right foot is lethal and his left isn’t useless either. He can find the target from distance and is also not averse to tapping the ball in from four yards. Lewandowski has the predatory instincts to swoop on half-chances inside the box. For a man who is six-foot tall, he can swivel in tightest of spaces. He can blast the ball with little back swing.

The Pole is imperious in the air. Watch his winner against the Republic of Ireland in a Euro 2016 qualifier last month. The power he was able to generate in his header from almost a static position was astounding and the direction was also impeccable. It was his 13th goal of the qualifying campaign and he notched up the record tally only in 10 matches. At 27, he is at the peak of his powers. Lewandowski is already being talked about as the greatest player in Polish history.

Maybe he has to deliver an outstanding performance in next year’s Euro to buttress his claim.His form for Bayern this season has been incredulous. Lewandowski has scored 14 goals from 12 Bundesliga matches and his overall count is 19 from 17 matches. Even Pep Guardiola, who has seen Messi at close quarters, allowed his jaw to drop after the striker bagged five goals in nine minutes against Wolfsburg earlier this season after coming on as a second-half substitute.

His fifth, a full-blooded right-footed volley from the edge of the box, was poetry in motion. It was as good as Zinedine Zidane’s winner in the 2002 Champions League final if not better. Maybe the stage wasn’t as special. But the splendid goal got buried in his record of scoring so many in so few minutes. In the colours of Borussia Dortmund the Pole demonstrated his appetite for goals by bagging four against Real Madrid in the home leg of the Champions League semi-final in 2013. No player had scored four in the semi-finals of Europe’s blue ribbon event and no one had also found the back of the net four times against Real.Lewandowski has settled down at Bayern rather seamlessly. Munich is not an easy place because it has seen the likes of Gerd Muller who was born to score goals.