SUPERSTAR striker Robert Lewandowski might have won the Ballon d’Or if he’d signed for Blackburn.
That’s according to his Barcelona team-mate Ilkay Gundogan at least.
Lewandowski was just a plane ride away from joining Championship side Blackburn in 2010.
However, an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcano grounded flights across Europe for days.
And, unfortunately for Rovers, the deal never recovered.
It’s safe to say Lewandowski’s career didn’t suffer for the missed opportunity in Lancashire.
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But despite his prolific goalscoring exploits across Europe, the Pole has never won football’s top individual honour.
And Gundogan reckons a spell at Ewood Park could have fixed that.
Lewandowski, now 35, visited that failed move when he met up with Barca team-mate Gundogan for a Q&A in the Champions League’s UCL show.
The two stars, who also spent three years together at Borussia Dortmund, tested how well they know each other with a series of questions.
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Lewandowski asked: “Which team was I meant to move to before I came to Germany?”
Ex-Manchester City captain Gundogan responded: “I read it somewhere once, was it to Italy?”
Lewandowski answered: “No, it wasn’t Italy. I wanted to see Blackburn Rovers at the time.”
Gundogan quipped: “Perhaps if you’d moved to Blackburn, you’d have won the Ballon d’Or by now.”
Lewandowski then started to laugh with his team-mate before stating: “What’s he saying?”
Lewandowski instead moved to Dortmund the same year and quickly rose to superstardom, helping them win the Bundesliga and reach the Champions League final.
That led to a move to Bayern Munich in 2014, where he won every title available and registered a staggering 344 goals in 375 appearances.
And it was during his time at Bayern when he came the closest to winning the Ballon d’Or, only to be denied by the coronavirus pandemic which cancelled the annual awards in 2020.
After eight glittering seasons at Bayern, the forward went to Barcelona last year and has extended his goalscoring exploits with 39 goals and 12 assists in 56 games.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
