Robert Lewandowski Next Club Odds: Man City 3/1 favourites to sign Bayern front man before transfer deadline day
Robert Lewandowski's odds to sign for Manchester City have been cut from 16/1 into 3/1 in the space of just 24 hours following a Sky Sports News report this morning.
The summer window slams shut on August 31st, with clubs now having just under a fortnight to complete any late business. Harry Kane’s name has dominated the rumour mill in recent months, with his proposed mega-money switch to Manchester City still very much up in the air.
In a late and unforeseen twist, however, another of the world’s greatest strikers is now being linked with a move to the Premier League champions. Sky Sports News report that Robert Lewandowski is looking for a new challenge and would be open to a switch to the English top-flight, having spent the previous 11 years of his career in Germany with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
The 32-year-old is widely known as the world’s best centre-forward, having scored 400 goals in 518 all-competition appearances for his two previous employers during the last decade. He has won a total of nine league titles in Germany, alongside four DFB-Pokals - Germany’s equivalent to the FA Cup - and played a pivotal role in Bayern’s Champions League triumph in 2019/20, winning the competition’s Golden Boot award in the process after netting 15 goals.
The report states that while Lewandowski, who turns 33 on Saturday, is happy in Munich, he wants to secure a move to another first-rate European Club before turning 35. The Poland international still has two years left to run on his current deal with Bayern, which means that the German titans would not have to let him go for a cut price until next summer. Because of this, they have reportedly stuck a gargantuan price-tag on their prized asset, rumoured to be more than £100m.
This could, and probably will, price any potential suitors (even City) out of the running for Lewandowski due to his age. While he is still a top-performing striker who has rarely struggled with injuries, his shelf life at the very top is much shorter than the likes of Kane or Borussia Dortmund’s 21-year-old prodigy Erling Haaland.
The latter has a €70m release clause written into his current contract at the Westfalenstadion which will be triggered next summer, making him an extremely attractive proposition for pretty much every super club in the world in 12 months time. In theory, Bayern themselves could even take the money for Lewandowski this summer, and use his transfer fee to fund a deal for Haaland next year, essentially trading their leading goalscorer in for a younger model.
Pep Guardiola worked with Lewandowski during his time as Bayern Munich manager, once describing him as “the most professional player” he’d ever met. There are few concerns over the Pole’s fitness or ability to deal with the rigours of the Premier League, though paying in excess of £100m for a player in his early-thirties is obviously a huge risk.
Looking at it from a different angle, and with Daniel Levy refusing to budge on his £150m valuation of Kane, City could realistically acquire a player of the same (or even slightly better?) calibre, who has a much cleaner injury record, for £40-50m cheaper. Wait another year, though, and they could sign a player with over a decade of his best years ahead of him in Haaland, for even less due to the shrewd release clause written into the Norwegian wonderkid’s current deal.
City aren’t the only club who have seen their odds cut in the market, however. Real Madrid are now 12/1 to sign the Bayern hitman in the coming weeks after being priced at 25/1 last night. Manchester United follow up in the market at 20/1, while Liverpool and Juventus are both 25/1.
A full list of Robert Lewandowski’s next club odds can be found below.
