Robert Lewandowski Is Clearly the Right Choice for the Best FIFA Men's Player Award
By Tom Gott
FIFA's new 'The Best' awards are pretty self-explanatory. If you're the best player on the planet, you should be heralded as such.
It's an honour which was bestowed to Barcelona's Lionel Messi last season, and the man seen by many as perhaps the greatest player of all time is in the running to take the prize home again this time around.
Sure, Messi is a phenomenal player, and fellow finalist Cristiano Ronaldo isn't half bad either, but nobody in 2019/20 has been able to hold a candle to Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski.
The 32-year-old has been on a level of his own for some time now, and there's so much evidence to argue that case that it's actually tough to get your head around.
Between July 20, 2019 and October 7, 2020 - the period on which the award is given - Lewandowski has been utterly dominant. He scored 60 goals in just 52 games in all competitions which, unsurprisingly, is the best tally in Europe. It's 20 more goals than any player in Europe's top five leagues managed.
It works out as a goal every 76 minutes for Lewandowski. That's ridiculous. That's utterly, utterly ridiculous.
He came, he saw, he scored ? @lewy_official becomes only the third player in Bundesliga history to score 250 goals ⚽ pic.twitter.com/8ys3xkOHRd
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) December 16, 2020
What makes it all more impressive is that Lewandowski's goals aren't just empty. They have turned Bayern into Europe's finest team, and their trophy cabinet reflects that.
Hansi Flick's side won the Bundesliga, the DfB-Pokal, the DfB-Supercup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Champions League - a haul no other club on the planet can match - and Lewandowski was at the heart of it all. He's not the only star of Bayern's team, but he's clearly the brightest of the bunch.
If you team success means nothing and you only care about individual accolades, get ready. Lewandowski won:
- UEFA Men's Player of the Season
- Champions League Forward of the Season
- Tuttosport's Golden Player
- Germany's Footballer of the Year
- Bundesliga Player of the Season
- Bundesliga Top Scorer
- DfB-Pokal Top Scorer
- Champions League Top Scorer
- Champions League Top Assist Provider
To top it all off, he was probably going to win the Ballon d'Or this year before the award was postponed. This is a man whose individual success has not gone unnoticed this year, and it should continue to be praised.
That's not to discredit Messi, whose goals were more vital to Barcelona than Lewandowski's were to Bayern, but there's nobody on this planet whose impact was felt more than that of the Poland international during those 15 months.
"It's a big goal for him and a big dream [to win the award], and I think no one deserves it as much as Robert really does this year," manager Flick said recently (via the Bundesliga).
"I think the whole team, the whole club, and all the fans are crossing their fingers for him that [the dream] comes true. We'll all be happy if he gets the award on Thursday."
There are no forgone conclusions when it comes to rivalling Messi and Ronaldo for an individual accolade. The pair have dominated the footballing world for most of the last decade, and it has always taken something ludicrously special to dethrone the pair.
Lewandowski has been that kind of special, and for him not to walk away with The Best FIFA Men's Player award would be a travesty.