BARCELONA superstar Robert Lewandowski was told the only reason he never won the Ballon d’Or is because he didn’t move to the Championship in 2010.
Lewandowski came close to joining Blackburn Rovers from Polish outfit Lech Poznan back when he was rising through the ranks as a promising young talent.
Robert Lewandowski almost joined Blackburn Rovers in 2010Getty
Ilkay Gundogan told Lewandowski he’d have won Ballon d’Or if he joined Blackburn
The star striker revisited that failed move when he met up with Barca team-mate Ilkay 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.
And that is how the Poland international revisited his failed move to Blackburn 13 years ago.
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?”
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The 35-year-old came just a whisker away from moving to Blackburn and it was only the 2010 volcanic ash cloud that stopped that from happening.
The Polish superstar was set to fly to England but his flight was cancelled due to the eruption of Icelandic volcano Grimsvotn.
Instead, Lewandowski moved to Dortmund the same year and quickly rose to superstardom with 103 goals and 42 assists in 187 appearances.
That led to a move to Bayern Munich in 2014 where he won every title available and registered a staggering 344 goals as well as 73 assists 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 appearances.
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