Barcelona have completed a drawn-out transfer saga, announcing “an agreement in principle” with Bayern Munich over a €50m move for Poland striker Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski, 33, has been Barcelona’s top transfer target for months, and the striker declared that he was done at Bayern back in May. Barca manager Xavi acknowledged that talks about a transfer even before that, and though the move has dragged on—Bayern held out for a €50m transfer fee that Barcelona, amid ongoing financial difficulties, didn’t want to meet—it is done in time for Lewandowski to join the Spanish side’s preseason tour of the United States.
Marca has reported that the final agreement is broken up between a €45m transfer fee and add-ons valued at €5m, and that Lewandowski’s contract runs for three years, with an option for the 2025-26 season. His salary is expected to be in the neighborhood of €9m. Barcelona’s announcement today says that the deal is still pending Lewandowski passing a club medical and all of the contracts actually being signed.
Lewandowski’s final season with Bayern was excellent, with the veteran marksman scoring 50 times in 46 competitive appearances with the German giants. In eight seasons in Munich, Lewandowski scored a staggering 344 goals in 375 games in all competitions, tacking on 72 assists to boot. Bayern won the Bundesliga in all eight of his seasons at the club, as well as the 2019-20 UEFA Champions Leagues, the 2020 Club World Cup, and three DFB Pokals.
Barcelona had some big names available at center forward in 2021-22, with Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang getting most of the minutes. However, the club lacked a dominant scoring presence, with Depay and Aubameyang leading the club with just 13 goals apiece. No one else scored more than seven goals.
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