What’s the story?
According to Robert Lewondowski’s agent, Cezary Kucharski, an unnamed Chinese club made a staggering, and world record, bid of around €200m for the services of the deadly Polish hitman. He was also offered a salary in excess of €40 million per year – which would have seen him overtake Carlos Tevez to become the world’s highest paid footballer. According to the agent though, Lewandowski rejected the offer right away and has no interest in leaving Bayern Munich. Kucharski said Lewandowski never considered the offer because "it's obvious: Lewy is not only younger but also a better player than Tevez"
In case you didn’t know...
The mega-rich clubs of the Chinese Super League have been in the news lately after spending, and bidding to spend, ludicrous amounts of money to get the Word’s Best Players to ply their trade in the Far East. Paulinho, Hulk and Graziano Pelle were a few of the early movers, but the League started truly shaking up the world transfer market when they pulled off audacious bids for Chelsea’s Oscar and Boca legend Carlos Tevez – in the process making the Argentine the best paid footbaler on the planet.
The heart of the matter
Despite having bids for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi rejected, it appears the Chinese are not to be cowed and will continue to bid through the roof in the hopes of getting the World’s Best. Lewandowski is certainly among that number and is arguably the world’s best out-and-out centre forward along with Barcelona’s Luis Suarez. The Pole has been in sensational form over the past couple of years and it is no surprise that there are clubs willing to pay whatever it takes to have him on their side. Bayern knows this too, and signed a new contract with him that will keep the ace striker at the club till 2021.
What next?
While it appears that Lewandowski is not even remotely interested, a statement that the players’ agent made will ring out throughout European football. "Robert is not for sale right now," Kucharski said. "But I never say never. Life offers several solutions." Will he really move to China, though? Looks highly unlikely
Sportskeeda’s Take
Bayern Munich’s outspoken President Uli Hoeness had said earlier this week that the spending power of Chinese clubs is “sick, nothing but sick”. While it is a bit rich coming from the man who heads a club that has for a long time bullied the domestic scene with their financial muscle (buyin out anyone they see as a danger to their title chances – exhibit A: Robert Lewandowski), he does have a point.
Forget the point that players’ careers may be ruined if they move away from Europe – that may not necassarily be true – but the main issue is that there is no way a club can sustain that level of spending and maintain financial common sense. The bubble will burst in China – reports already suggest the government is going to crack down on spending – and that is the real danger in this scenario.
Robert Lewandowski, meanwhile seems to be too driven a personality to sacrifice European football for a mite more moolah.
