We are going on a journey back in time to 2007. It is a different era. Only Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten had so far managed to win the “Ballon d’Or” three times. But then a young duo took to the world stage and changed everything. Of course, we’re talking about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who from then on won all trophies.
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Their supremacy lasted ten years without a break! Almost twelve years if you count out the interlude with Luka Modric in 2018. But the football year 2020, which took place under completely different conditions due to the Covid 19 pandemic, could have heralded the actual turning point of this era with Robert Lewandowski, the winner of the “Eurosport Star of the Year”.
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Even though Luka Modric was the first to break the reign of Messi and Ronaldo two years ago when he was voted the best player in the World Cup in Russia and won the Champions League with Real Madrid, the Croat was rather the exception. The midfield strategist, who was awarded the Golden Ball, had stopped the run of the infernal Messi-Ronaldo tandem thanks to his performances without standing out with crazy statistics.
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Both Andrés Iniesta (2010) and Franck Ribéry (2013) failed a few years earlier to receive the Holy Grail of football and to overturn the established hierarchy. In 2020, Lewandowski also managed to steal the limelight from the Argentine-Portuguese duo. And that by beating them with their own weapons, namely with gates on the assembly line.
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Lewandowski was on a par with Messi and Ronaldo in 2020
Of course, Lewandowski has also closed the gap to Messi and Ronaldo thanks to his successes with FC Bayern Munich. With five titles in the Champions League, Bundesliga, DFB Cup and the German and European Supercup, FCB is currently the team to be beaten in European club football. And Lewandowski is the best player at the best club.
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The real strength of the Pole is that, thanks to his extraordinary coolness and efficiency in front of goal, he has incredible statistics, which puts him on a par with Messi and Ronaldo across Europe.
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Already in 2019, the long-term sniper of FC Bayern and the Polish national team topped the European goalscorer list with 54 goals in 58 competitive games across all competitions (eight more competitive matches than Messi, 15 as Ronaldo). And in 2020, the 32-year-old managed to measure himself against Ronaldo and Messi on an equal footing.
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In fact, Lewandowski has left both of them behind with 43 goals in 42 games (for comparison: Ronaldo 41 goals in 40 games, Messi 25 goals in 45 games) this calendar year. In contrast to Messi and Ronaldo, he can also boast that he shone at the final tournament of the Champions League in Lisbon – a decisive criterion for the award of the best kicker at the end of the year.
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Never say never to Messi and Ronaldo
Even if Lewandowski didn’t score in the final of the premier class, the five-time Bundesliga top scorer was there in the decisive games. With five goals and six assists in the knockout phase, the native of Warsaw had a large share in Bavaria’s epochal triumphal procession.
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While star strikers like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani or Luis Suárez have not managed to rise to the same level as Messi and Ronaldo in recent years despite high hit rates, Lewandowski has proven that this is now possible.
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Is top European football really seeing the end of the Messi / Ronaldo era? The many problems of FC Barcelona both behind the scenes and on the pitch as well as Juve’s desperate attempt to fulfill their dream of a Champions League triumph suggests this. On the other hand, the two legends obviously don’t feel like putting their feet up and instead want to prove time and again that the ravages of time have not yet gnawed at them.
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Never say never – even if Lewandowski has already set foot on their territory – after all, that’s a small revolution.
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