Lewandowski leaves Barcelona after leading them from low ebb back to top of LaLiga
BARCELONA — As the No. 9 was held up to indicate the end of Robert Lewandowski‘s evening against Real Betis on Sunday, Barcelona‘s players poured toward the striker to embrace him. Even goalkeeper Joan García joined them, sprinting half the length of the pitch from his goal to be involved. Meanwhile, fans at Camp Nou sang ‘Ro-bert Lew-an-dow-ski’ to the tune of “The Flintstones” theme music.
After four years at Barça, this was goodbye. Lewandowski announced Saturday he will leave the Catalan club when his contract expires in June after scoring 119 goals and winning seven trophies. His next destination is not yet confirmed — sources have told ESPN he has offers from clubs in MLS, the Saudi Pro League and elsewhere in Europe — but Sunday was not about the future. It was about recognising Lewandowski’s contribution to Barça’s transformation during his time at the club.
The 37-year-old veteran fought back tears as he made his way off with five minutes to play in Barça’s penultimate game of the campaign; their last at home. More emotion followed after full time: his family joining him on the pitch, his teammates giving him a guard of honour and supporters unfurling a banner which read: ‘Robert, everything started with you’ — a nod to his role in the team’s metamorphosis.
“This has been a very emotional and very difficult day,” Lewandowski said as he addressed the crowd postmatch.
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After Barça sealed the LaLiga title last weekend, Sunday effectively became Robert Lewandowski Day following his announcement. His presence was everywhere: soft toys and figures of him in the shops surrounding the stadium, his name on scarves and shirts and Poland flags giving Camp Nou a tinge of Warsaw.
However, he was not as present on the pitch. Raphinha scored twice and João Cancelo was also on target as the Spanish champions beat Betis 3-1 to make it 19 wins from 19 home games in LaLiga this season. Lewandowski was reduced to just one shot, firing wide late in the second half after good work from Pedri.
For Barça coach Hansi Flick, the lack of a goal did not take away from the occasion.
“I think it was a perfect goodbye for him,” said Flick, who also coached Lewandowski at Bayern Munich, winning the UEFA Champions League together in 2020. “It was very emotional. You can see his heart is here, with this club, the people here.”
It is goals that have marked Lewandowski’s time at Barça: 119 of them in 192 games in all competitions. No one has more goal contributions in LaLiga since he arrived. He has scored 82 goals and provided 19 assists in that time. Even this season, when he has been in and out of the team, alternating with Ferran Torres, he has maintained that goal-scoring touch.
With 13 goals in 1,566 minutes of league football in 2025-26, he averages 0.75 goals per 90 minutes. Only Real Madrid‘s Kylian Mbappé and Barça teammates Raphinha and Torres have better averages. Remove penalties from the equation, and only Torres and Levante‘s Carlos Espí have a better ratio.
Despite his pedigree with Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, it was not always a given that Lewandowski would do so well. He joined as one of the best strikers in the game, costing €45 million in the summer of palancas. Sources told ESPN Barça felt his goals and experience would not only help the club be successful, but also be integral to shaping the mentality of a young squad.
Yet there were doubts about his age — 33 at the time — and eyebrows raised when he was handed a four-year deal on a huge salary. He dispelled them quickly. He was remarkable in the months leading up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, scoring 18 times in his first 19 games.
“I am running out of praise for him,” coach Xavi Hernández said at the time. “It’s not just the goals. It’s how he plays and how he makes the team play, finding the third man, reading the space perfectly, pressing … He gives us so many solutions in attack, he’s a leader, a winner … [just] a fantastic, fantastic signing.”
Almost as impressive as Lewandowsi’s performances was the way he drove up standards across the club. As the man himself told ESPN in 2023: “I tell Gavi and Pedri: ‘We score one goal, OK? Don’t think that it’s enough. Think that we can score another one. If we score two goals, why we cannot score three goals?'”
Standards needed lifting. He had arrived with Barça at their lowest ebb in over a decade, finishing the previous season 13 points behind LaLiga winners Real Madrid. They had also been eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage, dropping into the Europa League, where they lost in the semifinals to Eintracht Frankfurt.
They have since won three league titles in four years, three Spanish Supercopas and one Copa del Rey. The Champions League continues to elude them, but there has been progress: two quarterfinals and a semifinal in the last three years after two years in the doldrums of the Europa League.
“You arrived when we were at our worst and with your goals and leadership have brought the club back to where it deserves to be, competing for everything,” Gavi posted on social media on Sunday.
It has not all been straightforward, though. The numbers disguise difficult moments. There was a dip in form after the 2022 World Cup and a trophyless season in 2022-23 which, sources told ESPN, ended with Xavi wanting to move Lewandowski on. Even this year, as he has come in and out of the team, it has not always been easy.
However, one dressing-room source highlights three key factors behind Lewandowski’s success and popularity at the club: goals, leadership and adaptability. It is that last point which has enabled him to accept a slight change of status over the last two years as Lamine Yamal has become the team’s superstar.
There was a very brief moment when it looked like that may not be the case, but Lewandowski’s maturity, Yamal’s very obvious talent and the arrival of Flick in 2024 led to them, along with Raphinha, creating one of the most exciting attacks in the game last season.
It is that awareness which is also behind the decision to leave now. ESPN reported in February that Barcelona were prepared to offer Lewandowski the chance to extend his stay, albeit on reduced terms. Seeing his role at the club change, though, he has opted to go now rather than to risk overstaying his welcome.
That’s not to say that it has been an easy decision. Lewandowski had to fight to join Barça, upsetting people at Bayern along the way, but doing so because it was a dream move for him. And from the off, Lewandowski and his family have felt remarkably at home in Barcelona — one source says more so than at any other point in his career. “Catalonia is my place on earth,” he said on Saturday.
Which all helps explain Sunday’s emotion. It was gone midnight when Lewandowski finally left the Camp Nou pitch, over an hour after the game had finished. His teammates had drifted away. He was alone, reflecting on the last four years and a job well done before thoughts inevitably, after next week’s game at Valencia, turn to the future.
