Legs as the greatest asset

VBefore his first goal of the week, he took a step back, then five steps forward, so fast the defender couldn’t follow him into the six-yard area. He pushed off with his right leg, landed on his left, and within tenths of a second in between, bent both legs in the air to hit the ball on his forehead at the perfect spot. That was number 250.

Before scoring his second goal that week, he took eight steps forward, then four to the side, so fast that the defender couldn’t disturb him at the penalty spot. He pushed his left leg into the ground and reached out with his right hand to kick the ball at the perfect spot. That was number 251. He only took one step before his third goal that week. He got up from the stool and walked over to Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, who presented him in Munich with a trophy more difficult to achieve than any goal: the World Footballer of the Year trophy.

If you look at forward Robert Lewandowski, who was the first Bundesliga professional to be named FIFA World Footballer of the Year on Thursday, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, if you look at Lewandowski in the stadium, you should look at his legs from Occasionally. , in the small and large steps, in the sprints and in the jumps, in the movements that come before the doors. Sometimes they are powerful, sometimes they are flexible, but very often they are both. Of course, many parts of the body are important in football, but in Lewandowski’s case, his legs reveal what he can do exceptionally well: run fast, shoot hard, hold the ball and protect. And by the way, they also reveal something about her history: her legs are her biggest asset today, they used to be her biggest concern.

In Poland, where Lewandowski was born and raised, where he was called “Bobek” then, little boy, they thought they already knew how incredible a footballer could be until they looked at his body. “His legs were like toothpicks. He was afraid that an opponent would break it, ”said Krzysztof Sikorski, his youth coach. “He had legs like bicycle tubes,” says Lewandowski himself. His legs will never move as hard as Ronaldo’s, never as flexible as Messi’s, but they have become something no one dared to believe back then in Poland. would have: the legs of a forward who scored 251 goals in the Bundesliga and is now also a world footballer. Before Ronaldo, before Messi.

Lewandowski, 32, won his sport’s top individual award Thursday night. On Wednesday night, he scored two goals against VfL Wolfsburg for Bayern Munich. He scored the first goal from five meters with his head, the second from eleven meters with his right foot. That was enough to win 2-1. It was his Bundesliga goals 14 and 15 and his Bundesliga goals 250 and 251. Most of the forwards do not achieve the first value in their career. Only two have reached the second value in the long history of the Bundesliga: Gerd Müller (365) and Klaus Fischer (268). What does Lewandowski say about it? “I am very happy that I was able to score two goals today. The last time was not easy for us after a short preparation. “