Lewandowski confirms he wants to leave Bayern amid Barcelona links
Robert Lewandowski rejected Bayern Munich’s offer to extend his contract at the Allianz Arena and is looking to leave the club.
“It could well be my last game for Bayern. I can’t say 100%, but it could be. We have to find the best solution for the club and me,” he said after scoring in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Wolfsburg to conclude the Bundesliga campaign.
Lewandowski added that he’d told Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic “that when an offer comes, we have to think about it.”
Salihamidzic had earlier confirmed Friday’s reports that Lewandowski refused to prolong his deal beyond its current expiration of June 2023.
“He informed me that he does not want to accept our offer to extend the contract and that (he) would like to leave,” Salihamidzic told Sky Germany on Saturday, per BBC Sport.
“He said he wants to do something else.”
Lewandowski is linked with a transfer to Barcelona despite the debt-ridden Catalonian club’s midseason signings of attackers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres, and Adama Traore.
Salihamidzic, however, is keen to retain the 33-year-old’s services over the last year of his contract.
“Our position has not changed,” he said. “The fact is he has a contract to 30 June 2023.”
Bayern president Herbert Hainer ruled the club out of the Erling Haaland race last December and called Lewandowski “an absolute guarantee of goals – the world’s best striker.”
Haaland is putting the final touches on a blockbuster transfer to Manchester City following the conclusion of Borussia Dortmund’s campaign.
Veteran Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry, and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting are the current Bayern players who could spearhead Julian Nagelsmann’s attack in Lewandowski’s absence. Joshua Zirkzee, 20, is also trying to prove he can be the Polish striker’s successor after scoring 15 goals and tallying six assists on loan at Belgium’s Anderlecht this season.
Lewandowski has scored 344 times in 374 games for Bayern since arriving from Dortmund in 2014.
