His name is synonymous with goal. He accumulates more than 600 in a career sprinkled with success. Last summer he wanted to fulfill a dream and chose the difficult path. He left his comfort zone in the almighty Bayern and got on the Barça treadmill to be the key to the reconstruction of a club that he has admired since he was little. Less than twelve hours after scoring a decisive goal in Valencia, still sore from the blows, Robert Lewandowski (Warsaw, 1988) attends his interview with La Vanguardia on time, the first to a newspaper since he arrived at the Camp Nou. "Good morning", he greets him smiling in Spanish. But he immediately switches to English and sits down to chat.
Mestalla's goal is worth gold.
Winning was very important. Scoring in the 92nd minute is a big step forward for the team. It helps us understand that if we fight to the end we can win games.
It sounds like one of those victories that can be worth a title.
The League is very long but these games are essential to look forward and fight for the title until the end.
You play as if you had been at Barça all your life...
It has been very easy to adapt from day one. My first contact with the new teammates was very good, I tried to connect with them both on and off the pitch. It is a group of players with enormous potential but they are also great people.
He looks very comfortable.
I am in the club that I want and when you feel comfortable and happy everything is easier.
But Barça has never been an easy club...
I'm in the right place even though I knew the first season wasn't going to be easy. But it was like a big challenge for me, sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone and face new challenges in life. I am happy because I am experiencing new things as a footballer and as a human being.
The easy thing would have been to stay at Bayern, why sign for Barça now?
He had a wish in his heart. When he was young, he watched Barça matches on television and I remember how he played and what players he had. They were great names and for a young man it is something that stays in your head forever.
Didn't the Premier tempt you more?
I have played many times against English teams but I wanted to be in the team that I dreamed of since I was little and where I had always wanted to go. Not only do I feel comfortable at Barça, I'm also proud. I am in a very nice place.
What does Barça have to be so special?
From the first moment I felt the support of everyone. I went to the United States in the preseason and I spent time with the coaches, with my teammates and also with the fans and I felt incredible things. Although we were abroad, they chanted my name in the stands and that meant a lot to me.
The Camp Nou also idolizes him already.
As soon as I stepped foot in the stadium I felt something magical, as if all the history that surrounds the Camp Nou floated in the air. Even if you're tired, the support from the stands gives you energy to win games, it's something incredible.
Is it so different?
Even with my age and the experience I have, which has allowed me to experience many things in the world of football, I feel new things and emotions at the Camp Nou.
Did falling in the Champions League frustrate you a lot?
Obviously I'm not happy, Barça should be in the last 16. But before coming to Barcelona, I was already aware that the first season could be harder than it surely should. We are in a reconstruction process that needs time, we must be more patient.
But time at Barça is very expensive.
Games like those in Munich or Milan are the ones that change you. We have a lot of youngsters who need to gain experience and learn to find a way to win these types of games. They're details. You have to face some situations with more intelligence, in football sometimes you have to know how to win and not how to play to win, and that's what has happened to us. But these things make us stronger for the future.
You seem optimistic.
I am sure that these setbacks will make us grow as a team and that next season everything will be different. Sure. We are evolving. I did not expect to arrive and that everything would go well in the first season. I insist that it is a process that requires time and patience.
With so many young players in the squad, do you feel a bit like your mentor?
I think that with my experience and my age I can help them. There are players who have been at Barça for a short time and are very young, but I think that going to the World Cup, for example, will come in handy to gain experience. It happened to me.
What does it mean?
After my first big tournament with Poland I became a better player. And surely when next year begins, many of the youngsters at Barça will be better footballers. And not only with the ball, but also when it comes to assuming responsibilities within the team. Time plays in our favor.
Were there too many expectations?
I always want to win but I have learned that sometimes you have to take a step back and wait for the best moment to move forward again. With everything that Barça has suffered in recent years, it cannot be expected that everything will change in a month. He needs time and he will surely improve, and even be the best again.
What quality of Bayern would matter to Barça?
Bayern has had great stability for years. They may not play well, against us for example they were not better in Munich, but in the end they won. And this is the stability that sometimes Barça would need, but it is not easy.
Why?
Well, to begin with because the club is going through a difficult time but it hasn't been easy on the pitch either after suffering six sudden injuries in the last international break. They have been complex moments because we have had to play several games without five or six players. Especially important have been the casualties in defense, and that has made us lose that stability. We were growing as a team and we stopped suddenly.
Has Xavi surprised you as a coach?
He knows what we have to do and although he doesn't have much experience, everything he experienced in his incredible career as a player I think is helping him to improve.
Does your methodology differ much from that of other coaches?
Every coach is different and I don't like to compare them. I have been lucky enough to be under the command of the best in the world and it is not that Xavi is trying to try totally new things, he explains everything a lot and each player knows exactly the reasons for doing the things we have to do.
What would the perfect striker look like?
The fans only pay attention to the goals. If a striker doesn't score automatically, it's because he played badly, but that's not the case. Beyond scoring, it is very important to help the team with movements so that the ball reaches the right place.
Talk like a coach...
The only way to win is as a team and the striker not only has to think about scoring, he also has to help create the goals. You always have to go one step further. I try from day one.
As it does?
In many games, even before the start, I notice that there is a defender who is very aware of me, so I use it to my advantage, to create spaces for my teammates. I tell them that I leave the area so they can run with the ball to occupy those spaces and score goals. We have already scored several times in the league in this way.
Are they issues that are learned?
It is a process in which the team has to learn from me and I from my teammates. We talked about the movements to be made.
Volleyball is a sport with a long tradition in your family, didn't it tempt you?
I never had to choose because from the beginning football was my passion and it was what I wanted to do. Maybe I could have played volleyball well but I knew I was too short because you have to be at least 1.90 meters tall.
Did you like other sports?
Yes, I practiced a lot, not just soccer or volleyball. He also did a lot of gymnastics. My father was a physical education teacher and I always wanted to play soccer, but he kept telling me that you couldn't play soccer in class, that you had to do other things. And hence so much gymnastics, also at home. I used to exercise a lot when I was young and sometimes I didn't understand my father but in the long run I have seen that he has served me well to play football. I have a lot of flexibility and I am very grateful to my father.
Finally, define yourself as a person.
I am the person I want to be and it puts a smile on my face being surrounded by good people and doing what I like. I'm not trying to be someone else, or what others want me to be. I'm not fake, it's something I don't like at all. I always say that if you are yourself and do what you like, it doesn't matter what other people think. The only way to grow and move forward is to be free and I am.
