-Credit:MARTIN RICKETT PA wire
Manchester United missed out on the chance to sign Robert Lewandowski while he was playing for Borussia Dortmund after the German club blocked the move.
The Polish striker is one of the greatest forwards of his generation having scored a whopping 538 goals during an incredible career. Lewandowski first made his mark in the 2011/12 season when he scored 22 goals in the Bundesliga for Dortmund.
His career only grew from there as he was later snapped up by Bayern Munich in 2014 where his numbers consistently surpassed 30 goals for the season. In 2022, he would join Barcelona where he has continued to be a consistent source of goals despite being 36.
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Now in the twilight of his career, Lewandowski has been reflecting on his career in the latest edition of FourFourTwo. When asked if he was ever close to joining a club in England, the striker replied: “I said yes to Manchester United.
“I think it was after my second season at Dortmund. I was talking to Sir Alex Ferguson – my English wasn’t good then and with his Scottish accent, I was trying to understand everything but it was very tough to understand every word he was saying.
“But as a 22 or 23-year-old guy, I was so happy to speak with Sir Alex Ferguson – he wants you and you say: ‘Okay.’ But I told Borussia Dortmund that I wanted to join Manchester United and Dortmund said no.
“If they had said yes, I was probably going to play for Manchester United.” Written into football folklore is the story of how Lewandowski was close to signing for Sam Allardyce at Blackburn Rovers before the infamous Icelandic Ash Cloud prevented him from visiting Ewood Park.
Robert Lewandowski in action for Borussia Dortmund in 2014 -Credit:VI Images via Getty Images
This visit was scheduled prior to United’s interest and his move to Dortmund. When quizzed about the likelihood of him moving to Lancashire, Lewandowski played the incident down.
“I have to say, it wasn’t so close,” the Pole explained. “I had the offer and they were interested in taking me there, but I only wanted to visit to see how it looked – the club, the professionalism, what the training ground looked like.
“That’s why I decided I could maybe travel there – to see – because I had a lot of offers. But I knew that if I was going to go somewhere, I wanted to go to a club playing in the Europa League or internationally.
“I was planning to fly to Blackburn but couldn’t because of the volcano. Maybe people thought that when I was in Blackburn to see the training ground and the stadium, they’d try to convince me that I should join them, but I was only visiting to experience it.
“I knew I had the offer from Blackburn, but of course I knew that Dortmund, the club who were playing internationally, were the right choice. They were already in pole position.”