Article by Aurelian Botezatu – Published on Thursday, 20 November 2025, 08:20 / Updated on Thursday, 20 November 2025 08:21
Barcelona president Joan Laporta called Robert Lewandowski into his office and asked him to stop scoring goals to avoid paying a €2.5m bonus to Bayern.
The revelation comes in Robert Lewandowski's biography, written by Sebastian Staszewski and titled “Lewandowski. The Real One”. The related episode took place at the end of the 2022 – 2023 season, the first played by the Polish striker in the Blaugrana shirt after the transfer of 45 million euros from Bayern Munich.
According to Staszewski's account, Lewandowski met with several board members, including chairman Joan Laporta, with 2 legs left in the 2022-23 La Liga season. At the time of the meeting, Barcelona had already mathematically secured the title again “Lewa” was the top scorer of the championship with 23 goals.
Nobody had ever asked Robert Lewandowski to do something like that
The request from the club chiefs to the Polish striker: “Robert, we need you to stop scoring goals in the last two games“. Which, according to the author of the book, really surprised the player: “No one, in his career, had ever asked him to do something like that!”.
The reason for this unusual request? A financial one. If Lewandowski reached 25 goals, Barcelona would have had to pay Bayern a bonus of 2.5 million euros. The next? Although he was an integral player in the last two games of that season, “Lewangolski” did not score a single goal. Even so, he won the top goalscorer title that season thanks to 23 previous successes.
Barcelona chef to Robert Lewandowski: “We have to save money”
With 1.4 billion euros in debt, Barcelona has not paid Bayern, even today, the transfer amount of Robert Lewandowski in full. According to a report published in October, the Catalans still owe the German champion 10 million euros.
In another chapter of Lewandowski's biography that reflects the problems facing the Blaugrana club, the author refers to a team move. Seeing the limited variety of meat and fish on the players' menu, Lewandowski asked the chef what the explanation was, to which he replied: “We have to save money”.
