Robert Lewandowski says he deserves Ballon d’Or after Bayern Munich heroics

Robert Lewandowski has claimed he should be awarded the prestigious Ballon d’Or for his contribution to Bayern Munich’s Treble-winning campaign.

The Polish striker helped fire Bayern to the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League trophies this year and was the top goalscorer in all three competitions.

It was a blistering season for the striker who scored 55 times in only 47 games, including in every one of his Champions League appearances up until the final.

Now Lewandowski says if he were in charge of the coveted individual prize, actually organised by France Football magazine, he would declare himself the winner.

“We won everything there was to be won. I was the top scorer in every competition. I think if a player has achieved that much, he should win the Ballon d’Or,” he told Polish outlet Onet.

France Football has, in fact, decided not to hand out its best player award this year, for fear of devaluing the award given the lack of football played in the spring.

That means Lewandowski will have to wait another 12 months to try and take Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ’s ownership of the prize and improve in his fourth place in 2015.

And the 32-year-old says he is going nowhere: “In recent times, I have felt support from Bayern, which was sometimes a little lacking before. I believe in the Bayern project. I want to play at the highest level beyond 2023.”

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Despite his belief in his individual abilities, Lewandowski did also credit the team’s strength in depth as the number one reason why Bayern were Champions of Europe.

“If Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perisic come on in the 80th minute, then the opponent knows what is going on: they realise that we do not intend to stop pressing. That makes them insecure,” Lewandowski explained, speaking about the confidence within the squad.

“Before the game, we knew we were going to beat Barca. Some even said it would be a 5-1 – but an 8-2 is something completely different. We were very confident.”

“Before the game against Barca, Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich met me. They didn’t ask whether we would win this game, but whether we would win the Champions League. I answered: ‘Yes.’”