Chapter 5: Lewandowski's Big Problem

Robert Lewandowski moved to Dortmund from Polish powerhouse Lech Poznan in the summer of 2010 for €4.75 million, the most Dortmund had spent on the transfer market that summer. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. biquge。 info

But in the Bundesliga transfer market that summer, that amount of money was not enough at all.

That year's Bundesliga summer transfer bid went to Brazilian midfielder Diego from Wolfsburg, who spent 15.5 million euros to bring Diego from Juventus to Germany.

The second most expensive transfer was Huntelaar bought by Schalke 04 from AC Milan, and the Dutch striker cost Magath 14 million euros.

Lewandowski, who came to Dortmund for an inconspicuous transfer fee, was as much as he was, and didn't make a splash, even though he was the Golden Boot scorer in the Polish First Division before coming to Dortmund, scoring eighteen goals in twenty-eight league appearances.

In the competition with Barrios and Mark Wagner, he was at a disadvantage.

However, Lady Luck eventually favored the Polish striker.

Barrios was squeezed out of the main position by the in-form Mark, but then when Mark's form was booming, he suffered a serious injury that gave Lewandowski a chance to make his mark.

The 2011-2012 season had just begun, and last season's leading scorer, Mark Wagner, was seriously injured while playing for the national team and was out for the season. Fate played a joke on Mark and then pushed Lewandowski to the center stage.

And Lewandowski also firmly grasped this opportunity, and became Klopp's most trusted striker with one goal after another. The 2011-2012 season was a season in which Lewandowski officially became a regular in Dortmund's attack, scoring 22 goals and providing eight assists in 34 league appearances. He scored seven goals in six appearances in the German Cup, notably in the German Cup final, where he scored a hat-trick against the mighty Bayern Munich to lift the German Cup trophy with a 5-2 win over Bayern Munich.

His performances have almost forgotten Mark Wagner, who missed a season due to injury.

When Lewandowski moved to Dortmund, his annual salary was 1.5 million euros before tax. When Borussia Dortmund defended the league title in the 2011-2012 season, the salary was completely incompatible with Lewandowski's ability.

In fact, as early as the 2011-2012 season, Dortmund Club has begun to renew the contract with Lewandowski, after Mark's serious injury, Lewandowski has become the only support for Dortmund's forward, Dortmund of course has to find a way to renew Lewandowski's contract.

Lewandowski, for his part, also feels that the salary of 1.5 million euros is too small and hopes to get more.

Since both parties have the need to renew the contract and have the same purpose, as long as they work hard, I believe that an agreement can be reached.

But it backfired.

Borussia Dortmund, for their part, want to extend Lewandowski's contract until 2017 and have offered him a new contract.

However, Lewandowski was not satisfied with the conditions put forward by the club. He wants to be paid a salary of three million euros a year, which is the same figure as the team's captain, Kyle.

Lewandowski's request was rejected by Borussia Dortmund, who were unwilling to give Lewandowski a salary of three million euros a year, arguing that Lewandowski was not worth the price.

And Lewandowski's agent publicly complained to the media about Dortmund's approach, which made Dortmund even more angry, and the club's CEO Watzke said: "Yes, the club has made a contract renewal offer for the player, but the agent Kuhalski is not satisfied." But I still have to tell him that it's not a good idea to complain openly during the renewal process. ”

Negotiations on the renewal of the contract between the two sides have reached an impasse.

At that time, Dortmund obviously didn't take Lewandowski too seriously, and their contract renewal work focused on Gotze and Zhou Yi.

Lewandowski's agent won a verbal promise from Dortmund for Lewandowski - since the two sides cannot renew the contract, then the then club should allow Lewandowski to find a new owner on his own, as long as the team offers 25 million euros or more, then then then Borussia should allow Lewandowski to leave.

Since Lewandowski's contract with Borussia Dortmund expires in the summer of 2014, Lewandowski should be allowed to leave Dortmund in the summer of 2013.

That is, this summer.

At that time, the 2011-2012 season was not even over, how could the Dortmund club management think so much?

Maybe they don't think that any team can pay 25 million euros for Lewandowski's transfer fee, considering that Shahin, as a core player of Dortmund, was only 10 million euros when he transferred to Real Madrid.

So the Dortmund club management agreed and made a verbal promise.

Then Lewandowski's agent began to work hard for Lewandowski's new club, bent on getting Lewandowski to leave Dortmund.

Although Lewandowski's performance in the new season continues to be excellent, which makes Dortmund's senior management want to regret it, but what he says still has to be recognized, so Dortmund has no other moves. Anyway, they felt that if there was a club willing to pay 25 million for Lewandowski, then it might not be impossible to sell.

25 million is still a lot of money for a Dortmund who are eager to break it in half - their €17.5 million recruitment of Reus from Borussia Mönchengladbach is the biggest transfer expense since the club's rebuilding efforts in 2005.

And Lewandowski's agent is indeed capable, and they finally really found a new owner for Lewandowski who is willing to pay 25 million euros - Bayern Munich.

Lewandowski's agent, Kuhals, has publicly announced to the Polish media: "I can assure you that Lewandowski will play for a bigger club next season. I hope that the two clubs will finally come to an agreement. ”

Kuhalski's partner Battle also made it clear: "We have accepted an offer from another club and Lewandowski is ready to move this summer. ”

Although neither agent directly named it, everyone knew that the next home they were talking about was Bayern Munich.

According to Bild, Lewandowski's agent has reached an agreement with Bayern Munich to sign a four-year contract.

Dortmund did not react to Lewandowski's agent's statement and Bild's report, and everything seemed to be going well.

But things changed after Bayern Munich activated the repudiation clause in Götze's contract and forcibly poached Götze.

After Götze is destined to leave the team, if the top scorer in the team is released, the damage to the team's strength will be huge.

Borussia Dortmund are reluctant to take such a risk. So they restarted the contract extension of Lewandowski, hoping to keep Lewandowski.

This time, the new contract they offered Lewandowski about the annual salary was a staggering seven million!

This figure has surpassed Gotze, who has confirmed his departure, to become the team's highest salary.

It seems that Gotze was raided by Bayern Munich, which really made Dortmund Club panic, and offered such a sky-high annual salary contract in the hope of impressing Lewandowski with money. At this time, they don't care about thinking about financial health, although the word has been on their lips many times to deal with the player's demand for a contract extension and salary increase...... It seems ironic......

However, how could Lewandowski, who had already reached an agreement with Bayern Munich Club, give up the contract he had already negotiated? Although Dortmund has suppressed Bayern Munich in terms of results in recent years, in the eyes of the vast majority of people, Bayern Munich surpasses Dortmund in terms of financial resources, fame, and status.

Lewandowski's move to Bayern Munich is certainly more promising than staying at Dortmund, who were still ahead of Borussia Dortmund in the league table at the time, and Dortmund were not sure they would reach the Champions League final.

As a result, Lewandowski staged an astonishing quadruple in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, which made history and made Dortmund Club even more panicked - if Lewandowski is allowed to leave now, the Dortmund club's top management may be sent by Dortmund fans......

So they continued to put pressure on Lewandowski.

In such a situation, Lewandowski's agent Kuhalski had to reveal to the media that they had a verbal agreement with Borussia Dortmund that Dortmund would release Lewandowski if another club offered 25 million euros this summer.

Lewandowski's agent hopes to regain the initiative through such a move.

As a result, Dortmund's CEO Watzke did not admit the existence of such an agreement at all: "...... The transfer should not only depend on the wishes of the players, but also on the ideas of the club. We have not received any official offers at this time. Lewandowski and the club still have a contract that expires in 2014 and there is no release clause in the contract......

Kuhalski was unhappy with Waczke's statement, and the Polish agent told Der Spiegel: "Borussia Dortmund have promised us that they will agree to the player's transfer this summer as long as the transfer fee reaches a certain amount. We will insist that the club deliver on its commitments. ”

The two sides got together.

At that time, because the season was not over and the contradictions had not yet intensified, both sides deliberately controlled the scale.

Lewandowski, for example, said after the incident: "I want to dedicate my goal in the Champions League semi-final to my late father, and I always dedicate it to him whenever I score an important goal. We have a couple of rounds of the Bundesliga ahead and the Champions League, so that's the most important thing. As for the transfer, let's wait and see what happens in the future, but I won't comment too much on that......"

Now that the season is over and Borussia Dortmund have won the league and Champions League, nothing can stop the club and Lewandowski's agent from tearing things apart.

As a result, the question of Lewandowski's whereabouts was turned over by the media, and it became a big trouble for Dortmund Club this summer.