Robert Lewandowski: The Borussia Dortmund years
Borussia Dortmund’s biggest task when they face Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League on Matchday 6 will be stopping a familiar force in Robert Lewandowski. Unfortunately for them, he hasn’t exactly slowed down in the 10 years since he left the Signal Iduna Park.
The Poland captain, now 36, has been in blistering form since being reunited with Hansi Flick in Spain, partnering up again with the man who helped him to European treble and astonishing 55-goal season with Bayern Munich in the 2019/20 campaign.
Lewandowski spent eight seasons in Bavaria, winning a Bundesliga title every year and becoming the second highest scorer in the league and Bayern’s history, only behind Gerd Müller - whose single season record of 40 goals he did eclipse.
Watch: All 312 of Robert Lewandowski's Bundesliga goals
He’s since moved into third behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in Champions League goals (101) and goals in Europe’s top five leagues (486), and even at the age of 36 he looks as fit and able as any previous time in his career.
All of that is a terrifying prospect when you consider that Lewandowksi scored more goals against Dortmund than any other team (27) and will look to add to that when he travels back to BVB for the first time in a long time.
However, that journey will evoke memories of a legendary time in Black and Yellow, as bundesliga.com recounts ahead of his return...
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Lewandowski arrived at Dortmund under a cloud of volcanic ash, in the summer of 2010.
An eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland grounded most of northern Europe's flights, one of which was due to take the Lech Poznan striker to English outfit Blackburn Rovers.
Unable to reach Ewood Park, Lewandowski made BVB's Signal Iduna Park his home instead. The fee? A bargain-basement €4.5 million.
Although a 2009/10 Polish league winner and 18-goal top scorer with Poznan, Lewandowski played more of a bit-part role in Dortmund's triumphant 2010/11 Bundesliga campaign under Jürgen Klopp.
Between making his debut in a DFB Cup first-round win against Wacker Burghausen and lifting the Meisterschale on 14 May 2011, the Poland international turned out 43 times in all competitions, making 17 starts. He scored his first goal for his new employers in a 3-1 win over local rivals Schalke on Bundesliga Matchday 4, and was on target on his full debut against Nuremberg on Matchday 15, ending the campaign on nine goals and four assists.
He more than doubled that tally across each of his next three seasons in a Schwarzgelben shirt.
Lewandowski featured in every game in 2011/12 as Dortmund successfully defended their league crown. Only Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (29) and Mario Gomez (26) produced more than his 22 goals, among them a first Bundesliga hat-trick and six braces. He also propelled BVB to DFB Cup glory with a tournament-leading seven goals, including a hat-trick against Bayern in the final.
Twenty-four goals in 31 appearances the following season were not enough to stop a resurgent Bayern reclaiming the Bundesliga title, but 10 in 13 UEFA Champions League outings made the rest of Europe sit up and take notice.
Lewandowski's six goals had propelled Dortmund to a semi-final showdown with Real Madrid. Four strikes in one semi-final first leg swoop all but sealed their place in the final.
Dortmund lost the final 2-1 to Bayern, and would soon lose their star striker to the freshly minted treble winners.
In January 2014, Lewandowski signed a pre-contract agreement to join the Bavarians on a free transfer, with his BVB deal up at the end of 2013/14.
He finished his Dortmund chapter with a flurry of 20 Bundesliga goals - enough for his first of six Torjägerkanonen - and further runners-up finishes to his future employers in the league and cup.
Watch: Robert Lewandowski - the Bundesliga's record foreign goalscorer
"He came as a class striker and leaves as a world-class striker," reviewed Klopp of the Bundesliga's all-time leading non-German marksman, whose apex-predator qualities were honed over four goal-filled years in Dortmund.
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