A new book about Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, titled “The Price of Hunger”, has created waves across the sports world – however not from any wins or triumphs, but rather from an outrageous incident. At the end of spring 2023, the Barcelona sporting department called Lewandowski into their office immediately following training and gave him a message that he had never before received in his 15-year career as a professional footballer:


This is due to an unseemly reason; Lewandowski’s contract with Bayern Munich included a 2.5-million euro bonus for achieving 25 goals in his first season in La Liga. With the Spanish Championship title already secured and virtually all other trophies in sight – including the individual title of top goal scorer in Spain with 23 goals scored – Lewandowski had two games left to play. And at this time, the club, which spent 45 million on buying Lewandowski, decided to cut costs on what is basically the essence of a striker’s occupation.

As per the biographer Sebastian Staszewski, Lewandowski was in a state of shock. And rightly so. For the entire period of his career Lewandowski has lived for goals; he has made his living off the ability to kill teams’ hopes of winning with a shot on target and now, he is being told to hold back because the club does not have enough money in the bank. During the last couple of rounds of games vs Mallorca and Celta, Lewandowski did not find the net. Coincidence? Highly unlikely.

Sebastian Staszewski – iplsc.com

Now we need to say it out flat – Barcelona is in debt and tops the list of European clubs that are most indebted, with a total of 1.3 billion euros. Three years after they purchased Lewandowski, the club still owes Bayern Munich 20 million euros for his services. That is, Barça is in a financial hole where every 2.5 million counts. However, the real question is: what is happening to football when one of the biggest clubs asks its number-one scorer not to do what he gets paid for? Barça won the championship – but at what price?

It is funny that Robert has said recently that he is currently reading the biography and enjoys it. What emotions will the chapter about that meeting evoke in him? Pride for going along with the request? Or, possibly, anger for having to fight against his nature to meet some financial requirements? Insider Fabrizio Romano reported that Lewandowski has no plans to leave the team during the winter and he is focused on winning games in 2026. His current contract with the team runs until the end of summer 2026 – and perhaps that is a good thing for both parties. An environment where you are asked to stop doing what you were hired to do is poisonous by definition.

The story of the goals is nothing more than a mirror through which Barcelona can see itself: a club with a rich history that is currently choosing not to spend money on the goals of its own stars. Lewandowski came to Barcelona to win – and he was asked to slow down for the sake of budget discipline.