Real Madrid failed to sign Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich
Florentino Perez confirms that Real Madrid failed numerous times to sign Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich have been stubborn when it comes to selling their key players to their European or domestic rivals. The Bavarians maintained this strict stance when Robert Lewandowski was agitating for a move away from the club last summer.
Lewandowski’s agent had publicly declared that the Polish striker wants to leave Bayern. However, Bayern were in no mood to entertain offers for their star man and Lewandowski ended up staying at the club.
Real Madrid were reportedly the club which was interested in signing the Poland international. The Spanish club were looking to bolster their strike force after Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus last summer. They eventually upgraded their attacking options this summer by signing Eden Hazard and Luka Jovic from Chelsea and Eintracht Frankfurt respectively.
Speaking at an assembly (via Marca), Real Madrid president admitted that they tried to sign Lewandowski from Bayern on numerous occasions, but the German club was not ready to negotiate for this transfer.
"“There are players who don’t get sold.”“We went for Lewandowski for several years and nothing happened because he has no clause and Bayern Munich won’t sell him.”"
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Lewandowski got his head down and went on to enjoy a brilliant season with Bayern. The Polish forward scored 40 goals across all competitions. Die Roten also managed to win Bundesliga and DFB Pokal last season. However, Champions League once again alluded Die Roten as they were knocked out in the round of 16 by Liverpool.
The Polish striker was also defended by the club chiefs when he was criticized by Dietmar Hamann last season. Lewandowski also feels completely settled in Bavaria and he eventually ended up signing a new contract earlier this month. He has started the season brilliantly by scoring seven goals in five games across all competitions. The Polish striker is confident that he can play at the top level for at least four more seasons.
Bayern learned this lesson of resisting the sale of their top players to European rivals when Toni Kroos joined Real Madrid in 2014. The Spanish giants signed him for £20 million as he had only one year left on his contract at Bayern. Kroos went onto become an important player for Real Madrid as they won three Champions League titles in a row.
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Matthias Sammer had admitted that he regretted sanctioning this transfer during his tenure as Sporting director at Bayern. Die Roten was not ready to meet Kroos’ wage demands at that time and eventually, he decided to run down his contract. Since then, the German club secured long term futures of their stars players to avoid another Kroos like situation.