Bayern Munich: Lewandowski continues to lead race for Golden Boot

Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich. (Photo by Lukas Barth-Tuttas - Pool/Getty Images)
Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich. (Photo by Lukas Barth-Tuttas - Pool/Getty Images)

Robert Lewandowski’s incredible 2020/21 season is nearing its end and the European Golden Boot is within reach. The Bayern Munich striker continues to lead Europe’s leagues in goals scored with 36 goals in 26 Bundesliga appearances.

The Polish striker holds an eight-goal advantage over Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and a nine-goal advantage over Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo. With three fixtures remaining in Bayern’s season and four matches remaining for Messi and Ronaldo, it appears Lewandowski is going to win the European Golden Boot.

Injury setback doesn’t relinquish the lead

Although Lewandowski recently missed four Bundesliga fixtures with an injury, this setback did not result in his lead being relinquished. Entering April, the striker had already amassed 35 goals and had a healthy advantage over the players chasing him for the lead. This shows how incredible his performance has been as a whole in the 2020/21 campaign. Even with a late-season injury, he can still win the European Golden Boot by a large number of goals.

Due to his injury, Lewandowski won’t reach 30 appearances this season in the Bundesliga. The highest number of appearances he can reach with three matches remaining is 29. This will be a fewer number of appearances than Messi and Ronaldo will play in their respective domestic seasons.

Messi has already played in 32 fixtures in La Liga and Ronaldo has played in 30 Serie A matches. This is another impressive statistic when looking at Lewandowski’s current lead in the European Golden Boot race. He won’t play in as many matches as his nearest competitors.

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Can anyone catch Lewandowski?

With so few matches remaining for the players vying for the European Golden Boot, it’s very unlikely that anyone will be able to catch Lewandowski. The Bayern striker still has three more fixtures to add to his 36 goal total and if he continues to score it will be all over for the chasers. Messi and Ronaldo would need Lewandowski to falter in the coming weeks and not register a single goal. Both of the aforementioned players have four matches remaining and need to have multiple multi-goal performances in order to have a chance of making it a close race.

Barcelona and Juventus are both in need of victories in their coming matches which will likely see both Messi and Ronaldo receiving plenty of playing time. For this reason, they should both surpass the 30 goal mark in the coming weeks. However, it will likely not be enough to better Lewandowski’s goal total.

Nearing 40 goals

Lewandowski is just four goals shy of reaching the 40 goal mark for the first time in his Bundesliga career. If he does achieve a 40 goal season and wins the European Golden Boot, he will be the first player to score 40 goals or more since Luis Suarez won the award in the 2015/16 season when he was playing for Barcelona. Another important detail of note is that if Lewandowski wins, he will become the first Bundesliga player to claim the European Golden Boot in the 21st century. It’s still shaping up to be an exciting finish to the campaign as Lewandowski remains on the verge of history.