Robert Lewandowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1988 and began playing football as a child. His early development included Varsovia Warsaw before he moved into senior football with Delta Warszawa. Delta records his league debut in March 2005 and his first senior goal the following month, scored against KS Lomianki. He subsequently moved to Legia Warsaw before joining Znicz Pruszkow, where his goalscoring helped him progress through the Polish league system.
Robert Lewandowski joined Lech Poznan in 2008 and quickly established himself in the top division. He finished as the leading scorer in the Polish league in 2009/10 with 18 goals as Lech won the championship. His performances earned him a move to Borussia Dortmund in Germany in 2010.
Under Jurgen Klopp, Lewandowski became part of a Dortmund side that won consecutive Bundesliga championships in 2010/11 and 2011/12. Dortmund also won the DFB-Pokal in 2012. His international reputation increased substantially during the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League, particularly when he scored four goals against Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg. Dortmund reached the final at Wembley, where Bayern Munich won 2-1.
Robert Lewandowski moved to Bayern on a free transfer in 2014. His eight seasons in Munich produced one of the most prolific scoring periods in Bundesliga history. He scored 344 goals in 375 competitive appearances for Bayern and won the Bundesliga in every season he spent at the club. Combined with his two Dortmund championships, he collected 10 Bundesliga titles.
Several individual records accompanied those honours. In September 2015, Robert Lewandowski came off the bench against Wolfsburg and scored five times in less than nine minutes. During the 2020/21 Bundesliga season he scored 41 goals, breaking the 40-goal single-season record established by Gerd Muller in 1971/72. Lewandowski ended his German league career with 312 Bundesliga goals, the highest total by a non-German player and second overall behind Muller.
His most successful Bayern campaign came in 2019/20. Bayern won the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League, defeating Paris Saint-Germain in the European final. Lewandowski finished that Champions League campaign with 15 goals. Bayern subsequently added the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. He received The Best FIFA Men’s Player award in both 2020 and 2021.
Barcelona signed Robert Lewandowski in July 2022. He immediately became the club’s leading striker and helped Barcelona win La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup in his first season. Further domestic success followed. Barcelona won another league title, the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup during 2024/25, then retained La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup in 2025/26.
Robert Lewandowski also continued adding European scoring records in Spain. In November 2024 he became the third player after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to reach 100 UEFA Champions League goals. By the end of his Barcelona career in 2026, UEFA recorded him with 109 goals in the competition. Barcelona announced his departure in May 2026 after four seasons, 191 competitive appearances and 119 goals.
His international career with Poland began in 2008. Lewandowski became the country’s captain and all-time leading goalscorer, representing Poland at multiple European Championships and FIFA World Cups. He scored his first World Cup goal against Saudi Arabia in 2022 and remained part of the national team into 2026.
Chicago Fire announced Robert Lewandowski’s signing on 29 June 2026, bringing his European club career to an end after spells in Poland, Germany and Spain. He joined the Major League Soccer club as a Designated Player and made an immediate contribution during his first months in the United States. By late September, Chicago’s official league statistics listed him with six goals and two assists from 11 MLS appearances, including goals against Toronto FC and Inter Miami.
