The brilliant Robert Lewandowski is facing a career without a fitting curtain call | Robert Lewandowski

While soccer’s calendar presents few moments of respite, the World Cup doubles as a time for referendums on the legacies of nice gamers. Lionel Messi, Luka Modrić and Cristiano Ronaldo strategy this summer season’s event anticipating it to be their remaining activate their sport’s greatest stage. Kevin De Bruyne and Casemiro may make clear their difficult worldwide careers in North America; Neymar could not get the identical probability.

Lacking a sendoff like this can be a bit extra relatable to the life that we mortals endure. Certainly, there’s no crueler means for a global profession to finish than tripping on the remaining hurdle of World Cup qualification.

The USA’ failure to get a draw in opposition to Trinidad and Tobago in 2017 doubled as the ultimate worldwide match for 3 of this system’s finest gamers: DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard. So painful was the sight of Gianluigi Buffon’s tear-stained cheeks after Italy’s sudden flop in 2018 that the Azzurri introduced him out of worldwide retirement for one remaining pleasant 4 months later.

Then there’s the current distress endured by Robert Lewandowski. OK, possibly not so depressing: he collects a reported €400,000 every week at Barcelona. However the spring of 2026 offered the Poland striker with an opportunity to finish his spectacular CV with a second continental title and main Poland’s first run past a World Cup spherical of 16 since 1982. As an alternative, a pair of disappointments have expedited undesirable questions in regards to the 37-year-old’s future.

There is not going to be a second Champions League title for the Pole, after Barcelona’s quarter-final exit to Atlético Madrid. Nor will he assist Fifa’s advertising and marketing push at this World Cup. What was poised to be a potential legacy-refining stretch has abruptly ended earlier than it started.

Poland aren’t one in every of world soccer’s nice powers. Their postwar World Cup file of qualification is available in three blips: from 1974 via 1986, together with a pair of third-place showings starring Grzegorz Lato; then 2002 and 2006 because of a gritty defensive core and nice goalkeepers; and, because of Lewandowski and others, 2018 and 2022.

To say these tournaments didn’t meet expectations for one of many period’s best forwards is an understatement. Poland fell within the 2018 group stage, with Lewandowski held scoreless, and barely escaped their group in Qatar earlier than France blew previous them within the spherical of 16. Lewandowski’s second World Cup purpose, a last-second comfort penalty in opposition to Les Bleus, was quickly adopted by questions of whether or not he’d performed his remaining World Cup.

After their star threatened to retire halfway via qualifying for this World Cup, Poland modified their coach. Lewandowski returned and led them to a playoff remaining in opposition to Sweden. However the Swedes superior because of a Viktor Gyökeres hero flip that, on one other day, may have belonged to Lewandowski.

“It’s exhausting to say something after a recreation like this,” Lewandowski mused as Sweden partied on the pitch. “I don’t know if the phrases I discover would mirror how we really feel. Soccer may be merciless.”

So, no World Cup for Lewandowski then, although his relationship with Poland had been fraught since they have been knocked out of the group stage at Euro 2024. He wasted little time in hinting that he has performed his remaining worldwide match, returning to Barcelona with full concentrate on the Champions League.

4 months from his thirty eighth birthday, Lewandowski has performed a rotational position for the primary time since his debut season at Dortmund, when he was contemporary in Jürgen Klopp’s locker room after two stellar years at Lech Poznań.

He’s nonetheless scoring objectives, after all. He’s acquired a dozen in La Liga and 17 in all competitions this season, together with a brace in opposition to Newcastle that delighted his supervisor. And but, with Barcelona down a purpose and a person in opposition to Atléti within the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, Lewandowski was sacrificed as Hansi Flick recalibrated for the second half. Every week later, needing a purpose to power extra-time within the second leg, Lewandowski didn’t verify in till the 68th minute, sufficient time for a single shot and little extra.

At this stage, Barcelona’s grip on the La Liga title is pretty agency. However league titles do little for Lewandowski lately: he gained one at Lech, two in Dortmund, eight in a row at Bayern and a pair already at Barcelona. Even when they see out this 12 months’s La Liga marketing campaign, a 14th league title does little for his legacy that his first 13 haven’t already.

His Barcelona future is a bit more opaque than for Poland, albeit solely simply. His contract is up at season’s finish, and experiences recommend he’d must take a hefty minimize to stay round Catalonia. Even then, will a continual goalscorer be glad with a backup striker’s minutes? Absolutely, it’s all Barcelona could supply him in his profession’s latter levels.

“We nonetheless have a while,” Lewandowski advised a reporter late final week. “The membership is aware of what I believe, and I’ve had time to suppose,” he mentioned. “I don’t need to speak about presents and my future. The remaining matches and the objectives are extra essential.”

A lot as with different gilded friends of Lewandowski nearing the tip of their enjoying careers, MLS and the Saudi Professional League are introduced up as subsequent steps. Thomas Müller and Bastian Schweinsteiger have loved life in North America, whereas Kingsley Coman and Karim Benzema money good-looking checks in Saudi Arabia. And but, neither league presents the identical legacy-cementing aura {that a} second Champions League or a deep World Cup run would have for one of many best strikers the sport has ever seen.

“Soccer may be merciless,” certainly. A marvel of his career, now with out an apparent remaining act to cement his legacy.