Lewandowski comes clean on Blackburn and ash cloud ‘conspiracy’

Joe Williams

Robert Lewandowski says a volcanic ash cloud over Europe “changed his life” and prevented him from joining Blackburn Rovers.

The Bayern Munich striker is now one of the most feared goalscorers in Europe with him already bagging his 30th goal of the season for club and country last weekend.

And the Poland international has revealed that if it wasn’t for one cancelled flight in 2010 – due to the eruption of Icelandic volcano Grimsvotn – his career could have taken a dramatically different route.

“I had the opportunity to join Blackburn, but I wanted to see how Blackburn looked, the training ground, the place I met with Sam Allardyce,” Lewandowski told The Times. “It was in Poland after a game. I thought he was a good guy, a very good coach.

“He was prepared to take a young player who was something new and might be something special. He wanted to come to Poland to see me. That was nice.

“There were a lot of offers to think about when I was leaving Poznan. I wanted to know if I went there, ‘What would I get? What would I learn?’.

“I think it would have been fine if I had gone to Blackburn, but I would have liked to go and see the training centre, the stadium. I couldn’t go because of the cloud. It was the volcano. The volcano with the ash cloud.

“It was one week and nobody could fly in Europe. The flight was booked, but we couldn’t leave. It changed my life. If I had gone to Blackburn maybe I would have stayed there.”