Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski drops big hint over timeframe to retirement

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has effectively set out the timeframe of when he will retire from football, admitting that he is well aware that his career will be over “soon”.

The prolific Poland international turned 36 at the start of this season but currently remains on course for his best goalscoring campaign since quitting Bayern Munich for Catalonia back in the summer of 2022.

Lewandowski has already scored a remarkable 19 goals in just 17 outings this term for a Barcelona side sitting six points clear at the top of LaLiga and in sixth spot in the expanded Champions League table with three wins from four games.

However, the veteran frontman is being realistic about how much longer he can carry on playing, 19 years after making his senior debut.

Indeed, Lewandowski, who has a contract until 2026 that can be extended up to 2027, has also revealed what will make him start to think about retiring when it eventually does come.

“At my age now, I know that soon – two, three years, I don’t know exactly – it will be done, it will be finished,” Lewandowski explained to Forbes.

“I want to say, and only me, not anyone else, when the finish will be,” he said.

“When I wake up one day and feel I don’t want to go to the training session, that will be the first moment to start thinking about retiring.”

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Lewandowski getting better with age

It could be argued that the Poland legend is getting better with age, if his form this season is anything to go by.

And, with that in mind, Lewandowski plans to carry on as long as he can, adding: “Every morning when I’m waking up – and I hope it stays like this – I don’t feel any pain. And I still have the feeling that I love to go to the training session, to the club.”

That will certainly be music to Barcelona and their fans for a player who has scored 688 senior career goals for club and country since starting out as a teenager with Znik Pruszkow in Poland’s lower leagues.

However, things could have turned out very differently for the striker, who has never played in England but came very close back in 2010.

Lewandowksi was very close to joining Blackburn Rovers when they were still in the Premier League, only for an ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano to ground flights across Europe.

After that move to Ewood Park fell through, Lewandowski ended up signing with Borussia Dortmund a matter of weeks later – a club where he really made his name, netting 103 times in 187 appearances before his switch to Bayern.

Latest Barcelona news: Arsenal plotting big Camp Nou raid / City confident over Haaland stay

Arsenal are reportedly planning a ‘strong offensive’ for Barcelona forward Raphinha, though they have been told that he will not leave for under £84million.

Ahead of almost every transfer window since he left England in 2022, Raphinha has been linked with a move back. Multiple top sides have seemingly identified his talent as something they want in their side.

Arsenal have been one of the most heavily linked over the past couple of years, and seem to remain in the hunt.

Indeed, according to Fichajes, the Gunners are planning a ‘strong offensive’ for the attacker, amid scintillating form in Spain.

Meanwhile, Manchester City are reportedly ‘confident’ that Barcelona target Erling Haaland will pen a new deal, with a staggering £500,000 per week making him the highest-paid player in the Premier League.

City are looking to keep Haaland from joining another club by getting rid of his release clause, with Real Madrid and Barcelona some of the biggest names courting him.

It is believed that the striker would like to head to LaLiga at some point but the Daily Mirror reports that City are ‘increasingly confident’ that the Norwegian will pen a new deal.