Softfootball understands that Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has confirmed that during the closing weeks of the 2022–23 La Liga season, the club asked him to stop scoring goals, not because of tactics or form, but because of money.
As reported by Fabrizio Romano via his official X account, Lewandowski made the admission while speaking to Polish journalist Bogdan Rymanowski, opening a small window into the financial stress Barcelona was dealing with at the time.
The striker joined Barcelona from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022 for €45 million, with another €5 million attached in bonuses. One of those clauses stated that if Lewandowski reached 25 league goals, Barcelona would owe Bayern an extra €2.5 million. He was just two goals short of that number.
According to Lewandowski, who Hansi Flick recently described as the best striker of the decade, there was no formal instruction. Still, the message was clear enough. Senior figures at the club, aware of the financial situation, made an informal request.
He said:
Robert Lewandowski on Barça asking him not to score last year to avoid paying bonuses to Bayern: I don’t really want to talk about it. I have too much respect for Barcelona and for the people who work there.
I was aware of the situation the club was in. There were many other situations where you had to sacrifice something personally for the good of the club. In short, it was about a bonus that would have to be paid depending on the number of goals I scored. And at that time, Barcelona was looking for every single euro.
The bonus wasn’t a small amount. For me personally, it wouldn’t have changed anything, so I didn’t really have a problem with it. Did I listen to them? Well… it stays in your head. It stays there, even if it’s just a small percentage, but it was enough that once I actually hesitated—whether to score a goal or not. And at the highest level of football, that’s enough. Sometimes those 5%, even 3%, decide whether you win or whether you score.
That hesitation is the part that stands out. For a striker like Lewandowski, goals are usually instinct, something automatic. Once doubt creeps in, even briefly, the game changes. At the top level, that tiny pause is often the difference.
The story also highlights how deep Barcelona’s financial problems had become at the time. Salary caps, registration issues, and leveraged deals were already public. This just shows how those problems reached the dressing room too.
Now 37, Lewandowski is still producing, with 109 goals in 165 appearances for the club. He recently ruled out an exit from Barcelona. His commitment has rarely been questioned. But this episode lingers because it crosses a quiet line.
