Investigation underway!

Will Lewandowski receive the Ballon d’Or retrospectively?

Robert Lewandowski had to admit defeat to Lionel Messi.(Bild: AFP or licensors)

The fact that the 2021 Ballon d'Or winner was Lionel Messi and not Robert Lewandowski caused great outrage among the Pole's fans at the gala. The outcome of the vote is now being investigated in France, but Lewandowski can still hope to win the trophy.

"2020 and 2021 were the best years of my career. A friend recently sent me a statistic: I scored 100 goals in 85 games," the striker, who now plays for FC Barcelona, summed up in an interview with Sportbild. In fact, the goalscorer scored non-stop during his time at FC Bayern, even setting a new Bundesliga goalscoring record in the 2020/21 season with 41 goals. 

Bribe accepted?
Messi, on the other hand, only played second fiddle to Kylian Mbappe at Paris Saint-Germain. And yet the Ballon d'Or went to the Argentinian. Pascal Ferre, then editor-in-chief of the magazine "France Football", is now accused of bribery, vote-buying and attempted manipulation. The Frenchman allegedly accepted favors from Messi's former club PSG.

"It would have been my turn"
Although it is unlikely that Lewandowski will be presented with Messi's trophy, rumors are circulating that the award could still be presented for 2020, when the gala could not take place due to coronavirus. The 35-year-old would then probably be the top favorite for the golden soccer. "Of course I would have loved to receive the Ballon d'Or award. It's not that I'm angry or wistful because this trophy is still missing. But my feeling is that it would have been my turn in one of the two years," says the striker himself. As the saying goes: hope dies last ...