Although the great Gerd Muller remains his club’s all-time leading goalscorer with 565 goals over the course of 15 years, Lewandowski has been more lethal since his arrival at the Allianz Arena in 2014, scoring a staggering 293 goals in 328 appearances for the Bavarians while cementing his place as one of modern football’s greatest.
During the 1971-72 campaign, Muller netted 40 times, firing his team to a Bundesliga title with an average of a goal every 77 minutes. And interestingly enough, Lewandowski has also exceeded that benchmark by a hefty margin, averaging a goal every 58 minutes this season.
The 32-year-old shows no sign of decay and scored 55 goals across all competitions in Bayern’s treble-winning season last year. A similar saga continued this season as well, with the former Dortmund forward finding the net 47 times in just 39 appearances.
The Polish international also became the first player to reach 40 goals in a single season in one of Europe’s top five leagues since Luis Suarez achieved a similar feat with Barcelona in 2015-2016.
Lewandowski matched Muller’s record, drawing first blood from the spot in the 26th minute only to be cancelled out by Freiburg defender Manuel Gulde three minutes later. Leroy Sane restored Bayern’s lead shortly after the interval, but defender Christian Gunter equalised in the final ten minutes of the game, denying Bayern all three points.
Die Rotten were crowned Bundesliga champions for the ninth successive season after Lewandowski’s hat-trick hammered Borussia Monchengladbach in Munich last weekend. The Bavarians have scored at least once in each of their Bundesliga away matches this season and set a new German top-flight record of scoring in 34 consecutive games when on the road.
Lewandowski, though, has a wonderful opportunity to surpass Muller’s 40-goal-mark when Bayern host FC Augsburg in the final league game of the season at home next Saturday.
