Gerd Mueller's mark of 40 goals in a campaign, set in the 1971/72 season, had withstood the test of time until Lewandowski converted a first-half penalty for Bayern Munich at Freiburg on Saturday. "I have to be honest, I am astonished. I thought Mueller's record would last for forever," Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said last weekend, after Lewandowski's treble against Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Lewandowski was crowned FIFA's best male player last December, edging out superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, being recognised by FIFA after proving himself in the knock-out stage of the Champions League last term. But Lewandowski was sidelined by a knee injury for Bayern's quarter-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain last month, as the French giants avenged their 2020 final defeat in Lisbon.
He is set to be the Bundesliga's top-scorer the sixth time in eight seasons, but Lewandowski was yet to inspire Bayern to European glory until last year. In his first five years at the Bavarian giants, Bayern failed to reach the final, but he was crucial to Bayern's run last term.
He scored and set up Serge Gnabry's two goals in Bayern's 3-0 last-16 first-leg win at Chelsea. When the return leg was played nearly six months later, Lewandowski had a hand in all four goals -- scoring twice and creating two more -- in the 4-1 win at the Allianz Arena.
He followed that up by scoring in the historic 8-2 quarter-final rout of Messi's Barcelona and netted again in the 3-0 semi-final win over Lyon. He finished as the tournament's top-scorer with 15 goals, two short of Ronaldo's record for a single season. His five Champions League goals this term saw him pass Real Madrid legend Raul to leave him on 73 Champions League goals.
From raw talent to superstar
Lewandowski was spotted as a raw 21-year-old playing for Polish club Lech Poznan, where he scored 41 goals in 82 games, and joined Dortmund in 2010. He made his breakthrough under Jurgen Klopp, helping Dortmund win back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 2010/11 and 2011/12. He scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 drubbing of Bayern in the 2012 German Cup final, but left for Dortmund's rivals two years later, having scored 103 goals for the club.
Lewandowski has now scored 293 times in 328 games for Bayern in all competitions. He is known for his disciplined approach to nutrition and training, resulting in his honed physique. "My husband is a machine," said wife Anna, a former Polish karate international who serves as his personal trainer.
Lewandowski is rarely injured and former Bayern captain Oliver Kahn sees him as "an absolute model of professionalism, a condition for staying at the highest level for a very long time".