In a dark corner of the Borussia Dortmund museum, just on from the trophies, photos and pennants, is a mini cinema. The seats are yellow and plastic, lifted from the stadium and built into a "stand".
On the wall is a screen where a video plays on a loop. It's not all black and white, most of it is black and yellow, but it needs updating now. "It always shows the same films from many years ago," grinned the coach, Jurgen Klopp. "I hope they will soon show a film of these goals from [Robert] Lewandowski."
This was a historic night, marked by four astonishing goals from the striker, and the Dortmund manager was not going to let anyone ruin it. Success may come tinged with sadness, the growing realisation that the better his players perform the more likely they are to depart, but Klopp refused to think about that. Besides, he claimed that Lewandowski was staying. That is far from certain but the manager has sought to put off a worrying future and focus instead on a brilliant present.
Against Real Madrid it worked: the buildup had been hijacked by the news that Mario Gotze was joining rivals Bayern Munich; the game began with him providing the perfect cross for Lewandowski to score the opener.
Stunning
Three more goals followed, the third of them especially stunning, Lewandowski dragging the ball back to create space before hammering the ball into the net. “The goals were incredible,” Klopp said. “The third is worth every single cent of what the TV channels pay for the rights.”
It was some calling card on the night when everyone was watching, open-mouthed. Gotze is gone; it is inevitable that the attention of Europe’s richest clubs will turn to Lewandowski, although on this performance they could turn to four or five players. Marco Reus, in particular, was exceptional. So too Ilkay Gundogan.
Manchester United bid for Lewandowski last summer and others will clamour for the 24-year-old this year.
Bayern Munich have spoken to him and agreed the basis of a deal on personal terms. The player’s agent, Maik Barthel, also said a deal is done, but refused to say with who.
Foreign suitors
But Dortmund have already lost Gotze and they are determined not to let Lewandowski go to the same club. He has a year left on his contract, so eventually they may have no choice, but they insist that they would rather keep him. The other option, rather more palatable than him joining Bayern, is to negotiate with a foreign suitor. Premiership clubs are monitoring movements.
But Klopp, who had already announced that he would not be leaving the club in the summer, concluded a long eulogy of Lewandowski by adding the very best thing about him: “And he is staying!”
Yet he sounded less convinced when he spoke to German TV: “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
Hans-Joachim Watzke said he was determined to keep Lewandowski for another year, despite the risk of him then leaving on a free. “Our wish is explicit, that he stays here. We will even do without receiving a transfer fee for him – that doesn’t interest us in the slightest,” Dortmund’s general manager told Sky Germany.
Lewandowski cost them only €4m from Poznan and Dortmund’s model is based on selling players for a profit. Departures are normal and success speeds up the process.
“You know you have to handle that because the better you get the more the other teams want your players,” Klopp said. “You cannot be successful and have nobody recognise it. Every year we lost one brilliant player and we get better and better and better. It is not true that it will always go this way but it is the only chance we have to try to take the next step.”
Guardian Service
