Robert Lewandowski has set a new Bundesliga record for goals scored in a single season, breaking 49-year-old record held by Gerd Muller.
Lewandowski’s 90th-minute goal to seal a 5-2 win over SC Freiburg on Saturday took his tally to 41 for the season. It moved the Bayern Munich star ahead of Muller’s longstanding 40 goal record set in the 1971-72 season.
– Bundesliga on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games and replays (U.S. only)
Lewandowski only failed to score in four of the 27 league matches he started for Bayern this term, but scored three or more goals on five occasions. His nearest challengers were Borussia Dortmund‘s Erling Haaland (27) and Eintracht Frankfurt‘s Andre Silva (28).
“Gerd Muller is the fountainhead. In my eyes, he is the most important player in the history of FC Bayern Munich,” his former Germany and Bayern teammate Franz Beckenbauer said in November 2020.
Lewandowski is fewer than 90 goals off Muller’s all-time Bundesliga record and has averaged nearly 28 goals a season since joining Dortmund in 2010.
Under contract at the Allianz Arena for another two years, Lewandowski could now target the all-time record for which he would likely require another deal at Bayern.
Lewandowski, 32, is also likely to win the European Golden Shoe for the first time with nearest challengers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo 12 away. Messi’s domestic season ended after injury ruled him out of Barcelona‘s final match of the campaign, while Ronaldo and Juventus have just one game remaining.