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#3 Robert Lewandowski has got off to a flying start in the 2021-22 season
Kicking on from the previous point, Robert Lewandowski seems to be able to sustain his form over long spells. He has picked up right where he left off in the 2020-21 season and has got off to a flying start to the new season.
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Performances turned in by players up until the award is granted will be taken into consideration. Lewandowski is doing himself a great service by keeping his prolific goalscoring form intact.
The 33-year-old has scored seven goals from four appearances across the Bundesliga and the DFL Supercup so far this season. He has also scored three goals and provided two assists in for Poland in the FIFA World Cup Qualifers as well this month. If Lewandowski can keep this up, it will be hard to look past him as far as the Ballon d'Or race is concerned.
#2 Best goalscoring rate among strikers in Europe's top 5 leagues
We've gotten used to seeing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo clock incredible individual numbers over the past decade or so. Both players would often have more than 50+ goals and assists across all competitions in a season.
Lewandowski has done that over the past few campaigns. In the 2020-21 season, he scored 48 goals and provided nine assists in 40 appearances across all competitions. He was involved in a whopping 57 goals in just 40 appearances last term.
He also had a goalscoring rate of 1.2 goals per game. These are unmatched levels of productivity and even Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe do not have better numbers than Lewandowski.
#1 Record-breaking season in the Bundesliga
Robert Lewandowski won the European Golden Shoe in the 2020-21 season. He did so by scoring 41 goals. In doing so, the Bayern Munich striker also broke Gerd Muller's record for most goals scored (40) in a single Bundesliga season.
What's even more impressive is the fact that Lewandowski scored 41 goals and provided seven assists in just 29 Bundesliga appearances last term. That means he was involved in more than 1.5 goals per game in the Bundesliga last season. If that is not the definition of individual brilliance, we don't know what is.
He broke a record that had stood for 49 years and he did it in emphatic fashion. Lewandowski was a cut above the rest when it came to individual performances last season and that's why he deserves to win the Ballon d'Or this year.
