A festive Friday at the Spotify Camp Nou to welcome Barça's new star. No less than 57,300 fans made the pilgrimage to the Barça stadium to welcome Robert Lewandowski. The former Bayern Munich striker, who arrives in the Catalan capital with a tremendous track record, is, according to club president Joan Laporta, "the striker we would have asked for if a genie had granted us three wishes".
Lewandowski defines Barça as "a team that has a lot of potential. We have to show that we are in a good moment and I am convinced that with this team and this management, things that are very different will happen on the field. I am sure that this will be the case and I can't wait to demonstrate it and show what I'm capable of doing on the pitch as I've done before."
With a 9 on his back
Robert Lewandowski stepped onto the turf of his new home for the first time at 12:30pm this Friday. Speculation had been growing in the hours beforehand about the number he would wear, and some media had already reported that the striker from Warsaw had been assigned the number nine shirt for Barça.
And so it was: Robert Lewandowski was presented to the culers with the same number he wore at Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. With that mystery out of the way, the major unknown at Can Barça today was about one of the outgoing players: the transferable Memphis Depay: "It has been a club decision, always with respect, of course, to Memphis Depay, but it is a decision that has been taken and understood", assured Joan Laporta.
"Robert, one day you will play on this field"
Robert Lewandowski acknowledged being very happy and proud to "be here right now". His enthusiasm to come to the Catalan capital was an ill-kept secret and Laporta took the opportunity to once again show his appreciation for "Lewandowski's great effort to come to Barça". In fact, the president mentioned an anecdote that the footballer's mother herself told him moments before the Spotify Camp Nou presentation of her son: "Twenty years ago, when Robert and his mother came to the Camp Nou for the first time, she told him that one day he would play here."
So, one of the childhood dreams of the current holder of the Golden Boot has come true, especially thanks to some early conversations with coach Xavi Hernández in which "I quickly felt a connection and saw that he had very clear ideas". Lewandowski arrives at FC Barcelona ready to help through all the means at his disposal, "not only with my technique on the field, I can also contribute my word and all the football situations I have experienced throughout my career."