Robert Lewandowski claims Wojciech Szczesny tried to persuade him to join Arsenal, before he agreed to make the switch to Bayern Munich.
Lewandowski has established himself as one of the leading marksmen in European football, with 91 goals in 163 appearances in all competitions for Borussia Dortmund. This includes some fine displays in the UEFA Champions League, not least in the semi-final last season when he bagged all four in a sensational 4-1 win over Real Madrid.
The 25-year-old entered the final year of his contract at the Westfalenstadion this term, and it was little surprised that some of the top clubs in Europe were interested in signing him. But Bundesliga champions Bayern, who beat his Dortmund side to become European champions last May, were always favourites to sign the striker.
And earlier this month, it was confirmed by all parties that Lewandowski would indeed follow his former Dortmund pal Mario Gotze to the Allianz Arena in the summer. This was despite the best efforts of his Poland international pal, goalkeeper Szczesny, who did all he could to try and persuade his compatriot to move to Arsenal instead.
“I can confirm that Wojciech Szczesny tried to convince me to join Arsenal,” Lewandowski, who scored at the Emirates in a 2-1 win this season, told Polish tabloid Fakt. “We had several talks about this. It was him who did most of the talking, how the club looks inside, what Arsene Wenger thinks of me. When we trained before the Champions League games at Colney, there were important people from Arsenal at our sessions as well.”
Having seen their club spend a record £42.5million on the impressive Mesut Ozil last summer, Gunners fans can only dream of the German playmaker linking up with Lewandowski. Indeed, many supporters and pundits alike feel the lack of such a striker could ultimately prove their undoing in the race for silverware this season.
