Robert Lewandowski was battling against the odds at Barcelona.

As their disappointing 2023-24 season came to a close, senior decision-makers at the club were open to the idea of selling the veteran striker after just two seasons at Barca. He had scored 19 league goals as they finished runners-up to Real Madrid in La Liga (to add to 23 goals in his first season), but Xavi and his coaching staff believed Lewandowski, who turned 36 in August, did not have the pressing ability and off-the-ball requirements to lead the line anymore.

Six months later, Barcelona are top of La Liga, have thrashed Madrid and his old club Bayern Munich in the past month, and Lewandowski is the top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues across all competitions, with 19 goals in 17 matches.

Many things have changed at Barca during that time. Hansi Flick replaced Xavi as head coach, wonderkids from La Masia, such as Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, have continued their impressive rises and the Catalan club has awoken as a European force. Lewandowski has been a vital part of that success, scoring more goals than games played in both La Liga and the Champions League.

Even for a player of his vast experience, the Polish striker is the first to admit there has been a steep adaptation process since he arrived as their marquee signing in the summer of 2022.

“It might be difficult to compare with other clubs, but everything gets very noisy at Barcelona,” Lewandowski tells The Athletic in an exclusive interview this week. “I have learnt in these years in the club how to stay away from this. At the start, I read and heard a lot of disinformation and in some cases, I didn’t understand why it was happening.

“But then I understood how this media world works in Barcelona and I decided to be completely out (disconnected from it). I don’t focus anymore on these things, it’s too much and not good for the long term of your career.”

It’s not been just the media landscape that has taken some getting used to for Lewandowski. The 36-year-old plays a significant role in a dressing room full of precocious talents. He is 19 years older than Yamal and Cubarsi and there is a 16-year age gap between him and Gavi, as well as a 15-year one with Alejandro Balde, Marc Casado and Fermin Lopez.

Lewandowski and Yamal celebrating during the Clasico win earlier this season (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

At a time when Barcelona needed them given the financial constraints on the club, the next generation have stepped up and made a huge impact in the first team. For older players, particularly those who did not come through the club’s academy, it’s been important to understand and embrace these rising stars.

“At the beginning of my time here, I needed to understand the new generation — their thinking and everything,” says Lewandowski, who is speaking in his role as an ambassador for the digital entertainment marketplace G2A. “I had to learn Spanish as well, but then I started talking with them about different subjects at lunch tables or moments we had together. It’s easy for me to talk about the experiences I’ve had in my career, or simply when I was a teenager.

“Youngsters are completely different now. When I was younger, when a veteran told me to do something, I would obey them directly without a single question. Now it’s different, it’s not good or bad, don’t get me wrong, it’s just different. They are fearless in every sense and not only in football. Society is like that. Youngsters are more fearless and self-confident.

“Over the last year, I feel I have clicked in a better way with them. I usually sit at lunch with several youngsters and we speak about life. I listen to their worries and they ask what I used to think at their age. In a way, we were very similar, but I saw the world from a different perspective to what they have now.”

Flick has acted as a unifying factor between those two worlds, the old and the new. Eyebrows were raised when a German manager who didn’t speak the language was appointed in the summer, but he embraced the job, improved the team and very quickly won over the doubters.

“Every individual in the club is doing better,” says Lewandowski. “We, the players, are doing great on the pitch. I also think we all feel stronger. When you have this fitness preparation we have now, you don’t need to worry about keeping the physical demands of the game and then also think about how to beat your opponent. We now know we are fine, we have the power and the legs to do what we need.”

Some players present for Flick’s first training sessions told The Athletic they were impressed by the German’s knowledge of every La Masia graduate and what they could bring to the first team. Even the youngsters were impressed by this and the confidence he instilled in them has been translated onto the pitch, as seen in the emergence of less-heralded players such as Casado and the now-injured Marc Bernal.

Lewandowski, of course, had a past with Flick. They worked together at Bayern, achieving great success together in 2020 when they won the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and the Champions League. The striker, who was named UEFA’s player of the year during his time in Munich with Flick, says the 59-year-old’s man-management has been key to Barcelona’s progress.

Flick and Lewandowski after being named coach and player of the year in Germany in 2020 (M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images)

“I think the first time I spoke with him this year was in the period when Barcelona were looking for a new manager (Xavi left the club on May 24). It was a short period, about two or three weeks before the start of summer,” he says.

“When I got the information, I was very happy because I knew what was going to happen. I’ve worked a lot with Hansi and we don’t need to talk too much — we understand each other very easily and don’t need too many words. When he tries to explain something, I can understand straight away the way he wants to convince us to play. This is one of the things I like the most about him.

“Not just as a coach, he is a very direct and fair person. Even with the players who do not play, he will try to speak to you and tell you the truth. I think all the players appreciate that because if someone is fully honest with you, then you can understand their decisions better.”

The admiration is mutual. In September, after Barcelona beat Getafe 1-0 thanks to a goal from the striker, Flick didn’t hesitate in saying: “Lewandowski is, for me, the best No 9 in the last decade of football.”

“I am very glad to see that the coach supports me. But for me, at this point of my career, seeing what somebody says to the media is not that important,” Lewandowski says.

“The most important thing is what he says to me in private, in the dressing room, in meetings or every day in training sessions. There’s even sometimes he (Flick) does not say something to the media but he says it to me directly. This is key.”

Lewandowski speaking to The Athletic about life at Barcelona and excelling in the Messi-Ronaldo era (Eduard Duran for The Athletic)

The striker’s words might take you back to last season when Xavi was complimentary about Lewandowski in media duties, but that did not seem to translate into the club’s planning in May.

“I don’t refer to any moments in particular, but in my career, I have seen that, sometimes, what is going around is not totally real. The value of the words, for me, is bigger when anyone says it in private to me,” Lewandowski says.

“There are a lot of politics as well in the industry. I know too much about this business. I am not the guy who believes if someone says an opinion about anything… I prefer to listen to certain things myself to then trust them.

“This is not only for me I think. For the rest of my team-mates, too. The most important thing is what we discuss indoors, between ourselves.”

Like plenty of his team-mates, at Barcelona and his previous clubs, Lewandowski is a big fan of gaming and has been for a long time.

“As far as I remember, I loved playing games in my free time,” he says. “Even now, when free time is something very valuable, it just allows me to switch off. It is a space of time when I don’t think about anything else. I am so focused and feel in a different world.”

This feeds into what he says is a “very natural” link-up with G2A, who describe themselves as the world’s largest marketplace for digital entertainment. 

“I have been a huge fan of Formula 1 and NBA for years, so I play those games. Now I also spend a lot of time on military games. I remember when I was like 20, at Dortmund, we were playing online with the rest of our team-mates. We were like 15 different players in the same game. In that time, without family, it was probably easier,” he says with a laugh.

His number one priority in life is his family — his wife Anna, who he married in 2013, and his two daughters, Laura (aged 14) and Klara (aged 7).

“The first place goes to my family,” he says. “Whenever we have time and opportunity, we spend time doing things, talking, and being together. Children give you a different perspective, you are responsible for them and you watch them develop their interests, look for their own hobbies and pursue them.

“I love showing the world to my daughters.”

Lewandowski has scored 525 goals in 674 games during his time at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern and Barca and 84 in 156 appearances for the Poland national team. In Europe’s top five leagues, he has won 11 league titles, four domestic cups and lifted the Champions League with Bayern (as well as being runner-up with Dortmund in 2013).

It has been a far from usual path to football’s elite, too. He played for five different Polish teams between the age of 17 and 22, progressing and getting better moves each time, before securing a transfer from Lech Poznan to Dortmund in 2010. He has never looked back and can feel aggrieved not to have won the Ballon d’Or in 2020 — when the award was cancelled due to the pandemic — after a truly outstanding season at Bayern Munich.

“In a way, strikers need to be selfish sometimes,” he says when reflecting on his goalscoring. “There can be situations where the team is not finding their way and the strikers, for the position we play in, can make a difference by doing their own thing.

“I think that there are two positions in the game that require a different personality from other footballers: goalkeepers and strikers. We both can make a difference out of nothing.”

This mentality perhaps reflects the era he has lived and played in: led by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two prolific goalscorers who motivated themselves through fierce ambition to be the best in the sport. It is hard to stand tall beside those two, but Lewandowski believes there are many reasons to feel proud of his legacy — and to know that he has gone toe-to-toe with those two greats in spells and at times even surpassed them. Only Messi and Ronaldo have more than his 99 goals in the Champions League; he could hit 100 on Tuesday against French side Brest.

“I have been playing football in the same era as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I think I’ve been close to that elite level in some moments and even beat them in different games. I think we can say I was around!” he says.

“It means a lot if you get close to guys like this. It makes me very proud to see that in the era of Messi and Ronaldo, sometimes, Lewandowski also managed to break some records and make an impact.”

Lewandowski and Messi facing each other at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Sustaining greatness is the biggest challenge for the next generation, such as Yamal and Cubarsi, according to Lewandowski. Earlier this season, he described Yamal as “the best winger in the world at the moment”. It was big praise — not just from a team-mate, but from a striker who has been surrounded by some of the world’s best wide players throughout his career.

“Every young talent in the world needs to have the challenge to not just reach the top of football, but to stay there,” says Lewandowski. “And for me, nowadays, this can be even more difficult than before.

“Now you have social media, footballers with money from a young age, maybe you win some titles and you have a lot of people saying you are great… all of this can be difficult to process. If you don’t build up the mentality in the right time, later on, it can be complicated to figure out the tougher situations.”

In 2022, Lewandowski signed a three-year contract with Barcelona, extendable to a fourth season if he played more than 50 per cent of minutes in the 2024-25 campaign. Everyone at the club expects this clause to be triggered and for Lewandowski to remain Barca’s No 9 for another year.

Are there more plans in Lewandowski’s mind beyond that?

“I can’t do too many long-term plans right now. I see myself very well now,” he says. “Maybe in two or three years, I feel like I don’t want to play anymore at the top level, but in this age, you can’t know exactly what’s going on. But I feel that I am where I dreamt to be, in the right place with the right people.

“The way Barca fans have supported me, it’s been amazing. In games but also in my daily life, it’s been special.”

He is targeting the 2026 World Cup with Poland, too: “I want to be part of the qualifiers and we will see. For me, it’s special to play for my country, I can never say I’ve had enough. I feel I have this power to help them on and off the pitch.”

His contract at Barcelona has often been a subject of discussion around the club. Lewandowski is one of the top earners and last September, in a press conference, president Joan Laporta revealed the striker offered to “adequate his contract” in a way that could help Barca’s finances to register new signing Dani Olmo on time.

“I would prefer not to talk about details,” says Lewandowski when asked what exactly he proposed to the club. “For me, it is that being a part of Barcelona is not just being a player. I think I can be an important figure in the club in all departments. I like to share what I think, my opinions. I’ve had many experiences in football, management and everything around the industry, so I think my thoughts can be helpful.

“When I spoke with the president, I shared my thoughts. I am a person who is not afraid of sharing opinions. Not to attack anyone, but just discuss the best solutions for the club.

“If we get the club to a better place, that’s going to have a good impact on me, too, so that’s a win-win and the best way to live my profession.”

Barcelona are doing plenty of winning at the moment, six points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga (albeit their rivals have a game in hand) and in line to qualify automatically for the Champions League round of 16.

Lewandowski, at the ripe old age of 36, is playing a starring role.

(Additional contributor: Mark Carey)

(Top photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)

A civil jury in Ireland ruled that Conor McGregor sexually assaulted a woman in a penthouse after a night of partying in 2018.

The woman who claimed the UFC fighter “brutally raped and battered” her in a Dublin hotel penthouse was awarded nearly 250,000 Euros ($257,000) on Friday.

The woman had to take several breaks in her emotional testimony as she said that McGregor had threatened to kill her during the encounter. The defense said the woman had never told investigators that McGregor had threatened her life.

A paramedic who examined the woman the next day testified that she hadn’t seen someone with that intensity of bruising.

McGregor put her in a chokehold several times and later told her, “Now you know how I felt in the octagon where I tapped out three times,” referring to an Ultimate Fighting Championship when he had to admit defeat, she said.

She feared she would die and never see her daughter again.

“He let me go, and I remember saying I was sorry, as I felt that I did something wrong, and I wanted to reassure him that I wouldn’t tell anyone so he wouldn’t hurt me again,” she said.

She said she then let him do what he wanted, and he had sex with her.

Conor McGregor attends the “Road House” New York premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on March 19, 2024, in New York City. (Manoli Figetakis/WireImage)

UFC PRESIDENT DANA WHITE DONE WITH POLITICS FOR GOOD AFTER TRUMP VICTORY: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

McGregor said the two had sex that was athletic and vigorous, but not rough. He said “she never said ‘No’ or stopped” and testified that everything she said was a lie.

“It is a full-blown lie among many lies,” he said when asked about the chokehold allegation. “How anyone could believe that me, as a prideful person, would highlight my shortcomings.”

They also showed surveillance video in court that they said appeared to show the woman kiss McGregor’s arm and hug him after they left the hotel room. Farrell said she looked “happy, happy, happy.”

McGregor previously was accused of sexually assaulting someone in a bathroom at an NBA Finals game in 2022, but he avoided charges.

Conor McGregor of Ireland prepares to fight Dustin Poirier during the UFC 264 event at T-Mobile Arena on July 10, 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

McGregor, who hasn’t fought since 2021, was set to return to the ring at UFC 303, but his injury kept him away from the Octagon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Three weeks into this MLB offseason, two questions dominate the discussion across the sport:

Which team will sign Juan Soto? And for how much?

The Soto sweepstakes are heating up. Five teams — the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays — have met with Soto and his agent, Scott Boras, to make their initial pitches. A sixth team, the Phillies, is expected to sit down with Soto soon, and more could follow.

The teams know they have a chance to sign a generational player who is just entering his prime. They also know it’ll cost them.

Soto’s contract is expected to break records in terms of both average annual value and present-day value (as calculated for luxury tax purposes), but not surpass the total amount of Shohei Ohtani’s heavily deferred 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers from last offseason.

Sources with the involved teams believe the Soto contract will end up being $550 million to $650 million, depending on the structure of the deal, and 10 to 15 years, depending on luxury tax impact and other factors that could benefit the team in terms of length.

(For comparison’s sake, keep in mind Ohtani’s $700 million deal had a net present value of $460 million for luxury tax purposes because of all the deferrals. The next largest contracts in MLB history were Mike Trout at $426 million, Mookie Betts at $365 million and Aaron Judge at $360 million.)

I predicted a 15-year, $622 million contract when I finalized my top free agent ranking in late October. I believed Soto would get $622 million because he is only 26, has one of the best hit tools the game has ever seen, and should age well. Fifteen years makes sense when you consider many superstar players have signed deals that run until they’re at least 40, even though the backends of those contracts rarely work out well for the teams.

Those are eye-popping numbers, but they’re really not surprising given the player.

A player who will be entering his age-26 season. A player who has already been to two World Series. A player who is comparable to Ted Williams with 40-home run power.

Sure, Soto is only adequate defensively in the outfield — though he was a Gold Glove Award finalist this year — but he has a strong and accurate arm. Sure, he doesn’t possess blazing speed or get good leads, but he is a smart, instinctive base runner.

He’ll go down in history as one of the best on-base percentage players of all time. His bat plays at the highest level against the best pitching. His penchant for the dramatic is well-documented. All the cliches apply: He wants to be at the plate in the biggest moments, on the biggest stages — and he’s proven he’ll perform, as he demonstrated with a sensational walk-year season in New York that included a three-run homer that propelled the Yankees to their first World Series in 15 years.

May we once again re-introduce, The Generational, Juan Soto. pic.twitter.com/6R5fWpEg6I

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 20, 2024

After the World Series, Soto followed the Boras script to a T when he spoke to the media.

“I don’t know what teams want to come after me, but definitely, I’ll be open to this and every single team,” Soto said. “I don’t have any doors closed or anything like that. I’m going to be available for all 30 teams.”

Soto said he was open to any team, even if that might not be the case, because that’s the best way to get the best offer, and it’s surely what his agency advised. If a player wants a particular destination, Boras and his lieutenants don’t want anyone to know until the end of the process, so they can maximize the offer, let all the teams that are in the bidding think they have a chance — and then when they get the best offer — go back to the team the player prefers and ask for its best and final offer.

Boras has always counseled his star clients to wait until free agency to sign to maximize their value, and that strategy is poised to pay off handsomely for Soto, who turned down $440 million from the Nationals in 2022 before he was eventually traded to San Diego.

His agency has almost always recommended players take the most money and years — for themselves and their families but also to grow the market for future free agents. While some have suggested Soto prefers to play on the East Coast, during free agency he’s indicated he’s open to the West Coast. Several in the industry familiar with Soto and his camp believe he will take the biggest offer, with the most money and years trumping geography. The best opportunity to win championships could be a deciding factor among those he’ll consider. With the belief that the top teams will be willing to commit the dollars it takes to land him, in the end Soto will choose exactly where he wants to play.

At the start of this offseason, I thought about one-third of the teams in the league would make a serious bid for Soto. Things can change in the coming weeks, but at this point, I believe there are only six or seven legitimate landing spots for the four-time All-Star: the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and Red Sox — who I view as the most likely destinations — followed by the Blue Jays and maybe a team that’s yet to emerge. All of those named teams should have the resources to make a deal, and all but the Blue Jays should be contending or within striking distance of perennial contenders over the next several years.

Boras has a long history of surprising the baseball world with free agent landing spots, like when Max Scherzer signed with Washington, Iván Rodriguez signed with Detroit and Alex Rodriguez broke the bank with the Rangers. If an unexpected team emerges and decides to outbid the field, there’s a chance Soto will accept the offer. It’s just tough to see that scenario unfolding, especially because that team would need to beat out so many big-market behemoths.

But in my four decades working in MLB front offices, I learned it only takes one wild-card owner to change the free-agent landscape, one owner who’s willing to shatter records to land a franchise player for their club.

Another variable to consider in all of this: The Boras Corporation represents many of the top free agents — and they are intermingled and can affect each other. For example, Boras also reps first baseman Pete Alonso. Let’s say, for illustrative purposes, Soto has six teams in contention and all are willing to bid in the $600 million range, but Alonso has only two teams that will bid in the $150 million to $200 million range and only one of those teams is also in on Soto. Then it might be best for the Boras Corporation and both of its clients if Alonso signs the best offer he can get but it also pushes Soto to one of his other five teams if the money he’s being offered is the same. Ultimately, the player makes the decision that’s best for him, but free agents’ markets can be connected and affect who signs who.

MLB’s Winter Meetings will be held next month at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, the same hotel where Boras negotiated A-Rod’s record-breaking deal with the Rangers in 2000 and where Albert Pujols shocked the sport by signing with the Angels in 2011.

It’s easy to imagine Soto with Boras at the podium in Dallas a few weeks from now, announcing his next team and another ground-breaking deal. But which team’s cap will be on his head? Which fan base will be ecstatic?

When the dust settles weeks or even months from now in the race for the offseason’s most-prized free agent, who will win the Soto sweepstakes?

Soto said he was open to joining all 30 teams. Below, I’ve ranked the field of plausible contenders — including teams actively pursuing him, others monitoring his market, and still others that make sense as destinations and possibly could emerge — based on who is most likely to land him. (I left out roughly two-thirds of the league because those teams either aren’t engaged in Soto’s market or have no realistic chance of signing him.)

Here’s how I see the state of the Soto sweepstakes as of today.

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The Big Five — teams with a legitimate chance to sign Soto

Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor could be teammates next year if the Mets outbid their crosstown rivals. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

1. New York Mets

The Mets are my favorites to sign Soto because I believe if their owner, Steve Cohen, wants him, he will make the highest bid — offering the most dollars and years — and if he does that and no other team matches it, I think he’s getting his man. Cohen was the highest bidder last offseason for Yoshinobu Yamamoto before the Dodgers matched the Mets’ bid, and his offer two years ago to Brandon Nimmo (eight years, $162 million) far exceeded any other the outfielder had received.

2. New York Yankees

The tandem of Judge and Soto brought back memories of Ruth and Gehrig and Mantle and Maris — and rightfully so. Soto seemed at home in the Bronx. He loved the fans and the fans loved him. I think if the Yankees have the best offer on the table, or match it, there is a strong chance he returns. If they don’t sign Soto, expect them to immediately pivot to some combination of Anthony Santander, Christian Walker, Willy Adames and Tanner Scott.

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3. Los Angeles Dodgers

If I’m Soto, I’d sign with the Dodgers because they are positioned to build a dynasty. Can you imagine a lineup of Ohtani, Betts, Freeman and Soto for the next several years? My goodness. Beyond their overwhelming talent, the Dodgers have the resources and the culture that give Soto the best shot of winning in the short- and long-term.

4. Philadelphia Phillies

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has a track record of signing star players. It’s always been a key part of his formula and how he’s won wherever he’s gone. I believe he has one more future Hall of Famer on his mind: Soto. J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber’s combined $44 million comes off the Phillies’ books after 2025; Nick Castellanos’ $20 million per year comes off after 2026. There is a pathway to make a Soto deal work financially by backloading the first couple of years of a 12- to 15-year contract. And, Phillies ownership — with Dombrowski and before he arrived — has shown it will play in the deep end of free agency and dish out record deals.

5. Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox know they made a mistake when they decided not to go all-in to keep Mookie Betts, and they’ve learned from their missteps in recent years. They appear to be serious players for Soto. They have one of the best farm systems in the game and payroll flexibility going forward. Their meeting with Soto went well, as they sought to convince him that the special talent in their system will allow them to spend on free agents and trade acquisitions over the next several years. Soto was impressed with that aspect of their presentation, according to a league source briefed on the meeting.

Five teams that could surprise

Toronto is one of three AL East teams that have met with Soto during free agency. (Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)

6. Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays finished second in the Ohtani sweepstakes, and they have the resources to make the largest offer to Soto. They can sell him on representing a country — not just a city — but can they really convince him they’re positioned to win?

7. San Francisco Giants

The Giants have struggled over the years to land top position player free agents, but they were the highest bidder for Aaron Judge before the Yankees matched the offer and they were the highest bidder for Carlos Correa before nixing the deal over concerns about his medical records. Perhaps Buster Posey, their new president of baseball operations, might be able to convince Soto to sign with them — but this is a long shot, especially with a payroll reduction possibly on the horizon.

8. Washington Nationals

There could not be a better script for Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo than to trade Soto to San Diego for a Herschel Walker-type prospect package and then two and a half years later, re-sign Soto.

9. Houston Astros

Astros owner Jim Crane has historically been opposed to long-term contracts as he allowed both Correa and George Springer to depart over the length of the deal. He did extend Jose Altuve and is working to do the same with Alex Bregman. However, I think it’s more likely he focuses on extending Kyle Tucker than landing Soto.

10. San Diego Padres

If the late Peter Seidler hadn’t gotten ill, he might have completed a long-term contract to keep Soto in San Diego. However, that would assume Soto wasn’t focused on reaching free agency and he showed otherwise. It’s unlikely the Padres’ current ownership team would be willing to put another huge long-term contract on the books at this point, but I will never bet against A.J. Preller pulling off a surprise move.

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(Top image: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photo: Mary DeCicco / MLB Photos / Getty Images)