It has been quite the season so far for Robert Lewandowski.
While his club, Bayern Munich, have been rocked by an indifferent start to their league title defence, a humiliating defeat to Paris Saint-Germain and a managerial change, the Pole has been enjoying one of the most fruitful periods of his illustrious career.
Records have been smashed, award nominations collected and even academic achievements secured in a productive month for the striker.
With Celtic visiting tonight in the Champions League, Hoops fans better hope that Brendan Rodgers has a plan to put a stopper in Lewandowski’s torrent of goals...
A Polish hero
The Bayern star was hugely influential in helping Poland book a place at next year’s World Cup in Russia, their first appearance since 2006, and the final two games saw him enter the history books not once but twice.
A hat-trick in the 6-1 hammering of Armenia in the penultimate round made Lewandowski Poland’s all-time top scorer, surpassing Wlodzimierz Lubanski’s tally of 48 goals before hitting his 30th birthday.
Three days later, the former Borussia Dortmund front man’s 86th-minute strike in a 4-2 win over Montenegro saw him beat Cristiano Ronaldo by one strike to be named the top scorer in European qualifying with an incredible 16-goal haul.
But that wasn’t all; Lewandowski set the goalscoring record for European qualifying in the process. Poland could be one to watch at next summer’s finals.
Well-earned recognition
Shortly after his international exploits came some well-earned plaudits.
Lewandowski was named as one of the 30 nominees for France Football’s renowned Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best footballer earlier in October.
The nominations didn’t end there though, as he was also one of eight Bayern players to be a candidate for FIFA’s FIFPro World 11. The team of the year will be announced at a ceremony on 23 October.
Read more: Jupp Heynckes: Bayern Munich won't underestimate Celtic - they can beat us to last 16 spot
While a familiar line-up of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar are the finalists for FIFA’s ‘Best Men’s Player’ award, the Pole was among the candidates in the first draft of contenders.
Academic excellence
Perhaps the most surprising of his recent achievements, the 29-year-old was awarded a Bachelor of Sports Eduation degree from Warsaw’s School of Education in Sport.
Lewandowski’s thesis, titled ‘RL 9, path to glory’, took him a decade to complete. But, as he explained to ESPN, it was his mother’s encouragement that ensured he never gave up on his ambition to flourish off the pitch as well as on.
Not a bad week for Lewandowski:
— TheFootballRepublic (@TheFootballRep) October 10, 2017
🇵🇱 Becomes Poland's record scorer
🏆 Qualifies for World Cup
⚽️ Ballon d'Or nominee
🎓 Graduates with degree pic.twitter.com/T2BzleF5tm
He said: "I started it 10 years ago, taking my first steps after high school. However, after the first year, I didn't have a lot of time to do it.
"That's why I needed so much time. But my mother kept telling me, ‘if you can do it, try to finish it’ and I knew that if I took it step by step I could manage it.
“Now I'm finished, I'm really happy because it's something to tell my children: that daddy not only played football but also did something like this.”
Domestic duties
All his achievements off the pitch and at international level so far this season haven’t stopped the Pole from providing for his club. Far from it.
With Bayern starting slowly by their standards, it has been the goals of Lewandowski that has kept them in contention.
Calling the Bavarian giants dependent on one player would be pushing it given their star-studded cast, but Lewandowski’s haul of 13 goals so far this season is quite some way ahead of the club’s next top scorers; Mats Hummels, Joshua Kimmich, Kingsley Coman, Arjen Robben and Thiago Alcantara share that accolade with just two strikes.
In addition to smashing records during the international break, the Pole has provided nine goals in eight Bundesliga matches already this season, failing to find the net just once.
In fact, that defeat to Hoffenheim and the 3-0 Champions League loss to PSG have been the only occasions in 12 appearances so far this term when the deadly number nine hasn’t scored.
Everything Lewandowski touches has turned to gold so far in 2017/18 - Celtic’s makeshift defence face one of their biggest tests in attempting to keep him quiet at the Allianz Arena this evening.
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