At almost 34 years old, who will turn on August 21, and with 418 goals in his career, the Polish striker Robert Lewandowskihelped by his powerful Israeli agent Pinhas Zahavi, repeated the conflict of eight years ago with Borussia Dortmund before being hired by the Bayern Munichto now leave the Bavarian club for Barcelona after a war between the two clubs that lasted months and went through several phases.
When the European summer of 2013 approached, Lewandowski, who had arrived at Borussia Dortmund in 2010 from Lech Poznan for 4.5 million euros, already had an offer from his team’s great rival in the Bundesliga, none other than Bayern. Munich, who had just won the Champions League final, when he still had a year left to be released.
At that time, Lewandowski, along with his two agents, Cezary Kucharski and Maik Barthel, bet (as in these months of 2022) that Borussia Dortmund would agree to transfer him rather than be left with nothing in the box a year later, but perhaps annoyed by the interference of their rival and the recent painful defeat in the Champions League final, the leaders did not accept and preferred that the scorer had to wait one more season to leave, even if it was with the letter of freedom, and it did not even matter his great production and even his four goals in the 4-1 semi-final first leg against Real Madrid, with Jürgen Klopp as technical director.
So it is that “Lewy” he entered a war with his own management, going so far as to threaten a strike if he was not given a raise in his final season, prompting a Borussia Dortmund manager to say that “the only assessment Robert makes is that of the money”.
That time, the conflict did not go well for him because he had to wait a year to get out, which happened in 2014, but Lewandowski learned his lesson. Cold, with a culture closely linked to a permanent exposure of his physique, in the best style of Cristiano Ronaldo, although not only with exercises and training but with healthy diets, many German journalists consulted say that he was never seen crying or screaming in a field of play and that it is not to externalize their emotions. Hardly any smile and usually a poker face in almost all circumstances.
Lewandowski decided to go to the elite of football and hire the Israeli Pinhas Zahavi as an agent, the same one who introduced the Russian tycoon Román Abramovich to take over Chelsea in 2003 and who was the handyman of Neymar’s move from Barcelona to PSG in 2017 in 222 millions of euros.
Zahavi is not just any agent, but he has direct access to some leaders, but especially to his friend and former partner Joan Laporta, the current president of Barcelona, with whom he had a fundamental intervention in 2003, in the electoral campaign that enthroned the main position of the Barça leadership.
Laporta could not reach the main candidate in the presidential elections, the renowned publicist Luis Bassat, and then Zahavi devised a maneuver: through his contacts at Manchester United, he managed to get the English club’s social networks to announce the signing of David Beckham for Barcelona two days before the elections in the event that Laporta wins. That changed everything, although on Monday, Real made the transfer of the blonde right midfielder official, when nothing mattered anymore. Of course, at the beginning of the season, with Laporta as president, the Turkish goalkeeper Rustu Recberg, featured in the 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup, and whose representative was Zahavi, was acquired by Barcelona.
The friendship between Laporta and Zahavi deepened, to the point that on February 8, 2016 they formed the Malta-based offshore company “BMVP Limited”, which the agent tried to use in Neymar’s move to PSG in August 2017 and from which in those months Laporta left due to disagreements.
“BMVP Limited” is part of the 13.4 million documents of the “Paradise Papers”, a leak obtained by the German newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The purpose of the company, at the time of its registration, was “to manage a virtual school that provides online sports lessons through training photographs as well as technological applications, acquire and dispose of movable and immovable property, grant loans and credit facilities” , among others. Laporta controlled 500 of the 10,000 shares, while Zahavi kept 330 and an office was set up as an office on Avinguda Diagonal in Barcelona.
It was no coincidence, then, that in Laporta’s search to renew the Barcelona squad, he received a call from his friend Zahavi, who reminded him that his representative Lewandowski would be about to be released at Bayern Munich in the summer. of 2023 and that then, for 40 million euros, he was able to get him out of there to place him at Barcelona, something that the Barça president never doubted because he knows the Israeli’s negotiating skills.
However, Zahavi and Laporta realized, at the beginning of May, that the obstacles would be huge because Bayern feels comfortable on the other side, getting players from other teams because of its great financial muscle and its great tradition, but not so much. when he can lose those players, and he made it very difficult for his interlocutors. So much so, that the Polish striker could not avoid returning to training on July 12, when he had strongly requested that everything be resolved before that date so as not to have to undergo the wear and tear of rejoining that squad (with which he has some distances, even with the young coach Julian Nagelsmann).
Bayern was not interested in anything. Nor that Lewandowski publicly said that his cycle at Bayern, after eight great seasons, was over and that he no longer had illusions there, or that he sent permanent messages of expectation to Barcelona fans, or that he asked Zahavi and Laporta to finally resolved the situation.
The Bavarians became very hostile to Barcelona, as when the former player (who went to jail for corruption) Uli Hoeness, argued that if it were in the Bundesliga, the Catalans would be sanctioned because with a financial red they seek to sign expensive players or also from the environment of the German club it was even insinuated that if he continued on this path, in a few years the azulgranas could disappear, to which Laporta publicly replied that those statements seemed “a joke” to him and that he was sure that that “does not It was serious because it was said on social media and we are about to turn 125 glorious years.”
In the end, between Lewandowski’s expressed reluctance in the few days of training with his former teammates, and Barcelona raising their offer to 45 million euros plus five in variables, both parties reached an agreement when the hourglass, because otherwise, the player was exposed to a reaction against the Bayern public at the presentation of the squad, and now he will join his new team during the tour that began yesterday in the United States.
What no one doubts about Lewandowski is his hyper-professionalism, and part of it, which he considers fundamental to his success, is the diet, which went from surprising to directly becoming a commercial success, devised by his wife, Anna Lewandowska – originally Anna Stachurska-, bronze medalist at the 2009 Karate World Cup, a graduate in physical education -like Robert, both graduated from the Wyzszsa Szkola in Warsaw-, personal trainer and nutritionist.
If in an advertising spot for “Huawei”, Lewandowski recounted that in his childhood he had problems with his physique and was criticized for being too thin, for which he trained in a special way for six hours a day, now his diet became publicized especially since his wife began giving interviews to the media to comment on it, and the player maintained that this was an essential part of his success as the winner of “The Best” award that FIFA gives to the best in the world, in 2020.
In “The Times”, Anna Lewandowska commented that the two have adhered to what is known as “Inverted Diet” that is characterized by the consumption of dessert at the beginning of the meals of the day and that the dietary pattern they follow includes avoiding ultra-processed foods, lactose and wheat flour.
In the “eat backwards” diet, the couple usually start with a brownie, but made of pure cocoa, and this is followed by rice with meat or select fish, to finish with an appetizer, which can be a salad or soup.
“Pancakes, brownies, vegetable spaghetti, creams, avocado, salads… We also like to eat high quality fish. Sometimes after workouts we drink beetroot juice with cinnamon or cayenne pepper. We eat carbohydrates and proteins separately. Also, only good food and lactose free. One of the most important things is that we don’t eat fried food, and we don’t eat any fast food either,” says Anna.
Lewandowski’s wife became so famous with this special diet that she went on to set up her own nutrition business, “Health Plan By Ann” Y “Foods By Ann”in addition to his Fitness channel on YouTube and an Instagram account that is dedicated to offering routines and nutritional plans.
Another distinctive element of the Lewandowskis’ diet is the tuna breakfast. Its contribution of omega 3 fatty acids, different vitamins of the B complex (B2, B3, B6, B9 and B12) and fat-soluble vitamins, make body development optimal and reduce fat and also has benefits for the repair of muscle fibers after strenuous physical activity. In addition to this, they consider as prohibited foods for the first meal of the day everything related to gluten and lactose. In an interview with “Welt am Sonntag”, Lewandowski drew a line with the past: “When I had cereal with milk for breakfast I felt a bit sluggish before training”. Instead, almond milk, 100% dark chocolate, coconut milk, vegetables, rice milk, whole wheat bread and fruit are now part of their breakfast.
Anna also fervently recommends red rice before games, with ingredients such as thyme, salt, turmeric, red rice, anise, pine nuts, clarified butter and black cumin.
After dinner, on the other hand, the complement is a plate of rice pudding (almond, rice or coconut) to accumulate carbohydrates and glucose, essential for energy requirements on the field of play, while on match day priority is given to a large amount of protein (tuna, chicken, almonds, avocado and pine nuts) to promote faster repair of small fibrillar tears in the muscles due to considerable efforts.
After the effort of a football match, Lewandowski’s wife suggests eating vegetables and avocado for the recovery process and those that provide additional benefits are broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, carrot and spinach. It also emphasizes glycogen replenishment to achieve a decreased feeling of tiredness. And for this purpose, he proposes snacks: oatmeal with dates three hours before a workout, salty energy bar or the famous “power balls” (cocoa, date syrup, dried cranberries and compacted coconuts) between workouts, and after them. , natural isotonic drinks or cocktails, such as coconut milk combined with fruit.
Thiago Cionek, Lewandowski’s former teammate on the Polish national team, admitted in an interview that the striker’s diet was so dazzling that at least six team players were copying it and that the routine is spreading.
“Robert is a guy who is hungry to improve as a footballer and that is why he has a special diet that his wife prepares for him and he told me that the big change in his career, when he reached the elite of the clubs and the national team, was when he radically changed what he ate. He was trying to help us and influence us at rallies,” he recalled.
“I am happy when I inspire others – said Anna Lewandowska in an interview with “Business Insider” – We have been pioneers in the Polish market in healthy nutrition and this market continues to grow, which shows that we Poles are changing our eating habits and we already have about eighty different producers for sale”.
When asked if hers is a hobby or a business, she replied that “one thing doesn’t take away from the other. Mine is a company that works professionally although sometimes it is my hobby. I am the initiator and president of the company and the first versions of my product are created in my kitchen. I am responsible and a full-time employee but it is not Robert’s company, although he sometimes advises me. Yes, he is the first person to try my products.”
Robert Lewandowski is the son of Krzysztof, a former judo champion and professional footballer who passed away in 2005. His mother, Iwona, was a professional volleyball player and later vice-president of the Polish club Partyzant Leszno. His sister, Milena, also plays volleyball professionally and is a member of the Polish national team. He has two daughters, Klara and Laura, and with his wife Ann they spend the summer in Palma de Mallorca every year, where they have a house.
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Source-www.infobae.com