Robert Lewandowski has been talking about his time at Barcelona and admits that some of the club’s younger player weren’t too impressed with his attitude in his early days at the club.
The 37-year-old said
when he first arrived he was happy to try and offer advice but subsequently realised there was plenty he could learn from the younger players at the club.
“At Bayern, the mentality was different because we had more experienced, tougher players. When I signed with Barcelona, I saw many young players who needed to be harder on themselves,” he told the High Performance podcast.
“The club also told me they needed someone like me, someone who could teach them that being at the top isn’t just a matter of one, two, or three weeks, and that what you do in the gym is important, that it’s important to work hard every day.
“But then, when I got to know them, I started learning from them too. I began to see that they didn’t like this kind of behavior, and I also saw that they understand football very well.
“I think that many years ago, at the age the Barcelona players are now, we professionals didn’t understand football as well as they do now. The empathy, everything surrounding football… And it helped me a lot too.”
Lewandowski also highlighted the age gap between himself and some of his team-mates but was humble enough to admit he needed to change his approach.
“I was in a different world, in a different generation. I’m older than the players’ fathers. I’m older than Lamine’s father, for example, and so I said to myself: ‘Come on, I have to learn from them too’,” he added.
