{"id":1669,"date":"2026-05-18T15:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1669"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:30:18","slug":"ill-always-carry-barca-in-my-heart-lewandowski-bids-farewell-to-the-cules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/ill-always-carry-barca-in-my-heart-lewandowski-bids-farewell-to-the-cules\/","title":{"rendered":"“I’ll always carry Barca in my heart” – Lewandowski bids farewell to the ‘Cules’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Robert Lewandowski bade farewell on Sunday to Barca supporters and said he will always carry the Catalan club in his heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The striker Robert Lewandowski, who on Sunday played his final match at the Spotify Camp Nou wearing the Barcelona shirt in the 3-1 match against Betis, said it had “been an honour” to represent the Catalan club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is a very emotional and difficult day for me. When I arrived I knew this club was big, but the affection I have felt has been incredible. From day one I felt at home, I will never forget it. Thanks to my teammates, coaches and everyone who works at this club. It has “been an honour to play for this club”,” the Pole said after the final whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing his kit and the captain’s armband, Lewandowski addressed the supporters flanked by his wife and two daughters, his team-mates and the coaching staff of Hansi Flick, and received a commemorative gift from interim president Rafael Yuste and president-elect Joan Laporta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have lived great moments here. I feel very proud. I say goodbye to the stadium, but I will always carry Barca in my heart. Thank you, fans: once a cule, always a cule. Visca Barca and visca Catalonia”, the striker concluded, as his team-mates formed a guard of honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The farewell capped a special evening at the Spotify Camp Nou. Surrounded by more compatriots than usual, many in his idol’s shirts and waving Polish flags, Lewandowski left without scoring but heard his name chanted repeatedly throughout the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Flick replaced him in the 83rd minute with Casado, the outfield players embraced the forward, who struggled to hold back tears as he left the pitch to a standing ovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He hugged everyone on the bench, came out three times to thank the chants of the crowd calling his name and, after the final whistle, was hoisted aloft by his team-mates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pole, who will turn 38 in August and whose contract ends this summer, leaves after four seasons in which he has scored 119 goals in 192 matches (with one match remaining), and helped the club win three La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey and three Spanish Super Cups. He is the club’s fourteenth highest scorer in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewandowski announced his departure publicly the day before in a message on social media, saying he leaves with “the feeling of having fulfilled a mission” and of having returned Barca to the place “where it deserves to be”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After emerging at Lech Poznan, establishing himself at Dortmund and winning everything with Bayern Munich, the forward left the comfort of Bavaria at 34 to accept the challenge of revitalising a Barcelona mired in the severe economic and sporting crisis that followed the exit of Leo Messi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he did not disappoint. In his first season he scored 33 goals in 46 matches and proved decisive in winning the Supercopa de Espana and LaLiga, finishing as the ‘pichichi’ with 23 strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following campaign, marked by the turbulence that ended in the dismissal of Xavi Hernandez, saw his output dip to 26 goals in 49 matches, as did the rest of the team, but he revived after the arrival of Hansi Flick, with whom he had previously worked at Bayern. Flick is the second coach who has managed him most often (168 matches with one to play), behind only Jurgen Klopp (187).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2024-25 season brought 42 goals in 52 matches, as he formed one of Europe\u2019s finest forward trios with Raphinha and Lamine Yamal; Barca won the national treble and fell one short of the Champions League final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this last campaign, in which he lost the starting spot for the first time, the Pole finished with 18 goals in 45 appearances, helping secure La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the numbers, Lewandowski led by example and became a model of professionalism both on and off the pitch for a young squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also connected with the club and the city. The striker quickly learned to speak Spanish and used Catalan subtitles in his farewell video. “Catalonia is my place on earth”, he said of these four years \u2014 half the time he spent in Munich \u2014 which he considers “the most important chapter” of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Lewandowski bade farewell on Sunday to Barca supporters and said he will always carry the Catalan club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1671,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions\/1671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}