Lewandowski might break Messi and Ronaldo’s Champions League scoring records

Robert Lewandowski aims to become the third player after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to score 100 Champions League goals. Could he surpass the legendary duo?

He appears as deadly as ever at 36. He leads this season’s Champions League scoring charts with Barcelona teammate Raphinha, Sporting revelation Viktor Gyokeres, and his Bayern Munich replacement Harry Kane.

Lewandowski scored twice in Barca’s 5-2 win over Crvena Zvezda, giving him five Champions League goals in 2024-25 and 99 overall. Only Messi and Ronaldo have scored more in European Cup history.

“My age doesn’t matter,” Lewandowski remarked in 2022 after joining Barcelona.

“My body doesn’t feel 33 and almost 34 because I know I can play a few years at the top level. I feel better than at 29.”

By turning back the years since joining Barcelona, he’s proved that. We looked at the figures to see if he might shatter Messi and Ronaldo’s Champions League goalscoring records before retiring.

Possible but unlikely. Lewandowski, 36, lacks the time to catch Messi and Ronaldo’s 30 and 41 goals, respectively.

Lewandowski has 99 Champions League goals in 124 games. That 0.8 goals per game ratio is better than Messi (0.79) and Ronaldo (0.77), but he would need at least 40 more games to surpass Messi and 52 to surpass Ronaldo.

It depends on how deep he goes into the latter knockout stages, but if you translate those games into seasons, Lewandowski would need to play at least three or four more Champions League seasons after this one to close that deficit.

If he can keep his late-career hot streak going, he could close the distance in fewer seasons. He has five goals in four Champions League games and 19 in 16 overall this season. Under Hansi Flick, who has a knack for getting the best out of Lewandowski, he scores 1.17 goals per game.

Lewandowski may get additional chances to play in the extended Champions League. Four league games and maybe a two-legged play-off remain until the Round of 16 this season.