Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga side, Bayern Munich, Robert Lewandowski has been awarded the 2021 Golden Player award.
Naija News understands that the 33-year-old Poland international emerged winner of the award by Tuttosport after defeating other nominees including Lionel Messi.
The Poland national team captain who won the award last year, retained the same this year after attracting more votes above 21 other players in Europe.
The panel of experts that supervised the award includes the likes of Lothar Matthaus, Andriy Shevchenko, Edwin van der Sar, Samuel Eto’o, Pavel Nedved, Rui Costa and several more.
Lewandowski beats Chelsea’s Jorginho and Paris Saint-Germain’s Lionel Messi to retain the accolade he received last year from Italian magazine Tuttosport, who famously hand out the Golden Boy award.
Lewandowski had scored 50 goals in 2021, leading other players in Europe’s major leagues.
Naija News understands that the reigning Best FIFA Men’s Player and frontrunner for the 2021 Ballon d’Or will be presented with the Golden Player Award at the ceremony in Turin on 13 December 2021.
The Polish player may be lucky to include this year’s Ballon d’Or in his collection as this year’s winner of that will be announced on 29 November in Paris.
Meanwhile, at least five players of Bayern Munich are currently in quarantine after testing positive for the dreaded COVID-19 disease.
The Bundesliga club is facing such a setback ahead of their UEFA Champions League clash with Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday, November 23, 2023.
Naija News reports that the likes of Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, and Michael Cuisance have been reportedly placed in self-isolation over issues of vaccination.
This is coming after the club’s manager, Julian Nagelsmann, had as well missed four of the team’s games after contracting COVID-19 despite being vaccinated.
Bayern Munich midfielder, Joshua Kimmich is said to have also admitted that he is not vaccinated. Daily Bild reports that Munich is planning to dock the pay of all five unvaccinated players during their isolation period.
Speaking on his squad’s well-being ahead of their Tuesday game, Nagelsmann said: “The players who are not vaccinated understand that the risk of missing games or training sessions is much greater as an unvaccinated person than as a vaccinated person.”
This article was originally published on Naija News