Robert Lewandowski has exclusively revealed just how close he was to joining Blackburn Rovers in 2010, suggesting that a move wasn't quite as set in stone as has since been suggested.
Just 21 at the time, Lewandowski caught the attention of clubs across Europe when he won the Ekstraklasa golden boot on the way to winning the title with Lech Poznan in the 2009/10 season.
Blackburn were one of a number of sides interested in the Pole, but with the volcanic ash clouds caused by the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland suspending flights in and out of the UK, Lewandowski couldn't visit them. He admits the initial visit wasn't to finalise a move to the Premier League, however, instead to simply look around the Lancashire side's facilities and meet some of the people that worked there.
Robert Lewandowski 'wasn't so close' to Blackburn move, regardless of ash cloud
"I have to say, it wasn’t so close," Lewandowski reveals exclusively to FourFourTwo. "I had the offer and they were interested in taking me there, but I only wanted to visit to see how it looked – the club, the professionalism, and what the training ground looked like.
"That’s why I decided I could maybe travel there – to see – because I had a lot of offers. But I knew that if I was going to go somewhere, I wanted to go to a club playing in the Europa League or internationally.
"I was planning to fly to Blackburn but couldn’t because of the volcano. Maybe people thought that when I was in Blackburn to see the training ground and the stadium, they’d try to convince me that I should join them, but I was only visiting to experience it."
With Blackburn having finished 10th in the Premier League in 2009/10, Lewandowski's desire to play European football wouldn't have been fulfilled at Ewood Park. Genoa were also linked, with a deal reportedly agreed in principle, but the club's president Enrico Preziosi decided to pull out of the race.
Instead, Lewandowski ended up signing for Borussia Dortmund in June 2010 for €4.5m, in a move that paid dividends. He won two Bundesliga titles under Jurgen Klopp, lifted the DFB-Pokal and reached the Champions League final in just four seasons at the Westfalenstadion. So, without the ash cloud, would he have always ended up joining Borussia Dortmund?
"Yeah," Lewandowski says. "I knew I had the offer from Blackburn, but of course I knew that Dortmund, the club who were playing internationally, were the right choice. They were already in pole position."
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