In his first full season as a manager, club legend Xavi Hernandez delivered the La Liga title, breaking a five-year drought. After taking over as the manager in November 2021, Xavi overlooked an initial period where Barcelona dropped to the Europa League, even though he guided the Catalan giants to a second-place finish in the La Liga 2021-22 season.
However, the redemption for Barcelona for the 2022-23 season began with the signing of Bundesliga legend and prolific forward Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich in July last year. The two-time Ballon d’Or Striker of the Year lived up to the billing by scoring 21 goals while assisting six in his 30 La Liga appearances this season. The fine run raised his stakes at Barcelona after joining the club for an annual salary of £15,496,000 and a weekly wage of £298,000. He finished the season as the most goals scorer in La Liga ahead of his Real Madrid counterpart Karim Benzema (17).
Lewandowski scored his first goal against Real Sociedad in his second appearance for Barcelona and completed the game with a brace. He continued on the streak in the next five matches, accumulating seven goals and two assists. In October last year, he went goalless against Celta Vigo and traditional rivals Real Madrid. The Polish striker, however, returned back to scoring a brace against Villarreal and added one goal each against Athletic Bilbao and Valencia in the next two encounters.
Although the prolific striker began the first half of the season on a positive note, he was not as consistent after the January transfer window, accumulating eight goals in 13 fixtures. Incidentally, in this period, he missed out on the match against Valencia due to a hamstring injury and failed to deliver in the home leg against Real Madrid as well.
One of his most notable performances this season was against Espanyol, where Barcelona sealed the title with a thumping 4-2 win in the away encounter. The Polish forward netted the first goal for Barcelona with a simple tap-in after left-back Alejandro Balde’s brilliant run down the wing before adding the third goal for his team and 21st to his tally at the brink of half-time. He tried to force things in the second half to register his first hat trick of the season but failed to make the most of it.
Similarly, Lewandowski had produced another sublime performance, registering a brace and one assist in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Elche in April. The forward opened the scoring for the Catalan side in the 20th minute before hitting it low past Edgar Badia off a brilliant pass from Gavi in the second half to complete his brace. He was also instrumental in young forward Ansu Fati’s goal in the 55th minute. Lewandowski assisted the goal from his own half as he played it towards the forward, allowing him to drill it low past Badia.
The value of his every goal scored in the La Liga 2022-23 season is £737,904, and the value of each assist is £2,582,666. The overall value of his contribution this season is 19,923,408.
Additionally, the 34-year-old scored two goals in Copa del Rey, one in Europa League, two in Supercopa, and five in the Champions League to finish his 2022-23 season at Barcelona with 31 goals and seven assists from 42 appearances.
