In an interview with the Polish sports portal WP SportoweFakty, Pini Zahavi, the striker's agent, revealed that Lewandowski had an extremely lucrative offer from an unnamed Saudi Arabian club on the table at the start of 2026, and initially wanted to accept it.
"It's true, Robert wanted to go to Saudi Arabia. We also knew that a lot of money would be waiting for us there," explained Zahavi, who was open about the figures on offer. The striker would have signed a two-year contract and received the astronomical sum of €200 million (€100 million per year).
Lewandowski ultimately turned down the offer and stayed at Barcelona. Only when his playing time with the Catalans started to dwindle and Barca coach Hansi Flick could no longer give the 37-year-old any guarantee of regular starts did the desire for a move become more concrete.
"They could not give Robert a guarantee of a place in the starting line-up, which was more important to him than money. Deco and Hansi had other visions for Robert's future in Barcelona, so from a certain point onwards we thought about other options," Zahavi explained.
Getty ImagesRobert Lewandowski celebrates debut for Chicago Fire
At the end of June, Chicago Fire finally announced the signing of the Poland international, capped 167 times (89 goals). His contract at Barcelona had expired on 1 July, so the MLS club paid no transfer fee to the Spaniards.
Back in May, Lewandowski, a 14-time champion across Germany, Spain and Poland and a Champions League winner with Bayern Munich in 2020, had said he would not extend his contract. Before that, he had been knocked out with Poland in the World Cup play-offs against Sweden.
Now in Chicago, the 37-year-old follows in the footsteps of his former Bayern team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger, who played in MLS for a year from 2019. Lewandowski has already made his debut for his new club, but the Pole cut a subdued figure in the 3-2 defeat to Inter Miami.