Robert Lewandowski's Future: MLS, AC Milan, or Barcelona?
Robert Lewandowski stood on the Bernabéu pitch with another La Liga medal around his neck and a very different question on his mind: what comes next?
At 37, with a third Spanish title in four seasons secured after Barcelona’s 2–0 win over Real Madrid, the Polish striker is edging toward the end of his contract and the start of a new debate about his future. This time, he’s the one fueling it.
“An inferior league” – and a very clear hint
Speaking to Polish outlet Eleven Sports after the title-clinching clásico, Lewandowski did little to cool the speculation.
“There might be an option to go to an inferior league,” he said, in comments relayed by SPORT. “I’m almost 38, but I feel good physically, so I’m considering it. I have to consider the possibility that it might be time to play more freely and enjoy life. Maybe that option arises, and I’m not ruling it out.
“What will I do come the fall? I don’t know. I just found out that I have 51 days left on my contract, so I still have time. I’ll listen to a few more offers and then make a decision.”
He never mentioned MLS by name, but he didn’t need to. The league has been circling for some time, and one club in particular has stepped out of the shadows.
Chicago Fire step forward
Chicago Fire sporting director Gregg Broughton recently went on record with talkSPORT and made the league’s stance plain.
“Robert [Lewandowski] is a player that the MLS as a league is interested in,” Broughton said. “Don’t forget that the players within the MLS, and this is something unique about the league, is the players are owned by the league rather than the clubs themselves.
“So, we’ve put our interest forward in terms of trying to bring a player of that caliber to Chicago Fire. Again, Robert is still a Barcelona player and it wouldn’t be the right thing for me to do to talk about a player who’s under contract at another club.”
The message is clear enough: MLS wants him, and Chicago are willing to front the project. Reports have already suggested the Fire are prepared to put a salary on the table that would place Lewandowski among the highest earners in the league.
They are not alone. AC Milan and other Serie A sides have also been linked with the soon-to-be 38-year-old, clubs that could offer a different kind of late-career challenge and a more familiar competitive level.
Barcelona’s offer: stay, but on different terms
Barcelona, for their part, are not pushing him toward the door. They would like him to stay. Just not on the same terms.
The Catalan club are understood to be interested in keeping Lewandowski on a significantly reduced salary and with a smaller on-field role. For a player who has spent his career as a central figure at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and now Barça, that is a difficult shift to accept. So far, he has reportedly shown little appetite for such a downgrade.
The crossroads is obvious: take a pay cut and a lesser role to remain at the Camp Nou, chase one more major European adventure in Italy, or embrace a new lifestyle and profile in MLS.
Retirement? “I’m going to continue playing”
Lewandowski dismissed the idea outright.
Fellow Pole Wojciech Szczęsny had joked that the striker should retire first and then study his options, a nod to his own brief retirement before joining Barcelona as a free agent in September 2024. The suggestion drew a firm response.
“You know how Wojciech [Szczęsny] is,” Lewandowski said. “It’s not like I wake up and something hurts. I appreciate where I am, and I’m enjoying it. We’ll see what comes next, but what’s clear is that I’m going to continue playing.”
That line removes any doubt. He is not done. Not physically, not mentally, not competitively.
So the countdown he mentioned — those 51 days left on his contract — becomes a clock for everyone else too: Barcelona, MLS, Serie A suitors, and any club still convinced that one of the great penalty-box forwards of his generation has another act left.
The medals are already in the cabinet. The decision that defines the final chapter of his career is still to come.
