Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski named Roberto Baggio, Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry among his footballing heroes while growing up, though suggests the Arsenal man took precedence when he started to fully understand the sport.
Growing up in Warsaw, Lewandowski didn't have many players from his national team to support, what with Poland failing to qualify for any of the three World Cups in the 1990s and only competing in their first European Championships in 2008.
A young Lewandowski had to look elsewhere for inspiration as a result, with the aforementioned trio of Baggio, Shearer and Henry catching his eye.
Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski is enamoured by Thierry Henry
"When I was six, it was Roberto Baggio; later it was Alan Shearer; but the real one was Thierry Henry," Lewandowski tells FourFourTwo. "I watched not only how he scored goals, but how he ran – his technique and his movement on the pitch."
The Barcelona striker had plenty of other sporting influences as a kid, though. His father was a judo champion while his mother played volleyball. Growing up, he tried his hand at everything, with football eventually becoming his priority.
"In the beginning I tried judo with my father, at home for many hours, just for fun," Lewandowski says. "When my father saw I was going to be good at judo, though, he was a bit afraid. He didn’t want me to train more professionally, because he knew how hard judo was. He also knew that I loved to play football. I don’t know if I chose football – football chose me!
"I played volleyball with my mother and sister in the garden, too. I also played basketball and handball, and did gymnastics because my father was the PE teacher at school."
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Lewandowski reveals sporting background is secret to his success
That exposure to other sports is something Lewandowski credits to his longevity as a striker in the modern game. His reactions in the penalty box are second to none, with that sporting background helping him adapt to different situations on the pitch.
"At school, I always wanted to play football, but we never did," Lewandowski adds. "I would ask my father, 'Why? I want to play football!' He’d say, 'No, you have the training session later – that’s enough. Different sports will be good for your body, for your flexibility.'
"At the time I didn’t understand, but many years later I did, because if I compare myself even now to different footballers, my body is still on a different level – it can adapt quickly to new exercises, even at 36. In other sports, you need completely different moves. If you only play football, your body remembers only football moves, and sometimes it doesn’t have the time to react differently on the pitch. If your body is more prepared, then it’s easier to do something.
"It has helped me a lot throughout my whole career – even now, I am hugely thankful to my father. As a child, I didn’t know why we were doing those things, but now, after so many years, I am grateful for it."
