“You'd have won the Ballon d'Or by now", Gundogan's unexpected joke to Lewandowski

Ilkay Gundogan and Robert Lewandowski are two of Barcelona's biggest stars right now. The two were teammates at Borussia Dortmund between 2011 and 2014 and this summer they were reunited in Catalunya when the German midfielder was signed as a free agent after his contract with Manchester City expired.

With them on the field, Los Blaugranas have gained experience, intelligence and talent. And it shows. Both have been essential for Xavi Hernandez's team to have a great start to the 2023/24 season: they are very close to Real Madrid and Girona, the leaders in La Liga standings, and won their two matches in Champions League.

Ilkay and Robert took part in a video for Movistar Futbol in which they answered questions about soccer and their careers. It was clear that they have a great relationship after so many years of being teammates.

However, an unexpected situation happened when Lewandowski asked Gundogan if he knew which team he was close to going to before coming to Borussia Dortmund. "I read it somewhere once, was it to Italy?" the midfielder said, to which the striker replied, "No, it wasn't Italy. I wanted to see Blackburn Rovers at the time." Ilkay then made a joke: "Perhaps if you'd moved to Blackburn, you'd have won the Ballon d'Or by now". Lewandowski's reaction was laughter and then he asked, "What's he saying?"

It was a controversial topic

In 2020 Robert Lewandowski was the overwhelming favorite to win the Ballon d'Or for his excellent performances at Bayern Munich. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic the award was cancelled. The following year the winner was Lionel Messi, who said: "I want to tell Robert that it is an honor to compete with him. You deserve your Ballon d'Or, last year everyone agreed that you were the winner and France Football should give you your Ballon d'Or." However, then the Polish striker said: "(Messi) asked for a Ballon d'Or for me but he didn't vote for me for The Best".