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Poland’s star forward Robert Lewandowski is not going to be around forever. He will need a worthy replacement when he inevitably retires from international football, but do Poland have a worthy replacement?
The 32-year-old probably has another few years left in international football as he continues to lead at the top of the all-time goalscoring charts for Poland with 63 goals to his name.
Lewandowski has had an illustrious career that 16 years up to now, breaking many records, reaching 500 career goals but it is the sad reality that he has little time left with the White and Reds.
Poland will definitely need a striker to replace Lewandowski in the near future as the Poles usually have the Bayern Munich forward as a lone forward.
Depending on the new Poland manager’s system, Paulo Sousa may double up in the striker role but he will need a duo worthy of replacing the goal machine that is Lewandowski.
Here are the five strikers that may replace the Bayern forward that is the Poland top goalscorer once he bows out of playing international football.
Arkadiusz Milik
The 26-year-old has started his new chapter in his career joining Olympique Marseille on loan from Napoli. The loan is an 18-month deal with an obligation to buy in June 2022.
Milik may finally reignite may be able to return to finally being the prolific goalscorer that he is known to be with this move to France as he has not been able to reach 20+ league goals ever since he moved to Italy.
From 273 appearances in his career up to date, he has scored 114 times which averages to just below a goal every two matches goals and shows that the striker is quite a long way off in his career to being prolific.
His best season was in 2015/16 for Ajax as the Polish striker scored 21 goals and assisted on eight occasions in 31 Eredivisie appearances for the Dutch giants.
The new Marseille forward has not had the best chance in the National Team as Robert Lewandowski is most likely the first name on the teamsheet and that has resulted to Milik only scoring 15 times in 56 appearances for the National Team.
He still has a lot of potential to bring being six years younger than the Bayern striker and what we have seen in Lewandowski may be the case for Milik.
Krzysztof Piatek
Piatek got himself a move to Italy and it was fantastic for the striker with his stint at Genoa resulting in him scoring 19 goals in 21 appearances.
The January transfer window in 2019 rolled over and AC Milan pounced on the opportunity on grabbing the hot prospect from I Rossoblù for £31 million.
21 appearances and 11 goals showcased that in a star-studded side that looked to aim high but they weren’t able to do so as they finished fifth in Serie A that season.
The 25-year-old remained in Milan until January 2020 as the Rossoneri cashed in on the striker getting over £20 million as Piatek moved to Berlin.
34 appearances for Hertha Berlin up to now and he has only been able to score nine goals so far as the Bundesliga doesn’t look to be a stomping ground for the forward.
If he stayed at Genoa for longer and continued that goalscoring form that allowed him to get the move away his career may have been filled with more goals.
Saying that he has been able to get seven goals in 15 games at international level as has been able to come up with important goals for Poland which could be needed once Lewandowski retires from playing for the White and Reds.
Lukasz Teodorczyk
A striker that will definitely needs to pick up his form if he ever wants to replace Lewandowski in the Poland set-up is RSC Charleroi striker Lukasz Teodorczyk.
The 29-year-old has not had the best time since leaving Anderlecht in August 2018 as he has only managed one goal and one assist in 38 matches competitively for Udinese and Charleroi.
The last time he scored 10+ goals in a season was back in 2017/18 for Anderlecht and ever since then, his career has gone downhill.
Sousa will be needing Teodorczyk to step up his game if he wants to be in the Poland line-up anytime soon because at the age of 29 he may only get a handful of chances.
19 appearances for Poland with four goals and two assists to his name saw the 6ft 1 striker not earn a cap since the 2018 World Cup in Russia that saw Adam Nawalka sacked and Jerzy Brzeczek put in charge.
If the forward can return to the form that he possessed in his Lech Poznan and Anderlecht days then he may be a contender but he’s a long way off not scoring regular goals at club level and having not featured many times in the past two to three years.
Dawid Kownacki
23-year-old Dawid Kownacki has still got a lot of time to transform into a lethal striker and lead the Poland side into matches just like Lewandowski is doing.
The striker plays his club football at 2.Bundesliga side Fortuna Dusseldorf and has managed three goals and two assists in 14 appearances as the German outfit who sit fifth in the league.
Just like most Polish players, he started off his career in the Ekstraklasa for Lech Poznan before a move to Italy saw his quality decrease.
In 2016/17, he managed 33 appearances for Lech scoring 12 goals and assisting three times in the one and only season that saw the striker score double figures to date.
Internationally, Kownacki has been fantastic at youth level playing an instrumental part at U15, U16, U17 and U21 level. In 42 appearances for Poland’s youth sides he’s scored 31 goals which is a fantastic return, gaining him his first cap for Poland in 2018.
His international debut came in a 1-0 defeat to Nigeria but his only goal in the international team came against Lithuania is a 4-0 win.
Kownacki still has got a long career ahead of him and once he has found his goalscoring boots that guide him to double figures every season then he will become a serious contender at leading the line for Poland.
Adam Buksa
Another striker that has plenty of time ahead of him is 24-year-old Adam Buksa is in a similar situation that Kownacki finds himself in.
After finding his feet at Wisla Krakow’s youth academy he made the move to Italy with Novara Primavera featuring 16 times and only getting one goal.
He made his return back to Poland not long after with Lechia Gdansk then Zaglebie Lublin before securing his best move to Pogon Szczecin.
His best season has been 2018/19 which saw Buksa score 11 goals in 22 league appearances averaging at a goal every two games which isn’t bad for a young striker.
Buksa sealed a move to the USA with New England Revolution in January 2020 and has managed seven goals in 28 matches for the MLS outfit.
The 24-year-old is in a similar situation to Kownacki because they are both some way off their peak and still have time to grow. With the US move looking very nice for Buksa he has to retain his goalscoring habits from the Polish Ekstraklasa if he ever wants to sniff a spot in Sousa’s Poland set-up.
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