Al-Hilal's 90 million a year offer pushes Lewandowski to the edge of a Barcelona exit
Robert Lewandowski is closer than ever to leaving Barcelona on a free transfer this summer, with Al-Hilal sat at the front of the queue holding an offer reportedly worth 90 million euros a season and the 37-year-old said to be on the verge of accepting.
His contract at Camp Nou runs out on June 30 and the renewal talks that began in spring have effectively stalled. Barcelona, working under the same wage pressure that has shaped their squad-building for three windows now, have made clear that any extension would come with a sharp cut to his current salary and a reduced role in Hansi Flick's first-choice eleven. Agent Pini Zahavi was in the city last week to test the offer in person, and the read coming out of those meetings is that no concrete proposal worth signing has landed in front of Lewandowski.
Al-Hilal's offer is the loudest in the room
The pull is coming from Riyadh. Al-Hilal have tabled a contract reported to be worth roughly 90 million euros per season plus a signing bonus, a figure that lands at around four times Lewandowski's current Barcelona pay. He is reported to be close to accepting and the deal is being described as the most lucrative of his career, which is a high bar for a player who has spent the last decade winning Bundesligas and La Ligas.
The Saudi angle is also a fitness one. Those around the player point out that another full season at Barcelona's training intensity could compromise his bid to lead Poland into the next major tournament, while a move to the Pro League lets him manage his workload, hold on to regular 90-minute outings, and bank the largest cheque of his career on the way out of European football.
MLS, Porto, and a denial from Portugal
Other suitors are still in the conversation but on a noticeably quieter setting. Chicago Fire pushed earlier in the year with a two-year MLS deal, only for the club to have since cooled and shifted priorities elsewhere. Sky Sport Germany reported on May 13 that Porto were interested too, but club president André Villas Boas killed that story the next day in plain terms, calling the idea "financially impossible for us even to think about." That leaves Saudi Arabia as the only realistic destination capable of matching Lewandowski's wage demands, with Juventus and AC Milan kept warm by Zahavi as fallback options.
A familiar replacement headache for Hansi Flick
Whatever Lewandowski decides, Barcelona's bigger problem is the gap he leaves behind. He scored 18 goals in 44 appearances this season as the club retained the La Liga title, an output below his own ceiling but still the best raw return in Flick's squad. The names on Barcelona's replacement shortlist read more like profile fits than like-for-likes. Marcus Rashford's loan can be converted for around 30 million euros, Arsenal's Gabriel Jesus and Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson have been linked, and Junior Kroupi at Bournemouth is being scouted as a longer-term project. None match the 23-plus La Liga goals a season Lewandowski has averaged since arriving in Catalonia in 2022.
The financial reality is the squeeze. Barcelona do not have the 100 million euros it would take to buy a comparable centre-forward outright, which is exactly why a one-year, reduced-salary extension was the only offer they could put on the table in the first place. If Lewandowski signs in Riyadh and Flick walks into pre-season with Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and an attack missing its anchor, the next round of La Liga begins with a question that does not have a quick answer.
Related Tags:
Cricket Updates
