‘It’s a family secret!’ – Lewandowski stays tight-lipped on signature goal celebration as he nears Bayern 200 mark

Bundesliga fans have grown accustomed to seeing Robert Lewandowski’s signature goal celebration over the last decade – but the Bayern Munich hitman is remaining tight-lipped as to its full meaning.

The 31-year-old is closing in on his 200th goal for Bayern, after also reaching three figures for previous club Borussia Dortmund.

Plenty of those strikes have been accompanied by his signature move, with his fingers pointing and hands crossed across his chest. But while there is a certain similarity to fellow former Dortmund man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Black Panther-inspired celebration, Lewandowski’s has its roots a little closer to home.

“The celebration has something to do with my daughter,” he told Bayern’s YouTube channel. “I don’t want to go into details, it’s a little secret!

“I want to show that my family are always behind me, as that has helped me a lot in my career as a footballer.”

Lewandowski’s daughter, Klara, was born to wife and fellow professional athlete Anna in May 2017.

“There’s so much euphoria [when you score] that you just don’t think,” Lewandowski added. “It just happens. Sometimes I think afterwards, ‘what did I do?’ You just do whatever your heart or head tells you to do, which is what happens to me on the pitch.

“That moment when you score a goal and 80,000 fans cheer your name is a really special feeling. You get goosebumps and just want to fly. But I also know that you need to come back to reality after just a few seconds – you can’t let the euphoria show.

“It’s hard to explain what you experience in that moment. I wish everyone could enjoy that feeling at least once in their life.”

Since moving to Dortmund from Lech Poznan in 2010, Lewandowski has only failed to hit the 25-goal mark in all competitions once – in his debut campaign.

He admits that he initially found the move, his first outside of his native Poland, to be a real challenge, though he did still notch his first eight Bundesliga goals.

“The first six months, I have to be honest, were really difficult for me,” he said.

“I couldn’t speak a word of German. I could only say ‘thank you’ and ‘s**t’! It wasn’t easy to learn a new culture and language. I knew that I needed to power through and then I could focus on football.

“It was a special feeling when I first put the [Bayern] shirt on. It was the first time I could really feel the weight of a huge club on the shirt I was wearing. I was really proud. I knew that I could develop here and that I wanted to come here and stay.”