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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
WHEN Takesure Chinyama fired blanks at Rufaro on Sunday, as Dynamos stumbled in their quest for the immortality of securing an unprecedented fifth straight league title, the football world was about to toast another champagne moment for red-hot Polish striker Robert Lewandowski. Hours after Chinyama left Rufaro frustrated by a goalless draw against Harare City, which left the Glamour Boys six points adrift of leaders Chicken Inn with just five games left in the championship race, Lewandowski scored the winning goal that powered Poland to Euro 2016.

Incredibly, Lewandowski’s winning goal, against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday, was his 15th in the last six games for his country and club, German giants Bayern Munich, with his haul coming in just 447 minutes during a golden spell that has turned him into the most feared striker in the world.

This has forced respected figures in the game like Martin O’Neill, the Republic of Ireland coach whose team bore the brunt of the Polish marksman’s goal-scoring brilliance, to suggest that he could be on his way to winning the 2015 Balon d’Or ahead of the award’s regular recipients, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

“But Lewandowski could win the Balon d’Or. He is a very fine player. Poland must be delighted to have him.’ O’Neill told journalists after his Republic of Ireland was left with the baggage of having to feature in a play-off for them to qualify for Euro 2016.

It has been a record-breaking season for Lewandowski who turned 27 on August 21 this year, scoring five goals in just nine minutes for his German club Bayern Munich in a league match, and taking his tally, in the Euro 2016 qualifiers to 13 with the goal against the Republic of Ireland, a joint record in the qualifiers that he now shares with David Healy of Northern Ireland who achieved that feat in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

And the unstoppable forward is surely enjoying his red-hot streak. “Hello Poland! We did it! We’re going to France. I’m proud of this team. I am proud that we will be part of the Euro!” he said on social media. “I am happy that we celebrate in my town, at the stadium where I once started to dream, now those dreams (have) come true here at the most beautiful National Stadium! Poland have fun today.”

While Lewandowski is being claimed as one of the finest, if not the most feared forward, in world football today, some of the game’s fans in this country will probably find it hard to believe that, just six years ago, his name was being mentioned in the same class as Chinyama. The Zimbabwean footballer, who returned mid-season this year to rejoin Dynamos, made history as the first non-European player to win the Golden Boot in the Polish top-flight league in May 2009 and, as they honoured him, special mention was given to Lewandowski.

The Polish forward had just played his first season at Lech Poznan, after top-scoring in the Polish Third and Second Divisions with Znicz Pruszkow, and scored 14 goals in the Polish top-flight league.

His tally was five goals fewer than Chinyama’s haul of 19, which gave the then Legia Warsaw forward the Golden Boot that he shared with Pawel Brozek of Wisla Krakow, who topped a good season by also being voted as the Polish Player of the Year.

The following season, in 2009-2010, Lewandowski fulfilled his promise by winning the Golden Boot in the Ekstraklasa with 18 goals and, as his star exploded, leading to a move to Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, Chinyama struggled with injuries.

Chinyama has scored four goals in the league for DeMbare since his return to the Glamour Boys ranks and while Lewandowski’s goals propelled him to a career in the Bundesliga, when he joined Borussia Dortmund, the Zimbabwean saw his move to the same league being destroyed by Legia Warsaw’s huge prize tag.

He was set to move to Eintracht Frankfurt, then a top team in the Bundesliga, but a huge selling price put on his head by Legia Warsaw derailed his move.

“My club demanded a lot of money but I think my manager also didn’t handle the issue very well because he should have negotiated for a breakthrough, something that protected my interests, but that didn’t happen and I missed that chance,” Chinyama told The Herald in an earlier interview.

“Maybe it was meant to be like that, because midway during that season, when I was supposed to be in Germany, I got injured in Poland and that’s when the injury issues started.

“I think it’s my fate, that’s life mate and if God meant that things would happen that way, who am I to say it should have been different, I take it as a setback, that’s all, I don’t spend days thinking that I could have been this and I could have done that. “I’m fine with what I have done with my career and I consider myself a lucky guy because I have played at a very good level and I don’t know where I would have been, if that Germany move had come through, but that’s life.”

And he said that he remembered Lewandowski very well. “The way he was playing in his first season, everyone could tell that he was going to be a very big star and I could also see that he was just a class apart and he has just proved that,” said Chinyama. “It’s a tough league in Poland and it turns you into a very tough player and I think Robert is representing all the Polish footballers, and all those who have played in that top league, very well.”

Chinyama could win the Chibuku Super Cup, where Dynamos are in the final, but chances of him being part of the Glamour Boys who turned themselves into immortals, by winning a record fifth straight league title, have dimmed after their goalless draw against Harare City at Rufaro on Sunday. As Lewandowski continues to make waves around the world, let’s not forget that, at the point that Dortmund gave him the ticket to break into the Bundesliga, he was virtually in the same class as our own Chinyama.

LEWANDOWSKI 2015-16 STATS

BAYERN MUNICH

Bundesliga: 7 apps, 12 goals

Champions League: 2 apps, 3 goals

German Cup: 1 app, 1 goal

POLAND

Euro 2016 qualifiers: 4 apps, 6 goals