Birmingham City came close to signing Robert Lewandowksi for as little as £250,000.
The Barcelona striker emerged as a target for the Blues whilst still playing in his native Poland during the early years of his career.
Lewandowski could have joined Birmingham City for just £250,000[/caption]
Lewandowski began his senior career in the country’s third tier with Znicz Pruszkow.
He finished as top scorer as the club won promotion in 2007, prompting clubs to quickly take notice.
Birmingham were amongst the sides interested in the teenage forward, former scout Paul Montgomery has revealed.
Having revealed Lewandowski was the one player he wanted but missed out on before he became a superstar, Montgomery told Sunday Edition how Birmingham could have completed a £250,000 deal.
Montgomery explained: “It’s weird because I remember we needed a central striker and I’d said to Alex (McLeish) and Alex had spoken to me and he had a couple of contacts in Poland and said, ‘look, they really like this man’.
“I went and watched him two or three times and I said, ‘listen, he’s a good player, no doubt about it, but he does everything in wide areas’.
“Those days he would spin and do everything in wide areas. He isn’t the central type of striker that we need. And then the rest is history.
“He’s become this brilliant goalscorer, you know, so I don’t need to tell you.”
Lewandowski instead remained in Poland, joining Lech Poznan for £320,000 before going on to play for Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and now Barca.
He has also scored 585 senior club goals, along with winning two European Golden Boots and another 20 top scorer awards.
Lewandowski has gone on to score 585 club goals for teams including Barcelona and Bayern Munich[/caption]
Having won the Champions League with Bayern in 2020, the 36-year-old remains in fine form for Barca four years on.
So far this season, he has already scored 17 goals in 14 appearances for the Spanish giants.
Meanwhile, Montgomery also revealed he missed out on bringing Didier Drogba to England early.
He had scouted the Ivorian for West Ham before the club’s relegation in 2003.
The Hammers’ drop into the second tier saw Drogba stay in France for a further year, joining Chelsea 12 months later instead.
