Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 7y

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski turned down €40m China offer - agent

Robert Lewandowski has been offered a world-record salary in excess of €40 million per year from an unnamed Chinese club but is not interested in leaving Bayern Munich, his agent Cezary Kucharski has claimed.

Lewandowski, 28, signed a new contract with the Bundesliga champions through to 2021 in late December.

However, the Poland international was one of the players targeted by the Chinese Super League, his Polish agent Kucharski said in an interview with SportoweFakty in the striker's homeland.

"I was contacted by an agent who brings stars to China," Kucharski said. "The club name wasn't mentioned.

"If Lewy had decided to move to China, his salary would have been significantly higher than €40m which means more than Carlos Tevez earns."

Tevez, 32, joined Shanghai Shenhua from Boca Juniors last month. The Chinese club paid a £9m ($11m) transfer fee to get the striker, and while it was initially said he would be paid a world-high of £615,000 ($760,632) a week to make the move, reports in China say it will be significantly less.

The total deal over two years is reported to be £32.5m ($40m) including the transfer fee, which works out at £226,000 per week, and that would place Tevez significantly behind the reported salaries for Cristiano Ronaldo (£288,000 after tax) and Lionel Messi (£256,000 after tax).

Kucharski said Lewandowski never considered the offer because "it's obvious: Lewy is not only younger but also a better player than Tevez," adding that the Bayern star never considered the offer and it always remained "a hypothetical" idea to leave Bayern Munich now.

"Robert is not for sale right now," Kucharski said. "But I never say never. Life offers several solutions."

SportoweFakty added that the unnamed club was willing to pay a transfer fee around €200m.

Speaking to Sky Germany earlier this week, Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness labelled the spending power of Chinese clubs "sick, nothing but sick," and added that he hoped "it's just a phase like we had in America at one stage."

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