According to the German Newspaper Bild, Robert Lewandowski wants a 'new challenge' in his career, adding a new twist into the now on-running pre-eminent transfer story of the summer so far.
The Polish striker, who scored four against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, has certainly go about achieving a move away from the Westfalenstadion in the best way possible with these comments adding to a previous statement in which he said he would not be signing a new contract when his current one at the end of next season.
As a result, Dortmund are having their hand forced to sell now while they can still get a decent price for their top scorer before clubs can offer him a pre-contract in January. However, the use of the phase 'new challenge' might represent a twist in the saga.
It is currently considered that European champions Bayern Munich are ahead in the race to sign Lewandowski but while a move would help Lewandowski attempt to win the Champions League, domestically he has already won everything he could win with Bayern while at Dortmund. Therefore, the big clubs in both England and Spain may well be able to compete with Bayern's financial package while also offering more new challenges on a domestic front than the European champions.
If so Real Madrid and Chelsea could well lead the charge for the player. With Madrid in need of a world-class striker to take the pressure off Christiano Ronaldo and Chelsea because of of the possibilty they have to utilise a possible loan deal for Romelu Lukaku as part of the deal.