Barcelona sporting director Deco has named Robert Lewandowski the best striker in world football over the past 15 years.
Deco made the claim in his sporting report to the club's Ordinary General Assembly, putting Lewandowski ahead of the other elite strikers Barcelona have had during that period.
"Rashford gave us a spectacular level of performance last season, while Lewandowski is a club legend and the best striker of the last 15 years," Deco told members.
The comments came after both players had left Barcelona, with the club deciding to part ways with each of them. Deco gave a fuller explanation of his comments in the speech.
"Rashford had an excellent season with us. The club made the decision for him to leave based on different team-building philosophies, but we thank him for all his contributions last season. And Lewandowski — he is a club legend, and in my opinion, he has undoubtedly been the world's top striker for the past 15 years."
Deco's latest comments go further than what he said about Lewandowski during the striker's final season at Barcelona. Speaking to Mundo Deportivo at the time, Deco ranked him behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Robert is, for me, the best striker of recent years. He's a phenomenon at every level. An example in everything. There are few players at this level, except for Cristiano Ronaldo."
Deco's latest assessment puts Lewandowski ahead of Ronaldo, whom he previously named as the exception.
Why Deco Rates Lewandowski Above Every Striker
The window Deco describes opens almost exactly where Lewandowski's career took off. He scored 103 goals in 187 games for Borussia Dortmund, winning Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012.
He then scored 344 goals in 375 games across eight years at Bayern Munich, winning 19 trophies, including the Champions League, before joining Barca for €45 million in 2022. His numbers over that period set him apart.
Lewandowski sits third on the all-time Champions League scorers list with 109 goals, third among Europe's all-time international scorers with 89, and is one of only five players to score 100 goals for three different clubs. He has also passed 750 senior career goals.
His 89 goals in 167 caps make him Poland's record scorer, a record he took from Włodzimierz Lubanski with a hat-trick against Armenia in 2017.
He is also one of three players this century to record 10 or more goals in one of Europe's top five leagues across 15 consecutive seasons, alongside Lionel Messi on 15 and Cristiano Ronaldo on 16.
Barcelona added three La Liga titles, a Copa del Rey and three Supercopas to his honours. His individual awards include two Best FIFA Men's Player awards, seven top-scorer finishes in Germany, one in Spain and 13 Polish Footballer of the Year titles.
The pandemic cost him a Ballon d'Or in 2020, when the award was cancelled. One of the strongest counter-arguments comes from Barcelona's own history. Luis Suárez scored 198 goals in 284 official matches across six seasons at the club.
That gave him a better scoring rate than Lewandowski's 120 in 193. He also did it while sharing the pitch with Messi and Neymar. His 2015-16 return of 53 goals, including 40 in La Liga, won him the Golden Shoe and ended Messi and Ronaldo's grip on the Pichichi.
Suarez won the Golden Shoe twice, in 2014 with Liverpool and 2016 with Barcelona. He has scored more than 600 career goals and provided over 300 assists, while Opta rated him the best player in Europe in 2013-14.
The difference between Suarez and Lewandowski is longevity. Suarez's peak lasted roughly six years, while Lewandowski has maintained his level for around 15 years. The current generation has not been around long enough to cover the same period.
Erling Haaland scored 37 goals last season and acknowledged that Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe finished ahead of him. Mbappe scored four more goals and topped La Liga's scoring charts in both 2024-25 and 2025-26.
Kane reached 100 goals for Bayern in 104 matches, the fastest a player has reached that mark for a club in Europe's top five leagues. All three have produced outstanding numbers, but their careers at the top level do not yet cover the same length of time as Lewandowski's.
