Lothar Matthaus: Robert Lewandowski as vital to Bayern Munich as Lionel Messi is to Barca

Chelsea and Manchester United have been linked with a move for the Poland forward, who has scored 97 goals in 119 Bundesliga games for the German champions.

Matthaus feels it is vital for Bayern to retain their leading forward.

"Maybe there are not many stars, but the Bavarians have a very strong squad," said Matthaus.

"This is the strength of the team: the team is not very dependent on one player. Barcelona is on Messi, Real Madrid is on (Cristiano) Ronaldo and Paris Saint-Germain is gambling on Neymar. At Bayern, all the players have the required quality.

"There is no such thing that absolutely everything depends on one player. But if I had to answer the question of who they depend on the most, I would point to Lewandowski,"