Eurosport Star of the Year: Did Neymar outshine Robert Lewandowski in 2020?

Updated 15/12/2020 at 12:56 GMT

No Ballon d’Or? No problem. Eurosport have stepped in to honour the best men’s and women’s footballers in 2020, with Robert Lewandowski and Pernille Harder scooping the respective awards. But did our journalists make the correct call picking Bayern striker Lewandowski, or should Neymar have pipped him?

Neymar v Robert Lewandowski

Image credit: Getty Images

It’s a question that will haunt Eurosport journalists across the continent: did Robert Lewandowski actually deserve to win our Star of the Year award?

The Bayern Munich striker clinched the men’s award after we polled our network of reporters, capping a brilliant 2020 that saw him win the Treble under Hansi Flick and finally get his hands on the Champions League trophy, while Chelsea star Pernille Harder won the women's award.

But was Lewandowski actually the best? That was the question posed on the latest Game of Opinions podcast, which pitted Germany against France.

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The unavoidably excellently named Tom Muller (Eurosport Germany) answered the call to defend Lewandowski, while Cyril Morin (Eurosport France) had the unenviable task of arguing for another player: PSG star Neymar. The Brazilian led PSG to the Champions League final, where they fell to Bayern, while he also won a domestic Treble with the French champions.

Listen to the podcast now or read on for a snippet of their arguments...

The case for Neymar

Cyril Morin: For me, Bayern would have won the Champions League without Lewandowski. You could name many players who were as important as him: Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich, Thiago, Manuel Neuer.

Neymar is the symbol for Paris Saint-Germain. For the first time in many years, he was the best player on the pitch during the Final Eight, which I guess is the main moment we can judge this award. If you take only the Final Eight, Neymar was more the MVP than Lewandowski. Without him, PSG wouldn’t have reached the final. Without Lewandowski, Bayern would have won it.

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I truly believe Neymar was the best player during the Final Eight. PSG gave the ball to him and he was doing the rest. He was the only one that carried a huge team on his shoulders.

The case for Lewandowski

Tom Muller: In the last few years I’ve had the feeling that Lewandowski was just focused on himself, like Neymar still is in my opinion. He wanted to be the best player on the team, he wanted to score the most goals, he complained about the others if they didn’t create enough chances for him.

But he didn’t do that this year. He acknowledged that he can evolve and mature as a player and become a better individual player by not being so selfish on the pitch. That’s maybe why he only scored one goal against Barcelona [in the 8-2 thrashing] and others could shine. He did so many things and was not as selfish as in previous seasons.