Birmingham City were close to signing Robert Lewandowski for just £250k
Birmingham City came close to signing Robert Lewandowksi for as little as £250,000.
The Barcelona striker emerged as a target for the Blues whilst still playing in his native Poland during the early years of his career.
Lewandowski began his senior career in the country's third tier with Znicz Pruszkow.
He finished as top scorer as the club won promotion in 2007, prompting clubs to quickly take notice.
Birmingham were amongst the sides interested in the teenage forward, former scout Paul Montgomery has revealed.
Having revealed Lewandowski was the one player he wanted but missed out on before he became a superstar, Montgomery told Sunday Edition how Birmingham could have completed a £250,000 deal.
Montgomery explained: "It's weird because I remember we needed a central striker and I'd said to Alex (McLeish) and Alex had spoken to me and he had a couple of contacts in Poland and said, ‘look, they really like this man’.
"I went and watched him two or three times and I said, ‘listen, he's a good player, no doubt about it, but he does everything in wide areas’.
"Those days he would spin and do everything in wide areas. He isn't the central type of striker that we need. And then the rest is history.