Part of Lewandowski’s “ritual”, he realised, is to always put his left boot on first. “You can play very good; play very well. You can make a pass; you make a cross. But if you want to score almost every game you have to change your mentality. Maybe 70 per cent is from your head and not your skills. Why? That is why not everyone can play like a striker... you have to be selfish.

"For me, especially, I know I have to think about the team. If you win, the team wins – not you. If you lose, the team loses. Sometimes, my selfishness is important for the team. I am trying to score the goal, trying to help us win.”

While he pays tribute to Anna – “I think my wife changed everything outside the pitch,” he says – there are two obvious coaches who have had a profound influence.

The first was Klopp, his manager for four years at Dortmund, where he won two Bundesliga titles and reached one Champions League final. His impact was on far more than just his CV, however.

“Jurgen changed me personally," he says. “Before I had a lot of problems with my body language. It didn’t matter what was happening, my body language was the same. Sometimes you have to be more angry, sometimes your actions should be more expressive. For me, that was never going to happen. I was like... [moves his hand in straight line] and that’s why I had to change. That was under Jurgen Klopp. I spoke with him about this situation and he told me sometimes he didn’t know if I was angry or happy. I tried to change my body language."

Klopp also took a basic approach to incentivise his main striker. “We bet that if I score 10 goals [in training] then Jurgen Klopp gives me €50. I remember the first training sessions, I scored three or four. Then after five, six, seven sessions I score seven, eight. Then after three months I score every training more like 10. After a few weeks Jurgen said, ‘no more, it’s too much for me’. That was part of my mentality to be focused on training. That was very helpful for me. And good in another way!”