Born just a few kilometers from Disneyland Paris and less than an hour’s drive from the Parc des Princes, Christopher Alan Nkunku feels like a Parisian, although the ‘overbooking’ of stars in PSG’s attack forced him to leave his hometown club to seek playing time in neighboring Germany.
Now confirmed as the star who grew up between the national center of French football in Clairefontaine and the academy of Paris Saint-Germain, there are not a few greats who are behind the recently named best player in the Bundesliga. Manchester United is one of them, but also PSG, his old club.
His proximity and his stay in the blue and red team seem to tip the balance towards the capital in the face of a possible transfer. This was confirmed by the player himself in a press conference from the concentration with the French team. ““Go back to PSG? It’s my home, it’s the club of my heart. I don’t close any doors, in football everything is possible,” assured the Frenchman., which the Parisian club did not want to impose as the only option. “It’s flattering that the big guys are interested in me. I’m also flattered that my club is doing everything they can to keep me,” he added.
One step forward from Leipzig
Nkunku looked for an outlet to the German branch of the Red Bull football project in search of squeezing all the talent there that he had not just broken at Paris Saint-Germain. The Frenchman rose from the reserve team to the first team in the capital in 2015 and, after four seasons looking for a hole in an attack in which he coincided with Neymar, Cavani, Di María or Mbappé among others, he decided to leave. In 2019, Leipzig spent 13 million euros to close his transfer, one above his market value at the time. Nkunku stopped the count in Paris in 78 games with 11 goals and four assists.
The move to Germany has been good for him and he has managed to position himself as one of the most outstanding players in the five major leagues, as well as being named the best in the country. The numbers confirm this. Of not reaching 20 goals generated between scored and ‘gifted’, Nkunku has raised the level to reach numbers at the level of the best attackers signing 35 goals and 16 assists in 52 games played this season. So much so that, adding up all the competitions, only Mbappé, Benzema and Robert Lewandowski have contributed more goals to their team (adding goals and assists) than him.
Some star numbers that shoot up their value for this summer market, reaching 60 million euros, although the price could skyrocket further since Leipzig demands up to 75 million euros for him.
