Pink Bull Salzburg and younger skills. It’s a love story that soccer followers have seen many instances lately. From Borussia Dortmund star Karim Adeyemi to Manchester Metropolis’s Erling Haaland, many gamers have come out of the Austrian membership. Even the present staff boasts of skills such because the midfield genius Luka Sucic or the sensational Slovenian striker Benjamin Sesko. Nevertheless, one other participant rapidly turning into a fan favorite is Swiss ahead Noah Okafor.
Okafor is a youth product of Basel youth academy and has been touted as top-of-the-line gamers for Switzerland. And in Pink Bull Salzburg, Okafor has the proper atmosphere a younger participant requires to take his expertise to the subsequent degree. Nevertheless, with many prime groups in search of new strikers in the summertime, Okafor may discover himself in a switch battle between a number of golf equipment.
So, who’s Noah Okafor, and the way good is he?
How good is Noah Okafor?
Noah Okafor was born on Might 24, 2020, in Binningen, a municipality within the district of Arlesheim located within the Canton of Basel-Landschaft in northern Switzerland. Okafor’s father is of Igbo descent from Nigeria, whereas his mom is Swiss. The participant joined FC Arisdorf, which was an area membership.
Nevertheless, in 2009, he made the large transfer to Basel, some of the profitable golf equipment in Europe. Becoming a member of the membership as a nine-year-old, Okafor shone by means of the youth groups. Over the subsequent 9 years, he would rise by means of the ranks, turning into top-of-the-line youth prospects that the membership had seen in years.
Within the 2016-17 season, he can be promoted to the under-18s making his debut on August 13, 2016, towards Aarau. He would go on to make 16 appearances within the league, two appearances every within the Swiss U18 Elite Finals, Schweizer Cup U-18, and Swiss U17 Elite League. Okafor ended the season with three objectives to his title.
By the next season, he would convey his finest to the under-18s scoring eight objectives in 12 video games within the league and two strikes to his title within the UEFA Youth League. These performances caught the eyes of then supervisor Raphael Wicky who referred to as him to the squad in January 2018. His senior-team debut would come 5 months later as he performed 56 minutes of Basel’s final league match of the 2017-18 season.
RB Salzburg ahead Noah Okafor, one to observe in the summertime as many golf equipment are following him — it’s anticipated to be time to depart the membership. ⚪️🇨🇭 #transfers
Okafor appointed new agent Sports360 in an effort to make summer season transfer occur. pic.twitter.com/u2LEE9Yp92
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 19, 2023
And when the subsequent season began, Okafor was completely promoted to the senior squad. Over the subsequent one-and-a-half seasons, Okafor would play 56 matches for the staff scoring 12 objectives and offering six assists.
This caught the curiosity of Pink Bull Salzburg, who swooped to signal him in January 2020. His debut would come a month later, on February 9, 2020, towards SKU Amstetten within the Austrian Cup. Okafor would finish the season with 14 appearances for Salzburg, scoring 4 objectives and offering one help.
Noah Okafor stats
Okafor had proven flashes of brilliance in his first six months in Austria. Nevertheless, Okafor, after a pre-season underneath his belt, went to a distinct degree. Enjoying 18 video games, Okafor scored six objectives and supplied 4 assists. Much more spectacular, this tally got here in solely 896 minutes, that means he averages one purpose contribution each match on common. Okafor would additionally get the style of taking part in within the Champions League, making 4 appearances.
Even after a formidable season, Okafor was much more getting a beginning function on the membership. The reason is the membership had excellent strikers reminiscent of Karim Adeyemi and Benjamin Sesko. Okafor additionally confronted competitors from one other good youth prospect, the good Roko Simic.
Nevertheless, regardless of the restricted time, Okafor bettered his tally from the earlier season scoring 9 objectives and offering 9 assists in simply 949 minutes within the league. Okafor would additionally open his tally within the Champions League with a brace towards Wolfsburg.
These good performances, coupled with the departure of Adeyemi to Borussia Dortmund, meant Okafor received extra minutes on the pitch. And the striker has repaid the religion in variety, scoring seven objectives and offering three assists in 19 matches within the league. The teen additionally scored three objectives within the UEFA Champions League.
Been trying up clips & stats on Noah Okafor, and he is kinda much like Jesus when it comes to playstyle and the place he likes to function.
He is additionally two-footed & taller than he seems.
If we pursue him I simply surprise what it means for our 2 academy grads..pic.twitter.com/WMp795CdMB
— Gilles 🇳🇬🏴 (@_Grimanditweets) March 22, 2023
His brilliance will also be gauged by the truth that he has a large capturing accuracy of fifty per cent, in response to fbref. Okafor has additionally averaged 2.68 progressive carries per 90 minutes, among the many prime ten percentile of strikers.
Okafor additionally doesn’t shy from utilizing his talent to strive the audacious, as is clear from his 3.81 take-ons per match among the many prime 5 percentile of forwards.
Learn extra:
Noah Okafor scout report
Noah Okafor is a participant that possesses good imaginative and prescient and intelligence. That is evident by the truth that he has not been caught offside this season within the league, in response to stats from fbref. And this clever motion is the explanation why he’s all the time on the proper place on the proper time to fit the ball into the purpose.
Okafor does have unbelievable tempo, however he makes use of it neatly by combining it along with his clever off-the-ball actions, which makes it very laborious for the opposition to trace him. This technique additionally conserves a lot of his power late into the match, which implies he can nonetheless be fairly pacey even in the course of the remaining minutes of a sport.
The striker additionally likes to play the vast majority of his sport within the inside left channel as a result of it permits him to chop again inside and get the ball on his robust foot. One more reason for him to float away from the purpose is to get into extra one-on-one conditions, both with the right-back or the appropriate centre-back, the place he can use his dribbling abilities to get previous the participant.
Noah Okafor switch information
Pink Bull Salzburg are a membership which have constructed their status on poaching younger expertise earlier than promoting them off at monumental costs to different golf equipment. And Noah Okafor completely suits the invoice, and with the efficiency he has delivered, large golf equipment are already beginning to circle round.
Amongst them, Arsenal have expressed probably the most curiosity. Nevertheless, the harm of Gabriel Jesus uncovered the squad depth of the membership, and regardless of a formidable efficiency from Eddie Nketiah, Mikel Arteta will need to bolster his squad for the subsequent season when they’ll certainly problem for a number of trophies.
Salzburg, although, would need to maintain the participant for an additional season, given the curiosity that’s being generated by their beginning striker Benjamin Sesko who’s sure to depart the membership in the summertime.
Nevertheless, the summer season switch window is but to open. Until then, Okafor’s major goal can be to proceed his spectacular efficiency for the membership and turn into the most recent product from the Pink Bull Salzburg youth manufacturing line.
