Arguably the best player at the World Cup is Lionel Messi - both before the tournament began and now out of the remaining four squads of players - and arguably the best player not in Qatar at all over the past month is Erling Haaland. They're two very good footballers and world stars.
Messi is looking to win his first World Cup, Haaland is preparing to score a lot of goals for Manchester City when the Premier League returns in just under two weeks. So, when someone is compared to or admired by these players it's certainly something of note. Not that everyone has to be 'the next Messi' or 'the next Haaland.'
For Chelsea, this is great news. One of their latest transfer targets heading into 2023, Borussia Dortmund youngster Yousoufa Moukoko, has been compared to and spoken glowingly of with Messi and Haaland in mind.
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Moukoko is just 18 years old but was still part of Germany's squad for the World Cup. He was the youngest player to be picked out of all the squads and also made his debut, albeit just for a few minutes, before Hansi Flick's side crashed out in the group stages.
Ironically, Germany are without a striker and that's been their downfall. Creative players, technical players, tactically diverse and adept players, but nobody to put the ball in the goal. Luckily for the future coaches of the national team, Moukoko does just that. Even as a teenager he already has six league goals and four assists in 14 matches this season. He's leading the line for a Champions League team already.
He's also out of contract next summer and reports suggest Todd Boehly is keen to keep up his fresh recruitment drive, starting talks with the youngster ahead of a prospective January transfer. Moukoko's total record in Germany as a youth and senior player is frankly absurd - 153 goals in 149 matches - with the teenager scoring at over 1.75 goals per game at two age groups in the academy whilst also playing above the standard level.
He made his debut as a 16-year-old and has been tipped for big things for most of his career, but now a crossroads is about to be reached and Chelsea are ready to pounce.
Luckily, looking back, there is high praise for the youngster from some big names. In 2020, Haaland - his own goalscoring extraordinaire - couldn't speak highly enough of him, saying: "I would love to play alongside him." He has also described the teenager as "much better than I was at his age".
"I think he's the biggest talent in the world right now," he said at the time. "He's 16 years and one day old, that's amazing. He has a big career ahead of him. We're lucky to have him." Haaland left Dortmund this year and has hit the same heights as he has in Austria and Germany already, but if Moukoko is set for a similar path, then Chelsea's own fast-track line to success could be through the forward.
Such was his standing in the academy, Samuel Eto'o highlighted him as the next big thing for Barcelona to go for back in 2020, saying, “[There’s] a young player who plays for Dortmund called Youssoufa Moukoko. [He’s] 15 years of age, and he’s the next top player, for me, after Messi.
“As Messi gets older, we could prepare the future of Barcelona very well. With Antoine and Youssoufa [up front together], that team would go forward very well. [I’d like to see] Kylian Mbappe at Barcelona also.”
Eto'o's predictions were slightly wayward. Moukoko doesn't seem to be on the radar of Barcelona, Greizemann struggled massively and Mbappe is likely a long way out of the price range for the Catalan club right now.
But Eto'o, a fantastic striker in his own right as a player, joins a very long list of people just waiting for Moukoko to fully burst onto the scene, and Chelsea will continue to hope that's with them.
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