Arsenal have reportedly identified Karim Adeyemi as a potential replacement for Alexandre Lacazette.
The France international is out of contract at the Emirates Stadium and is not expected to sign a new deal, with report coming from casinoroo.io.
According to the Sunday Mirror, the 19-year-old has emerged as a potential long-term replacement for the forward.
Harald Lurzerg, the Red Bull Salzburg president, has admitted that Adeyemi will probably move on next summer.
The Germany international has enjoyed a magnificent start to the season in Austria, scoring 11 goals in 14 league outings.
He has also impressed in the Champions League, notching four goals in six games across the qualifiers and the group stage.
Arsenal will likely continue targeting young, hungry players as he attempts to make the Gunners top-four contenders once more. But who is Adeyemi?
Adeyemi was born in Munich to a Nigerian father, an ex-footballer, and a Romanian mother. As a Black child, Adeyemi wasn’t a stranger to racism.
“I was confronted with racism quite often as a child. My mother suffered from it the most. Maybe these experiences were what made me stronger,” he told Austrian outlet Der Standard. “It shouldn’t be a thing anymore.”
After starting playing for the youth teams at TSV Forstenried, the club in the Munich quarter where he grew up, the forward was scouted by Bayern Munich. At 8, Adeyemi joined the Bundesliga champions’ youth setup, wanting to follow the footsteps of his idol, Arjen Robben.
“His dribbling, his finish — I’ve always wanted to be like Robben,” the attacker told Goal.com.
Rejected Chelsea, moved to Austria
The young German failed to impress and left after two years at the Bayern Campus. He joined another local club, SpVgg Unterhaching, from the outskirts of Munich, after being scouted at an indoor football tournament. It was at Unterhaching where the attacker started flourishing. Despite triggering interest from the likes of Chelsea, the attacker decided to stay put.
When he was 16, Red Bull Salzburg came knocking.
“The most important thing for my parents was that I’d join a team which has a concrete plan regarding my future,” he said. “At Salzburg, this was definitely the case.”
The Red Bull-backed Austrian club, which is located less than two hours away from Adeyemi’s hometown of Munich, then signed the attacker for a reported €3.3 million.
After a short loan spell at FC Liefering, one of the several farm clubs in the much-criticized Red Bull network, Adeyemi returned to Salzburg, making his debut for the first team against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League at the age of 17.
Adeyemi looks like the most recent success Salzburg, a club known for providing a springboard for young attacking talents. The Munich-born winger is now tipped to be the next to be mentioned on a list which includes Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland and Liverpool’s Sadio Mane.
Although Adeyemi has at times been used as a wide player on the left-wing due to his pace, the young star is undoubtedly a forward that prefers to play through the middle of the pitch with an ability to score and create goals in equal measure.
He is very quick and has a great burst of acceleration, Adeyemi is solid on the ball with good build-up play and great dribbling ability and he is also willing to sacrifice personal gain for the team, something that is essential to the way Arsenal play and online casino nz believes the player can fit well into the team.
But perhaps his greatest asset is his composure. Adeyemi seems cold-blooded in front of goal and can exploit space between himself and the goalkeeper by utilising both feet.
It can be argued that his decision-making needs to improve, although this is the case with plenty of young players. His passing isn’t currently a strength either – Adeyemi achieved a pass completion rate of just 57% last season.
The player himself has also stated in an interview that the two areas of his game he wants to improve are the defensive contributions and perfecting his technique even further.