Christopher Nkunku will not be denied. By the time he scored RB Leipzig’s second in a 3-1 win over Freiburg on 56 minutes, he’d already hit the post, the bar and forced Freiburg’s Mark Flekken in to a brilliant save. Twenty minutes later, he’d won the penalty that sealed the win and moved them in to fifth.
The goal, a cool chip over Flekken, was his eighth in the last seven league games, in which the Red Bull-backed side have won 17 points. Those numbers alone were good enough for Nkunku to get in the French World Cup squad, which was named on Wednesday, but French coach Didier Deschamps also knows the reigning world champions have a player at the apex of class and confidence too.
Nkunku, like Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman who is also in the French squad, was allowed to leave boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain for a relatively low fee, €13 million ($13 million) in his case, as the Qatari-owned club splashed the cash on bigger names. After a couple of seasons of German fans seeing fleeting flashes of his ability, Nkunku flourished last season under Domenico Tedesco, winning the Bundesliga Player of the Year award.
Nkunku on form ahead of World Cup
But Marco Rose’s arrival in September has perhaps made him even more clinical. Nkunku often plays a little closer to goal than he did under Tedesco but has a touch more freedom to go wherever he finds space. And he always does. Not only does Nkunku possess touch, pace and composure, he’s also an intelligent player whose movement is razor sharp. And he’s riding a wave.
“My confidence has always been high,” the forward explained earlier in the season. “Sometimes I have certain doubts, but my confidence has never left me and I try to always show that out on the pitch. I also work hard to further build this confidence. Most of the time, confidence is key to helping you achieve your goals.”
His performances helped RB Leipzig recover from a slow start to claim a Champions League spot and German Cup win last season and, after Tedesco paid the price for a similar sluggish beginning this time, Nkunku and Leipzig are repeating the dose. Rose has taken them from the bottom half when he took the reigns, to fifth.
Bundesliga big guns back on top
With interlopers Union Berlin and Freiburg starting to fade and Bayern Munich approaching their best, the top of the Bundesliga is starting to look a bit more familiar. With Union and Freiburg meeting on Sunday, it’s quite possible that four of Germany’s five Champions League entrants this season (Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Bayern and Eintracht Frankfurt) could be this season’s top four when Nkunku and the rest fly out to Qatar. The fifth, Bayer Leverkusen, are gathering steam under new coach Xabi Alonso.
Nkunku has thrived as the main man at Leipzig, with Timo Werner’s (ultimately, temporary) departure to Chelsea coinciding with his uptick in form and output. He will not be that with France, whose squad is stacked with talent that includes Kylian Mbappe, Coman and Karim Benzema among the forward options.
Though he’d walk in to most sides, Nkunku has found chances hard to come by for his national team. Deschamps resisted calls to try the 24-year-old out for a long time, before finally relenting in March.
“His profile has developed a bit, he used to be a wide player, now he’s more in the middle, a second striker, in a system where he has a lot of freedom,” Deschamps said at the time. “He is also closer to goal. With us, he will of course be used in that sector.”
After 75 minutes in his debut against the Ivory Coast, Nkunku has made seven more appearances, completing 90 minutes only once and having to make do with a substitute appearance more often than not. That looks likely to be his role in Qatar. But he has the explosive ability to make an impact at any time. Or, for Leipzig at the minute at least, every time.
Edited by: Rebecca Staudenmaier
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