FEATURE | Kevin Gameiro: Strasbourg’s Antoine Griezmann isn’t done yet | OneFootball

Many were surprised when it was revealed that former France striker and Strasbourg hero Kevin Gameiro was to rejoin his boyhood club after a fruitful eight years in Spain. Some might have seen the transfer as a sentimental decision with Gameiro in his mid-thirties but, since re-joining Strasbourg, the striker has proved his doubters wrong, continuing an impressive goal-scoring record, even in the twilight of his career.

Gameiro, born in Senlis around 25 miles north of Paris, joined Strasbourg’s youth academy from US Chantilly in 2004 on the recommendation of former Strasbourg player-turned-scout Jacky Duguépéroux, who captained Strasbourg to their only Ligue 1 title in 1979. Gameiro made his professional debut for Strasbourg against Paris Saint-Germain on September 10th 2005, aged 18. That December, he made his European debut against Red Star Belgrade, scoring his first professional goal to tie the game late on at 2-2. After three years with Strasbourg, following a second relegation to Ligue 2 in that spell, Gameiro was sold to Lorient for €3m, despite strong interest from Marseille.

At Lorient, the young striker exploded. Before leaving for PSG in 2011, he managed to rack up 50 goals in 108 appearances for the mid-table side where his consistent scoring record prompted a push for his inclusion in the national team. However, an injury just before the March international break in 2010 prompted France coach Raymond Domenech to decide against selecting the striker. That summer, with Gameiro again not selected, France put up an appalling display at the World Cup in South Africa as they were knocked out in the group stages after a shock defeat to the hosts. Following Domenech’s departure, Laurent Blanc brought Gameiro in for France’s EURO 2012 qualification matches, the striker making his debut against Belarus as a second-half substitute in August 2010.

His scoring form remained consistent for Lorient into the 2010/11 season, and despite reports that Les Merlus had accepted bids from Valencia and Bordeaux in January, Gameiro stayed in Brittany until the summer when PSG secured his services for around €11m plus bonuses. Two years, one Ligue 1 title and 19 league goals later, Gameiro signed for Sevilla for a fee of €10m. Under manager Unai Emery, Sevilla and Gameiro managed an incredible hat-trick of Europa League titles between 2014 and 2016, with Gameiro scoring the game-winning penalty against Benfica in 2014, and the equaliser against Liverpool in 2016, just 17 seconds into the second half. In that final year with Sevilla, Gameiro managed 10 goals in 15 games in Europe, and posted the tournament’s top minutes-per-goal ratio.

After scoring 39 goals in 92 games for Sevilla, Gameiro, aged 28, joined Atlético Madrid, for an initial fee of €32m, rising to €40m after add-ons. In his first year at the Vicente Calderón, he managed 16 goals in all competitions from 46 games, followed by a further 11 from 37 games in his second season, after the Madrid club made the move to their new stadium, the Wanda Metropolitano. Aged 30, Gameiro joined Valencia and showed no signs of slowing down playing 55 games in all competitions, scoring 12 goals. The 2019/20 season saw his highest shot conversion rate (0.33) and the highest non-penalty xG per shot (0.25) in La Liga, beating the likes of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann.

Then, as the world awaited a first full season since the COVID-19 pandemic, Gameiro, now out of contract, re-joined Strasbourg, 13 years after leaving for Lorient. His arrival was met with shock among Strasbourg fans and Ligue 1 pundits alike – it all seemed to come out of nowhere. Yet, this signing was not a sentimental ‘last hurrah’ for Kévin – he had unfinished business in Alsace. In his first season back, Gameiro helped Strasbourg take their push to Europe to the very last match, and contributed to one of the most potent attacks in Europe, which only PSG bettered in terms of goals in Ligue 1 up to March.

As a younger man, Gameiro was known for his gut-busting energy, pace and efficiency inside the box. His eye for goal was clear as soon as he burst onto the scene at Lorient, and this carries through to the present day. Even if he has lost a yard of pace as he approaches his mid-thirties, Kévin still knows where the back of the net is and, in his second stint at Strasbourg, has shown he can pick a pass as well (à la Antoine Griezmann in Didier Deschamps’ World cup line-up), finding space and putting balls on a plate for his fellow attackers, Habib Diallo and Ludovic Ajorque. This season, the 35-year-old has five goals from 12 starts in a Strasbourg team that look well off the pace, showing there might be yet more to come. After all, the only Frenchmen who can claim to have scored more goals in Europe’s top five leagues since the year 2000 are Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry.