Will Andre Onana Be A Good Signing For Inter? | OneFootball

It has been well documented that Inter Milan have long been pursuing him and now it looks like they’re set to land their man with all but formalities preventing the unveiling.

What we are asking though is will Andre Onana be a good signing for Inter?

Who Is Andre Onana?

Rewind a couple of years and Onana, who started his career at the Samuel Eto’o academy and then with Barcelona youth, was one of the hottest goalkeepers in world football; his exploits between the sticks for Ajax helped them to the Eredivisie title, KNVB Cup and, most notably for most football fans, the Champions League semi-final where his side memorably blew a lead to hand Tottenham a spot in the final.

Those performances saw him scoop several individual accolades too including being named Cameroon’s footballer of the year and the best African keeper.

The honours kept rolling too; last season, Onana and Ajax again dominated in Holland with the same league and cup double.

Controversy

Despite having a glittering CV at the age of just 25, which is young for a keeper, it has not all been plain sailing for Onana.

In February 2021 he was banned from football for a year; he was found to have taken a banned substance.

His explanation of using some of his partners medicine was accepted but only to the tune of knocking three months off his ban. It still puts a question mark against him for a lot of people. Inter, however, clearly have no such issue.

What can Inter fans expect?

Shot Stopping

In terms of Onana’s goalkeeping prowess, Inter are getting a quality goalie. Sure, at 6’3 he’s not amongst the tallest players and he couldn’t stand a chance against the athletes in NFL Super Bowl futures. Even in goalkeeping terms he isn’t exactly tall.

Still, anything he lacks in height he makes up for in reflexes. Shot stopping is the bare minimum you expect from your goalkeeper but Onana is very strong in that department; one of his biggest qualities being how quickly he can get down to low shots although his positioning helps in that regard too.

How Is He With His Feet?

Another key area for goalkeepers in the modern era of football is how they distribute the football. Onana has been schooled at Barcelona and matured with Ajax. It might not surprise you to learn that he’s fairly tidy when it comes to retraining possession.

He oozes calm on the ball and rarely chooses the wrong decision when playing out. That does sometimes see him go a bit longer with his distribution, which hampers his percentages but the flip side of that is you don’t see him playing his team into danger.

Aerial Command

The final area we want to touch on is about how Onana commands his area. Depending on your outlook, he’s either very good or very poor at this aspect of his game.

You will not see him flying through bodies to claim every ball and that means sometimes he’ll let things go where you want him to come but, equally, when he does come to claim it’s unusual for him to let you down.

What About Handanovic?

Samir Handanovic is currently the club number one keeper and has been a loyal servant to Inter but, at 37-years-old, he hardly has much left in the tank for a team looking to establish dominance for years to come.

It’s expected Handanovic and Onana will share keeping responsibilities for the remainder of this season; from there on out it’s all about Onana.

So, will Andre Onana be a good signing for Inter? We certainly think so.