Born to score goals | OneFootball

With an average of 0.74 goal involvements per 90 minutes, Michy Batshuayi is a proper fox in the box. We place the winter signing under the microscope.

A natural-born centre-forward

“Michy is a player who has plenty of experience, including in Europe, as well as quality in the box and as a finisher,” board member for sport Markus Krösche said of the new signing’s key attributes.

A rare but telling over-30 signing

Krösche’s faith in Batshuayi’s abilities is illustrated not only by the Belgian’s two-and-a-half-year contract, but by the fact that the 31-year-old is only Eintracht’s third signing over the age of 30 since 2021. Thirty-two-year-old goalkeeper Jens Grahl arrived at the club in 2021 before being joined a year later by Mario Götze, who had just turned 30 at the time. Both players found their feet very quickly at Eintracht, and both wasted little time in penning early contract extensions.

Speaking of Götze: Batshuayi is the fifth current Eintracht player to have spent time at Borussia Dortmund, after the aforementioned 2014 World Cup winner, Mo Dahoud, Ansgar Knauff and Nnamdi Collins. Götze and Dahoud already know all about Batshuayi after he spent the second half of the 2017/18 season on loan at BVB from English Premier League side Chelsea. The striker scored seven goals in ten Bundesliga appearances as well as two goals in four Europa League outings, before an ankle ligament injury brought a premature end to his campaign. Those seven league efforts included a double in an impressive half-hour cameo against Eintracht, when he came off the bench in the 62nd minute, made it 2-1 to Dortmund 15 minutes later before scoring the decisive winner in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time.

A proven goalscorer Impacts such as those have been the rule, rather than the exception, since the Brussels-born frontman made his senior debut as a 17-year-old for Standard Liège on 20 February 2011. In a career spanning 15 years and nine clubs, Batshuayi has… *

*not including European qualifiers or play-offs

Add to that an average of 0.13 assists per 90 minutes and you get 0.74 direct goal involvements per game.

He has also found the net with 17 of his 22 penalties.

Third at 2018 World Cup

Batshuayi registered seven goals in 13 appearances for Belgium Under-21s and has netted 27 times in 56 senior international outings to date. He helped the Red Devils finish third at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

A domestic cup winner in Belgium, England, Spain and Turkey, Batshuayi has shared a pitch with Eintracht defender Arthur Theate on five occasions. “I’m very pleased Michy is here with us in Frankfurt now,” Theate said on the Eagles’ newest goalscorer. “He’s a great person who always has a smile on his face. He’s also someone who likes to work hard. Michy is one of the best goalscorers I know. I can’t wait to play with him at Eintracht.”