Benjamin Sesko is missing | OneFootball

Benjamin Sesko is the name on everybody’s lips.

Both Newcastle United and Manchester United trying to sign him.

Previously, the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea all reported to have looked at Benjamin Sesko as a potential transfer target.

However, none of those five Premier League ‘big six’ clubs deciding to make any kind of a move to try and buy the Slovenia international.

Instead, it has been left to the sixth of those ‘big six’ clubs Manchester United, eventually left fighting it out with Newcastle United (the seventh club who make it a ‘big seven’?) for Benjamin Sesko.

Manchester United having endured their worst season in over 50 years and without a single Premier League first eleven centre-forward on their books, leading to such levels of desperation to try and sign the RB Leipzig striker.

Whilst Newcastle United looking to add Benjamin Sesko to Alexander Isak and make it up to the necessary two strikers needed to tackle a massive Champions League and Premier League season, or alternatively to replace Isak and also finance a second striker as well.

With all of these headlines, I thought I would check out the Bundesliga scoring charts these past couple of years, see what all the fuss is about when it comes to Benjamin Sesko…

Bundesliga top goalscorers 2024/25

26 Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)

21 Patrick Schick (Beyer Leverkusen)

21 Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund)

18 Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz 05 and now signed by Eintracht Frankfurt)

16 Tim Kleindienst (Borussia Monchengladbach)

15 Omar Marmoush (Eintracht Frankfurt now with Man City)

15 Hugo Ekitike (Eintracht Frankfurt now with Liverpool)

15 Ermedin Demirovic (Stuttgart)

(***Benjamin Sesko is missing!)

Bundesliga top goalscorers 2023/24

36 Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)

28 Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund)

24 Lois Openda (RB Leipzig)

18 Deniz Undav (Stuttgart)

16 Maximilian Beier (Hannover 96 and now with Borussia Dortmund)

15 Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim)

15 Ermedin Demirovic (Augsburg now with Stuttgart)

(***Yes, Benjamin Sesko is missing again!)

Here’s a thought…

Maybe Newcastle United should be having a look at this Harry Kane character?

Turns out he is in his 30s but still these last two seasons has not only been out in the lead in the Bundesliga scoring charts, but is indeed lapping almost all of the competition! How many goals would Harry Kane be scoring in Germany, if he was still in his mid to late 20s prime? Kane has scored 62 goals across these last two Bundesliga seasons, if in his prime I reckon it would have been at least 80+.

Manchester United seemingly set to land Benjamin Sesko for £80m, even though in neither of his two seasons has he managed 15 Bundesliga goals (Sesko scored 13 last (2024/25) season and 14 in 2023/24) AND has this list of characters above him each of the two seasons.

Whilst Liverpool have paid around £80m as well for a Hugo Ekitike who scored 19 goals in total across these last two Bundesliga seasons, at the age of 23 the Frenchman having had one good goalscoring season in his entire career so far.

Would I have been upset if Newcastle United had signed Ekitike, or if they actually now manage to win the race for Sesko after all? No. However, £80m for each of them and no doubt crazy wages beyond what Newcastle United pay any of their current players, you have to say these are serious high stakes gambles on youngish players who have actually achieved so little. Ekitike hasn’t even had a call up for France yet, never mind starring for his national side! As for Sesko, with all the hype about him I remember watching him play at last summer’s Euros when he managed zero goals, then also in the Champions League for Leipzig last season, he scored four goals but in the matches I saw I didn’t see any wow factor.

It doesn’t mean Benjamin Sesko can’t/won’t score loads of goals in the Premier League but…the jury is out.

You look as well at strikers such as Undav and Kramaric, who both were miserable failures in the Premier League, yet outscoring Benjamin Sesko. Maybe it is my age and not playing football manager etc but I haven’t even heard of some of the other names scoring far more goals in Germany than Ekitike and Sesko.

With the spotlight on Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike, yesterday saw some excellent research from football finance/analysts Jason Laws and Kieran Maguire highlighting how ‘successful’ strikers are when moving from the Bundesliga to the Premier League…

Food for thought.

So £80m for Hugo Ekitike and £80m for Benjamin Sesko, having scored so relatively few goals in the far weaker Bundesliga.

Yet Liverpool have the cheek to offer £110m for Alexander Isak, a striker who last season scored 23 in the Premier League, 21 PL goals in 2023/24 and 10 goals from 17 PL starts in his injury hit first 2022/23 season at Newcastle.

Harry Kane went to the Bundesliga at the age of 30 and is averaging 31 league goals per season. How many would a 25 year old getting ever better 25 year old Alexander Isak score if he went to the Bundesliga???

I reckon Alexander Isak would score more goals than Hugo Ekitike AND Benjamin Sesko combined next season, whether all three were playing in the Premier League or the Bundesliga.

On that basis, I reckon for sure that Alexander Isak is then worth more money than Ekitike and Sesko combined.