After watching Sebastien Haller flounder at the London Stadium, few West Ham fans would’ve predicted his rise to stardom at Ajax.
The 6-cap Ivory Coast international scored just 14 goals in 54 games for the Hammers, following a £45m move from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Haller was then sold at a £24.8m loss to Ajax, who spent £20.2m on the striker and handed him a £68,000-a-week contract.
Now, the 27-year-old is even outdoing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, in the Champions League of all stages.
What’s the story?
Well, after scoring in the 4-0 win over Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, while also grabbing two assists, Haller has achieved something special.
As WhoScored shows, the towering striker is now the best-performing player in the Champions League this season, and by some distance.
Haller has earned an average rating of 9.14, which is 0.35 more than his next closest competitor in Leroy Sane, who has earned 8.79.
Robert Lewandowski, who remarkably scored 48 goals in 40 games last season, finds himself third on the list with 8.38.
Clearly, Haller is outdoing a number of world class players, not just Messi and Ronaldo.
With this information in mind, David Moyes may be kicking himself that he let Haller leave east London.
However, with Michail Antonio in the form of his career, scoring goals in both the Premier League and in Europe, we doubt he cares that much.
West Ham hopefully included big Sebastien Haller sell-on clause
If Haller keeps this up, it’s not out of the equation that he makes another big-money move elsewhere.
The Champions League is the pinnacle of club football, and major clubs are surely sitting up and taking notice of his efforts.
As a result, we hope the Irons included a big sell-on clause when offloading him to Ajax, so they receive a significant cut if he does move elsewhere.
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