A fortnight ago, Brentford manager Thomas Frank labelled Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse as ‘maybe the best set-piece taker in the world’.
Better, he said, than even Lionel Messi.
Flash forward two weeks, however, and it’s another Paris Saint-Germain star making a play for Ward-Prowse’s free-kick crown.
The cynics will call it a fluke. An overhit cross. The power – and the devilish whip – Achraf Hakimi applied to his 25-yard net-burster during Morocco’s 2-2 draw with Gabon in the African Cup of Nations says otherwise.
Another Hakimi wondergoal, helping Morocco qualify for the quarter-finals at Malawi’s expense seven days later, was arguably even better than his first. Thumped at a ferocious speed into the top corner.
Did we mention that he hit the woodwork with another fabulous free-kick in the first half of that last-16 victory?
Is Achraf Hakimi really the best in the world?
A penchant for spectacular long-range shots is not usually something managers look for when they are scouting a new right-back.
But we are living in the post-Dani Alves era; a time where full-backs are expected to score and create goals, rather than merely stop them.
And Hakimi, perhaps more so than anybody else, more than Joao Cancelo, more even than Trent Alexander-Arnold, epitomises the much-changed role of the once humble right-back.
“Achraf Hakimi,” PSG team-mate Kylian Mbappe wrote on Twitter after the former Real Madrid youngster fired Morocco in to the last eight. “Best RB (right-back) in the world.”
Hakimi has already contributed six goals and assists to the PSG cause this season, thriving under Mauricio Pochettino in the French capital. His £40 million price-tag already looks like a bargain.
And, having missed out on Hakimi when he was still working miracles as Tottenham Hotspur, Pochettino is taking the ‘better late than never’ approach to his rocket-heeled right-back.
What could’ve been for Spurs
“Achraf is a young player (I have) been following since Tottenham,” Pochettino admitted to UEFA recently.
“We were on the verge of signing him for Tottenham, but then he went to play for Dortmund (on loan from Real Madrid).
“He has a great capacity to run, his physical potential is huge. He is young, he’s maturing at the defensive level, but he makes a lot of contributions in attack.”
Despite spending £26 million on Emerson Royal only a few months ago, Tottenham are once again looking for a new right-sided wideman.
A sentence that alone should tell you how things have gone for Emerson in North London.
Adama Traore is the number one target. Tariq Lamptey, Djed Spence and Manuel Lazzari are alternative options.
But while Traore looks a good fit for Conte’s wing-back system, Hakimi is almost tailor-made for that 3-4-2-1 blueprint. Seven goals and 11 assists under Conte at Inter Milan last season spell that out.
Pochettino was disappointed to see Tottenham miss out on Hakimi. With hindsight, you’d suspect he’s not the only one.
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