Former Everton youngster Niels Nkounkou now has three assists in his last two Bundesliga games with the one-time Premier League prospect earning comparisons to David Beckham due to his pinpoint crossing ability.
It was certainly a delivery the Manchester United would have been proud of, albeit delivered from the left flank rather than Beckham’s favoured right.
Niels Nkounkou, once of Everton, raced down the wing and threaded an inch-perfect cross into what is colloquially known as the ‘Corridor of Uncertainty’, removing the Leipzig defence and their helpless goalkeeper from the equation as Ansgar Knauff tapped home an early winner at the back post for Eintracht Frankfurt at the Red Bull Arena.
“It was incredible,” German football expert Manuel Veth tells the Gegenpressing podcast. “It just slices open the entire Leipzig backline.”
“The Frankfurt goal was incredible,” agrees Stefan Bienkowski. “Nkounkou will probably never recreate another assist like that for the rest of his career. I’m trying to remember who it reminded me of. Maybe, like, old-fashioned Man United-era David Beckham, perhaps.
“It’s just the way he manages to curl it around the entire defence and pull everybody out of position, and Knauff is obviously quite happy to tap it home.”
Three assists in two Bundesliga games
Nkounkou joined Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton from Marseille when his contract expired back in 2020 but made only two Premier League appearances for The Toffees. Everton accepted a reported bid in the region of £2 million when St Etienne opted to make his loan spell in France permanent last summer, with Les Verts then seizing the chance to make an immediate profit when Frankfurt came calling.
Now, after following up a brace of assists against Borussia Monchengladbach with another away to Leipzig, comparisons are already being drawn between Nkounkou and arguably the finest footballer of Frankfurt’s modern era, Filip Kostic.
“I have never given an assist like that before,” an almost-disbelieving Nkounkou told Sky Germany. “Our coach told us that RB would defend very high and that we should play the ball into the space behind the backline
“I did that.”
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