Just three days after Rafael Leao scythed his way through the Inter backline and slotted an inch-perfect finish into the bottom corner, Noah Okafor performed a more-than passible impression of the AC Milan whizzkid. From an almost identical position to boot.
During the early stages of the Rossoneri‘s Champions League group-stage opener against Red Bull Salzburg, Okafor slipped the ball through the legs of a sprawling Pierre Kalulu before repeating the trick immediately afterwards; nutmegging Mike Maignan and giving the Austrians a shock lead.
Forget Leao vs Inter, this was Lionel Messi vs Bayern Munich revisited; complete with a stumbling centre-half and an ice-cool finish.
“The man who speaks four languages plays the ball between four legs. Brilliant as always,” Gazzetta dello Sport wrote in their post-match autopsy.
“The forward put in an excellent first half,” add Tuttomercatoweb. “He confirmed himself as the most dangerous player on his team, and was also the best in the second half.”
Noah Okafor shines as Salzburg secure 1-1 Milan draw
Salzburg have been here before, of course. They know from experience what Champions League exposure can do for a player’s reputation.
Erling Haaland and Takumi Minamino ripped Liverpool to shreds during the group-stage three years ago. Both players were on their way out the door just a couple of months later.
Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen, Karim Adeyemi and Mohamed Camara all departed for a combined fee in the region of £80 million last summer too. Their reward for helping Salzburg reach the knock-out rounds for the very first time.
Okafor, after his masterful, mesmerising, Messi-esque piece of magic, could be sitting pretty in the next cab off the Red Bull rank.
Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United have already shown an interest, per Nau and BILD. Ditto Inter Milan. Borussia Dortmund too. And Okafor’s reported £10 million price-tag would have looked that bit more tempting as he bamboozled Milan’s Serie A-winning defence; scoring one of the finest individual goals you will see in this season’s group-stage.
“He has magnificent technical qualities; speed and power,” former Swiss U21 coach Mauro Lustrinelli says of Okafor.
And every one of those attributes – the speed, the power, the magnificent technical quality – were on show as Okafor led Milan a merry dance, channelling his inner-Leao with a goal the Rossoneri talisman would have been proud to call his own.
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