Geraci: Harry Kane pushes the German League strikers to raise their level to be able to compete with him
“I knew nothing about these statistics,” says Guinean striker Serhou Geraci, laughing, after being informed that he had scored one of his first eight shots on target in the German Premier League during what could be described as a miraculous start for the Stuttgart striker this season after he broke so many numbers. standard. After scoring five goals in the first three matches of the season, Geraci scored a perfect hat-trick – with the right foot, left foot and header – against Mainz on September 16, which meant that he scored eight goals in just four matches, before scoring two more goals. Against Darmstadt the following week.
After the 27-year-old player failed to score in the match in which Stuttgart beat his former team Cologne with two unanswered goals, he made up for it by scoring another hat-trick in just 15 minutes against Wolfsburg at the beginning of last October. A hat-trick in the German Premier League for more than 50 years. Thus, Geraci broke the record scored by Polish striker Robert Lewandowski in the 2019-20 season when he scored 11 goals in the first seven matches, before scoring another goal a week later in the match in which his team won 3-0 over Union Berlin, which made him – in the That stage – the top scorer in the five major leagues in Europe.
“Before our match against Union Berlin, I did not know that if I scored 14 goals in eight matches, I would break the record,” says Geraci, an international player for the Guinea national team who grew up in the Loré department, two hours south of the French capital, Paris. I’m just playing my usual way, and if I can score or create goals then I will do it. When you’re going through a good period, you want to give more. “I am happy with what I achieved, but it is not over for me. I want to continue.”
Geraci’s decisive goals helped lead the club, which had been facing the specter of relegation in recent seasons, to compete for one of the qualifying places to participate in the Champions League next season. During the period in which he was absent from the field recently due to a hamstring strain, Stuttgart lost two consecutive matches in the German Premier League to Hoffenheim and then Heidenheim. This allowed English striker Harry Kane to top the list of Bundesliga scorers after his hat-trick against Borussia Dortmund. But Geraci is ready to make up for his absence in the upcoming confrontations.
The Guinean striker says: “It was never the right time to get injured and be sidelined, but this is football, and this is life. I’m completely calm, and lucky that the injury wasn’t more serious. It’s great to compete against Harry Kane, who is a world-class striker. “I think he pushed a lot of strikers in the German Premier League to raise their level to be able to compete with him.”
This great success had been expected for a long time by his coaches in the youth team at the “J3 Amelie” club. The president of the French club, Olivier Rolland, described him as “a fox inside the penalty area,” saying: “Serho has a great presence, and always knows where he is.” It must be.” Of course, scoring goals is a skill that always comes naturally, and the Guinean striker says: “I always try to be in the right place at the right time. Last season I was able to score some easy goals because I was successfully anticipating where the ball was going. It’s an instinctive thing. When I was younger I loved to run all over the field, but I learned how to move better. I watch a lot of football matches on TV and I like to watch players like Lewandowski, Kane or Erling Haaland, and analyze what they do. I learn from the best players. Scoring goals is an art that must be worked on. “I like to have the ball, but the most important thing is to be ready inside the penalty area.”
He adds: “It is also about self-confidence. You can miss one chance in a match, but you have to be more focused on the next one. I try not to get nervous, because being nervous will definitely make you miss opportunities. “In football, you cannot take advantage of all the opportunities you have.” That self-belief proved crucial when Guirassi was struggling with injuries at Cologne, where he moved as a 20-year-old in 2016 after playing for Laval and Lille, and after a successful loan spell with Auxerre in the top flight, when he scored eight goals. In 16 matches. He scored the winning goal for Cologne from the penalty spot against Arsenal in the Europa League in 2017 after being fouled inside the box by Mathieu Debuchy, but the club was relegated that season, and Guirassi returned to France via the Amiens Gate.
Geraci broke records by scoring 14 goals in 8 matches (dpa)
“Maybe I was very young and didn’t know myself as I know myself today,” Geraci says. I had a lot of injuries, but it was a good experience – in sport you have to learn from these things in order to be successful in the future. I am one of the people who thinks a lot about the future, not only in football, but in life in general. Sometimes you go through difficult times, but you should know that this is not the end of the world. “It is important to be able to keep going and never give up.”
Guirassi had to go through relegation again in the 201-2020 season, in which the Corona virus spread, although his nine goals with Amiens caught the attention of officials of the Rennes club, to which Guirassi moved and topped the list of top scorers in the season in which the team qualified for the Champions League. Europe for the first time in its history. Geraci initially joined Stuttgart on loan, before making his move permanent in the summer. Geraci has impressed and was nominated last week for the African Player of the Year award.
The young Guinean star says: “I woke up to my phone ringing, and I didn’t know why. I am very happy with that. I know that my chances of winning the award are difficult, because Victor Osimhen had a very good season, but it is a very beautiful thing because this means that you are appreciated by others, and this is something that drives me forward and to work with all my strength.” It is certain that Geraci’s chances to compete with Harry Kane for the title of top scorer in the German Premier League will be affected by his absence from the field for some time to participate with his country’s national team, Guinea, in the finals of the African Cup of Nations next January. Guinea plays in the “Group of Death” alongside defending champion Senegal, in addition to Cameroon and Gambia. “I think Senegal and Cameroon are not happy with us either,” Geraci says.
There is a release clause in Guirassi’s contract with Stuttgart of up to 17.5 million euros, which may prompt some English Premier League clubs to move to include the Guinean striker in the next winter transfer window if he continues to score with such prolificacy. “I can’t hide these things – everyone knows the Premier League is one of the most intense and competitive leagues in the world,” says Geraci. But at this time I am not closing the door to any club. There are some very big teams in Europe, and it’s not just the Premier League clubs. We have a good team in Stuttgart, and anything is possible in football. “If we continue to play with focus and humility like we are doing now, we have a good chance.”
* The Guardian service
2023-11-11 18:36:19
#fans #injured #clashes #police #fans #Hamburg
