A lot of African players have risen to prominence in the world's biggest leagues, but not many in the continent's history have been better than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. His time at Chelsea seems to have clouded many people's opinions about his quality, but the Gabonese deserves to be given his flowers.
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The act of giving a person their roses or flowers is universally recognised as an acknowledgement of love and/or praise. It is an expressive way of showing an individual affection, and following his time in west London, the 34-year-old may be in need of some.
What happened to Aubameyang at Chelsea?
In September 2022, the pacey attacker returned to the English capital to sign with the Blues as a potential reunion beckoned with his former head coach Thomas Tuchel. The Premier League giants were in desperate need of a consistent goalscoring threat after the erratic performances of club-record signing Romelu Lukaku, and the German tactician turned to a player who was reliable for him in the past. Unfortunately for the French-born attacker, he came into a side that was in extreme fluctuation. The club had just been recently taken over by a consortium led by American billionaire Todd Boehly and with that came change at the top, which destabilised the squad as well. The new owners spent €281 million (R5.6 billion) on eight new arrivals during that off-season and while that may have seemed ideal in theory, practically this proved a disaster. Tuchel failed to get the team to play cohesive football and almost all of the new signings struggled to hit the ground running, including Aubameyang. The head coach would be fired in September, but the west African's form remained poor even two managers later, leaving him with only three goals in all competitions at the end of the season.
Why does Aubameyang deserve his flowers?
Having started out SC Bastia before joining AC Milan's youth ranks, to not quite crack it at the highest level there and then still being able to ascend from France's second division all the way to becoming a Premier League Golden Boot winner is a commendable achievement. Since his second season with Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1 in 2011/12, the ex-Gabon captain has been finding the back of the net with extraordinary regularity. He has scored 213 goals in 378 top-flight matches playing for the biggest European clubs. The forward has won Golden Boot honours in both the Bundesliga and the EPL, the only man to ever achieve this, and he is also his country's all-time top goalscorer (30 strikes). The 2015 CAF African Men's Player of the Year has shone brightly against his sides' biggest rivals too, scoring braces against Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid during his various stints with Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Barcelona. These are accomplishments not many top-level strikers are able to boast about and Africa's very own has been able to accomplish them. The forward has perhaps been unfortunate to often be the player a whole team relies on, and never the player who is the cherry on top of an excellent side, but no matter the circumstances, the skilful striker has always managed to step up.
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What's next for Aubameyang?
The Laval native now looks destined for a departure from Stamford Bridge, with rumours suggesting he is nearing a move to Olympique Marseille. The move itself speaks a lot for how highly the attacker still rates his abilities to be able to continue competing at a high level. The Milan youth academy product was also rumoured to be a target for Saudi Arabian clubs, but he instead chose to still show he can contribute in a big way for a top side. Last season, another former Gunner, Alexis Sanchez, was Marseille's talisman and Aubameyang will have perhaps viewed the Chilean's performances and thought to himself that he might also be capable of helping the Ligue 1 giants compete in France as well as in the UEFA Europa League. His recent spells in London, both with Arsenal and Chelsea, have not ended pleasantly but the brief stint in Catalonia in between illustrated that even in his later years, the 74-cap Gabon international is still capable of bagging the goals.
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