Youssoufa Moukoko Set For Link Up With Thomas Delaney At FC Copenhagen | OneFootball

Youssoufa Moukoko’s difficulties in Ligue 1 are over. The two-time Germany international is on the verge of signing a three-year deal with 16-time Danish champions FC Copenhagen.

According to a report in Ruhr24, Borussia Dortmund have negotiated a fee of €5m, which can rise with additional bonuses to a total of €7m.

Once considered one of the brightest talents in German football, scoring 141 goals and 27 assists at youth level for ‘Die Schwarz-Gelben‘, in 2018/19 alone, he scored 46 for the U19s, and yet at just 20 the Cameroon-born Germany international striker seems to have been through most of the highs and lows of a professional football career.

At just 16 years old, he became the youngest player in Bundesliga history, making his debut in a 5-2 win against Hertha Berlin in November 2020. The 1.79m centre-forward went on to make 76 appearances for Dortmund’s first team. Under former manager Nuri Sahin, despite scoring 17 goals, the signing of Maximilian Beier from Hoffenheim and VfB Stuttgart’s top scorer, Serhou Guirassy, resulted in the young striker’s exit, and the belief in the young striker wore out.

A loan to French club OGC Nice initially seemed like a promising opportunity. However, it soon became a setback as well.  Two goals in the 8-0 win against Saint-Étienne, and an assist, in 11 starts, was not enough to persuade the French club’s manager, Franck Halse, to take a gamble with a permanent transfer either.

The 1.79m striker, who hasn’t played a competitive game since a 1-1 draw at Toulouse in February, found himself on the bench or in the stands. With the door back to BVB appearing to be closed following the public announcement that the Germany international is among a list, including fellow striker Sebastien Haller, Gio Reyna, and Salih Ozcan, who the club have put on the transfer list, there appeared to be no end to the frustration.

However, that appears to have now changed with the transfer to the Parken Stadium, where Moukoko will link up with former BVB midfielder Thomas Delaney. Only Viktor Claesson, who scored 10 goals in 24/25, and Norwegian international striker Mohamed Elyounoussi, who scored 7, are reliable finishers for last season’s double winners, even with the talented Jordan Larsson showing increasing promise in front of the goal. The club needs a more consistent striker; the former BVB striker could become that player.

The question that arises is whether the deal is a good one for BVB. Valued at €10m by Transfermarkt and with a contract at BVB that runs until 2026, the €5m transfer appears, at least on paper, to be more of a win for FC Copenhagen’s sporting director, Sune Smith-Nielsen.

Despite the poor performances in Ligue 1, which France’s leading sports magazine L’Equipe reported Nice coach Franck Halse saying as being down to “a drop in confidence,” the Cameroonian-German striker, who had a $1m boot sponsorship deal with leading US-Sportswear brand Nike at just 16, remains a once-in-a-generation talent who can still achieve a breakthrough in the game.

Whilst Moukoko, who will also link up with BVB loan keeper Diant Ramaj at the Danish club, missed out on Germany’s U21 European title challenge at the ongoing tournament, which could yet lead to a fourth title in Slovakia, a promising return in the Superliga, which kicks off on July 18th, could see the former BVB centre-forward return to the orbit of Julian Nagelsmann, who has been hunting for a consistent scorer eligible for the German national team for some time, in time for the World Cup 2026.

A return to playing for the 4-time World Champions may seem a tall ask when pitted against the likes of Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz, Jonathan Burkhardt of Mainz 05 and Tim Kleindienst of ‘Gladbach, but Moukoko, who at 15 was named by Samuel Eto’o: “a player to follow in Lionel Messi’s footsteps”, has always been a uniquely gifted talent.

At this stage, no details have been made public of whether a buy-back clause has been inserted into the contract with the Danish club, however, with the exception of 52-time Sweden international Alex Isak, as the cases of striker talents Bradley Fink, Justin Njinmah, and Julian Rijkhoff, who were all highly regarded but were all let go by the club when they failed to reach their potential and have not reached it since, demonstrate, the Westfalian club can count on strong judgement when it comes to assessing centre-forward talent.

Former Borussia Dortmund defender Niclas Jensen, now a leading agent who also represents Martin Ødegaard and won the Danish title three times with FC Copenhagen, welcomed the deal: “Moukoko is young and has a lot of talent. If confirmed, this is a strong signing by FC Copenhagen. I will be excited to see Moukoko playing in Denmark.”

Moukoko will join the Danish team at their training camp in Austria on Wednesday if the deal goes through as anticipated.