Everything you need to know about Joaquin Panichelli, European football’s breakout star | OneFootball

Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have dominated the goalscoring charts in 2025-26 so far, but fourth in the race for the European Golden Shoe is a breakout star by the name of Joaquin Panichelli.

A year ago, almost nobody was aware of the young forward, who was in the wilderness out on loan in the Spanish second division. Now he’s the top-scoring South American in Europe’s major leagues and getting linked with clubs including Chelsea and AC Milan.

We’ve compiled the lowdown with everything you need to know about European football’s hottest property.

The story so far

It’s been a remarkable rise for Panichelli, who looks as though he’s got everything in his locker to become one of 2025-26’s biggest breakthrough stars.

Few, besides avid Football Manager obsessives and amateur scouts with a penchant for Spanish second-tier football, had heard of the forward even six months ago. Now he’s mixing it with the European elite.

Born and raised in Cordoba – the region of Argentina that produced the likes of Ossie Ardiles, Mario Kempes and Fabricio Coloccini – he started out at local side Racing de Cordoba and later developed his skills in the youth ranks of Belgrano and River Plate, with an unsuccessful trial at Boca Juniors along the way.

Panichelli never made it beyond River Plate’s youth team, eventually making a low-cost, under-the-radar move to Alaves, then in Segunda Division, in January 2023.

A knee injury stopped the youngster playing more than a fleeting, fringe role in Alaves’ 2022-23 promotion to La Liga, while he barely moved the needle in their first season back up. Just eight games, two starts, zero goals.

But he really kicked on with a loan transfer back to the Segunda, signing for relative minnows Mirandes. He fired their surprise promotion charge, averaging an impressive one-in-two strikerate (20 goals in 40 games).

The young Argentine even scored in the play-off final, opening the scoring in the second leg to put Mirandes two goals up on aggregate, before Santi Cazorla’s Real Oviedo fought back with three goals on home soil.

Only Almeria’s Luis Suarez (not that one) scored more goals in the Segunda last term – and his goalscoring prowess was enough for Strasbourg, who have proven themselves canny operators in the transfer market, to make a move for his signature.

And he’s immediately hit the ground running with his first proper run in a major European league, notching eight goals in his first nine Ligue 1 appearances. 7

Panichelli has never represented his country at any level, but you’d expect Lionel Scaloni to call him up for Argentina’s upcoming friendly against Angola in the November international break.

Keep up this form and it’s likely he’ll join the likes of Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez among La Albiceleste’s attacking options as they look to defend their World Cup crown next summer.

Play style

According to FBref‘s in-depth statistical algorithm, the players who most closely resemble Panichelli in terms of play style are Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick, Inter’s Lautaro Martinez and Athletic Bilbao’s Gorka Guruzeta.

WhoScored rate the 23-year-old’s biggest strengths as finishing, particularly with his head, and his defensive contributions. Holding the ball up, laying it off and playing short passes are also listed as facets to his game, while his only listed weakness is getting caught offside.

Panichelli’s clinical finishing is borne out by the stats, outperforming his ‘expected goals’ with six non-penalty goals from just 4.8xG. It’s still a small sample size for now, but his prolific 20-goal season at Mirandes suggests he’s a confident finisher.

His recent, statement-making two-goal display away to perennial Ligue 1 champions PSG (a brilliant 3-3 draw) was a perfect snapshot of his game – against elite opposition.

He’s not devastatingly quick and isn’t much of a dribbler, but he doesn’t stop running the channels to keep the opposition centre-backs honest.

The equaliser against PSG demonstrated his outrageous aerial prowess, timing his run and leap perfectly before powering a perfectly-placed header from a considerable distance.

“The header is one of the best that I have seen live,” Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior said after the match.

For the real Tacticos out there, we recommend checking out this in-depth thread from analyst Francisco Maldonado on Panichelli from the start of the season, long before

What’s been said

“The performance was one of the best centre-forward performances I have seen live, and it doesn’t surprise me, because he maximises himself in training every day,” Rosenior continued, praising Panichelli after his breakout performance in Paris.

“He works so hard. He has an unbelievable mentality, and he has brought a winning mentality to this group.

“His goals, the way he took them, was incredible, but he led the line incredibly today, and I was very proud of him.”

Playing like this, links to Strasbourg’s sister club Chelsea are surely inevitable.

“BlueCo are over-the-moon with what is going on at Strasbourg, the football they are playing under Liam Rosenior and the players who are blossoming under his guidance,” transfer journalist Graeme Bailey told TBR Football.

“Strasbourg have some outstanding players and someone like Panichelli, he was plucked from the Spanish second division but looks top quality.

“Sources point out to me that this is the advantage of being able to blood these players in France, ahead of potential moves to England.”

The man himself has made no secret of his ambition to one day play in England.

“I want to establish myself at Strasbourg and play in the Champions League in the future,” Panichelli said, outlining his career goals.

“I would like to move to the Premier League. Of course, getting into the national team is a dream.”