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Meet Bahoya... the Bundesliga's fastest player attracting PL interest
Eintracht Frankfurt’s Jean-Matteo Bahoya is the only player in Bundesliga history to surpass 37km/h since records began. Only three have done it in the Premier League. For context, Usain Bolt’s average speed when he set his 100m world record in 2009 was 37.58km/h.
Electric pace is not Bahoya’s only eye-catching attribute. The left-sided forward completed 2.78 take-ons per 90 last season, superior to 94 per cent of the wingers in Europe’s top five leagues. It is a potentially lethal combination and explains why Arsenal and Spurs are among the Premier League clubs keeping a close eye on him.
“In his first step, he kills you,” Bahoya’s Frankfurt team-mate, Junior Dina Ebimbe, tells Sky Sports . “Today some players pass the ball to make a two v one. But he really plays one v one. He’s not scared to take his man on. In a one v one, he always passes his man.”
Dina Ebimbe encountered a shy boy when Bahoya arrived from French second division side Angers two-and-a-half years ago, but the 21-year-old is now approaching the next stage in his career. Could he follow close friend Hugo Ekitike and Omar Marmoush to the Premier League?
Catch him if you can: Jean-Matteo Bahoya is Next Up .
Why Bahoya’s profile is so in-demand Premier League managers are being forced to come up with new solutions to combat the craze of man-to-man marking that has swept the English top-flight. The challenge is breaking the defensive chain, because once you do, more often than not, chaos ensues.
Having a player with the capacity to consistently beat their man is kryptonite against man-to-man marking. Only four Premier League players completed more take-ons per 90 in the league last season than Bahoya, while only two outperformed him in the Bundesliga.
Jeremy Doku is the gold standard for this metric. The word often associated with the Belgium winger is “unpredictable”, and that is exactly how Bahoya’s U17s coach at Angers describes the 21-year-old.
Like Doku, Bahoya’s unpredictability is not limited to his one-vs-one supremacy. “He can make runs from deep, play between the lines, and wide on the touchline,” Manu Guidicelli tells Sky Sports . “He can go right or left for a dribble – and above all, he can finish the actions.”
Having the capacity to drag your marker into areas of the pitch they do not want to be is another effective method of unlocking man-to-man marking. Guidicelli taught Bahoya how he could exploit his speed advantage in these scenarios at Angers.
“We made him understand he had this ability, and he quickly understood," says Guidicelli, who highlighted Bahoya's footballing IQ as one of his strengths, "and then he scored more goals. When he made those runs from deep, it was hard for defenders to catch up with him."
Asked about Bahoya's acceleration, Dina Ebimbe says: "It's too much. Maybe you can catch him after a while, but at the start, you're definitely not going to see him again. His steps are so quick and he can change direction very fast.”
Winning duels and making interceptions can be an even more effective way of creating an offensive advantage. Bahoya has made this another strength in his game after a lot of work since arriving in Frankfurt.
“He works a lot in the gym,” says Dina Ebimbe. "It changed everything for him because he was too slight when he joined. Everyone pushed him. He was always on the floor. He started work in the gym, and last season we saw his body was really different.”
Bahoya ranked in the top 11 per cent for duels won per 90 (8.9) and top 10 per cent for interceptions per 90 (0.88) among wingers in Europe’s top five leagues last season. His 2.1 tackles per 90 also placed him in the top 13 per cent of that same group.
"Jean-Matteo, in the athletic point, he's really top," says Dina Ebimbe. "He can run and make a lot of sprints. He's one of the fastest players in this league. And now he's becoming stronger."
Can Bahoya deliver on his ‘crazy potential’? “Jean-Matteo can go to a top six club in the Premier League,” says Dina Ebimbe. “He has crazy potential and all the qualities to have a big career.” The challenge for Bahoya now is becoming more consistent in the two metrics everyone focuses on.
The forward’s chance creation last season (2.1 per 90) places him in the top 10 per cent of wingers in Europe’s top five leagues, demonstrating the threat he possesses, but a return of four goals and four assists shows improvement is required.
Dina Ebimbe, who considers Bahoya to be his “little brother”, is in full agreement: “For sure, he needs to score more goals. You can run everywhere on the pitch, but we only remember who scores. Our role is just about statistics. If you score, we talk about you.”
Bahoya scored three goals and set up another in his first three games last season yet struggled to keep that up. “When he was in this mode, it was crazy. He's one of the fastest players in the league, dribbling and passing, but he has to do it every game,” says Dina Ebimbe.
“Everyone says he is a kind guy. On the pitch, he has to be selfish, desperate to score. Then things are going to change. He has to take responsibility when he enters the pitch and say, ‘I’m taking this game'."
Asked how Bahoya can achieve this mentality, he adds: “Maybe one morning he's going to wake up and say, 'I don't give a f*** this season, I'll score because I don't pass the ball'. It’s up to him. He decides.”
Bahoya was prolific in the season he worked under Guidicelli for Angers’ U17s, scoring 30 goals in 25 games and establishing himself as the brightest young talent at an academy that has a history of producing top players like Manchester City’s Rayan Ait-Nouri.
“The year before we started working together, Jean-Matteo managed a few goals,” says Guidicelli. “But [with us] he exploded. He confirmed what we all thought. We knew he had the potential to go to the top.”
Explaining why Bahoya thrived, Guidicelli says: “He was an offensive leader of the team. Jean-Matteo is a boy who needs to fee...
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