The Karl Toko Ekambi Story
Why Villarreal splashed out on Karl Toko Ekambi?
A Cameroonian born in Paris 25 years ago, Karl Toko Ekambi has developed into the all-star striker envied by clubs around the league. Ekambi began his career in 2010 with the then third-tier Paris FC, where he then was promoted to the senior team in 2011. The young Cameroonian’s career only got more interesting for him as he has and continues to have inspiring performances, but especially last season, and that is the reason why the Yellow Submarine had to recruit a new shipmate.
Last year, Ekambi was named African player of the year in France after having a stellar season with Angers where he scored 17 goals, 9 of them in first 18 matches, creating a buzz throughout the league that Ekambi is a star on the rise. As a result, his trade value was increasing, and the English club, Brighton & Hove Albion attempted, but failed to acquire him being rejected from their €12 million bid. Both Angers and Ekambi knew they could get more money than that, and besides, Ekambi had his heart set on a small Spanish club to begin with…Villarreal CF.
Ekambi comes to Villarreal as their first acquisition of the year. His contract with Villarreal extends to five seasons. There is confidence within the club that Ekambia can be Cedric Bakambu’s replacement, the striker who left to play for the Chinese Super-League team, Beijing Guoan. Bakambu was Villarreal’s top scorer last year, and even won La Liga’s Player of the Month award in October where he scored 6 of his total 14 goals.
Villarreal is confident that Ekambi can adapt quickly to the team not only due to his skills, but his language capability as well as he recently finished a 3-week intensive Spanish course (Check out the video below to see Ekambi speak Spanish fluently: https://twitter.com/VillarrealCF/status/1004761867061952513).
According to analytics for Football Whispers’ Player Performance, Ekambi is rated at 86 (as shown in Figure 2), making him the fifth highest in France’s top tier. Despite the struggling past season Angers had, Ekambi only kept on improving.
Villarreal believes Ekambi will be a boost to their front line, with hopes that he will help the club keep in contention for next year’s Europa League.
Excited to see Ekambi in action?? THEN YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS THESE HIGHLIGHTS!!!
https://twitter.com/Eng_Villarreal/status/1005008486504304640
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ORE0mqjAM
Endavant, Ekambi!