None of his teammates feature
Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah has exclusively revealed to JOE what his ultimate player would look like.
To put into context, the Gunners star was given certain attributes that would help design the ultimate footballer. They were:
- Passing
- Speed
- Dribbling
- Shooting
- Strength
- Football IQ
It’s fair to say that the forward’s choices caused quite a few surprises but sadly, there was no place for any of his current or former Arsenal teammates.
Passing
Nektiah decided to go with Xabi Alonso for this one and you honestly can’t blame him.
That range of passing was a joy to behold and even now as manager of Bayer Leverkusen, we’ve seen that clip of him spraying 40-yard passes like they’re the easiest thing in the world.
Speed
Blink and you miss Kylian Mbappe when he’s running – with or without the ball.
It’s electrifying and the Frenchman could well be considered for the majority of these categories. This dream footballer would be breezing past the opposition with plenty of pace to burn.
Dribbling
Ronaldinho was the obvious candidate for Nketiah – he didn’t even stop to consider anyone else.
“He’s my favourite, man,” exclaimed the forward. We all used to get lost in watching Ronaldinho make fools out of his opponents and dribble past them as if they weren’t there.
Shooting
Sadly Nektiah didn’t say himself but he did pick someone perfectly capable: Harry Kane.
Goals, goals, goals is what you get with this man. Even in a Bayern Munich side looking likely to have a first trophyless season in 12 years, he’s still scoring week in week out.
He’s also the record goalscorer for England so yeah, I think this is more than adequate when building the dream footballer.
Strength
Didier Drogba was the name mentioned for this.
So many of the goals scored throughout his career involved him shrugging off defenders and burying the ball in the back of the net. An absolute nightmare to play against.
Football IQ
Nketiah nearly went with Xavi for this one but settled on Sergio Busquets.
Either one would’ve been brilliant but Busquets was a master at dictating the play. Allowing Xavi and Andreas Iniesta to strut their stuff, Busquets was there orchestrating the game in the middle and quite frankly telepathic at times.
Nketiah was speaking at Under Armour’s launch event for their brand new boots: Shadow Elite 2.
As well as the real Nketiah there was also a ‘Shadow Eddie’, a holographic representation of Under Armour athlete and forward.
Speaking about the launch of the new boot, Nketiah believes that the Shadow Elite 2 has helped to improve his overall game after he helped to design the boot.
“The responsiveness design of the UA Shadow Elite 2 football boot helps me make those decisive decisions on the pitch, taking my game to the next level,” he said.
“It’s been great to be part of the process of designing the boot, and I can’t wait to see how everyone responds to them.”
Related links:
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- Jurgen Klopp refused to shake Chris Kavanagh’s hand at full time
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