Arsenal have recently confirmed a club record signing of Gabonese superstar, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the former African Footballer of the year has been unveiled.
Below, brila is taking a look at 5 fun facts people should know about the new Arsenal poster boy from Central Africa Country, Gabon.
Arsene Wenger shakes hands with Aubameyang to welcome him to Arsenal – he has joined for a new club-record fee of £56m [Image: Arsenal via Getty images]
Anyone who has a little idea about Aubameyang knows that he is close to his father. The fact that he plays for Borussia instead of a team in the second division of England is because of his father’s advice.
But what is lesser known is that Pierre Aubameyang Sr. was a footballer himself who also happened to captain the Gabon international team during his time as a player.
A defender by trait, Aubameyang Sr. played 80 times for his national team and later became a scout at AC Milan.
4. He represented France in Junior level
Since Aubameyang was born in France, he was also eligible to play for them just like he was qualified to play for Italy.
However, with France, he wanted to give it a shot and, hence, didn’t refuse the offer to represent the under-21 team. In the end, he just played one game for the junior side and never again donned the Blue of France.
One could only wonder as to what could have happened had he gone to represent France full-time. They might as well have won the Euro 2016 instead of Portugal.
3. He’s always First
Firstly, he is the first ever Gabonese player to play in any German league. In fact, he scored a hat trick in his very first league appearance for Borussia Dortmund. Now that is some way to introduce yourself.
He also became the first – and so far the only Gabonese – to score at the Olympics when he smashed home the ball against Switzerland in a group game in the 2012 edition. So, we can actually tag him as the First One.
2. He’s Usain Bolt of Football
Speed is something that fascinates almost every football fan in the world. There are only very few sights better than watching a quick player run at full throttle and outpacing defenders like there is no tomorrow.
When Gareth Bale sped past Marc Batra in the final of the Copa Del Rey in 2014, Madridistas totally lost their senses to the pumping adrenaline.
And the same thing happened to Dortmund fans almost every other week.
When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang runs at full-speed, it feels like a cheetah has possessed the man. He leaves a lot of defenders chasing his shadow and makes them taste the bitter helplessness of watching him wreak havoc while they can do nothing about it.
A speedometer once revealed that the Dortmund superstar once clocked 30 meters in 3.7 seconds – something that would impress even Usain Bolt.
- He’s a mega-fan of Batman
If you see the man at a comic convention wearing a Batman costume, don’t be alarmed. His obsession with the Dark Knight borders on ridiculous, as the image show.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doing the Batman thing [Image: playerprofile]
