Jeremy Doku is edging closer to joining Manchester City after the English giants agreed a £55m fee for the Belgian talent.
The 21-year-old has never played in England after rising through the ranks of Belgium football before starring in France for Ligue 1 side Rennes.
Doku boasts impressive speed and skill with Pep Guardiola keen to bring in more attacking talents before the summer transfer window slams shut.
Who is he?
After losing Riyad Mahrez, it is believed that Doku could replace him in City’s attack in a position where academy graduate Cole Palmer is also hoping to secure regular first-team minutes.
Mail Sport takes a look at what Doku, who is undergoing a medical at City today, will bring to the Premier League when he finalises his move to the reigning champions.
Doku isn’t a household name to Premier League supporters but has gone under-the-radar to become one of Ligue 1’s upcoming stars.
The 21-year-old, born in Belgium, descends from Ghanaian parents and was born just four days before the 2002 World Cup got underway. Twenty years later he would travel with Belgium as part of their competition squad for the same tournament in Qatar.
He grew up in a neighbourhood just a few minutes away from Belgium professional club Antwerp, but despite the proximity to the club would go on to be snapped up by Pro League rivals Anderlecht at the age of 10.
As he entered his formative teenage years, Doku began to put European clubs on alert, with his unbelievable pace and trickery making others sit up and take notice as he was handed his first professional appearance at just 16.
He scored his first senior goal for the Belgium giants against Oostende and followed that up with his first cup goal just a few days later as Anderlecht supporters began to recognise they had a special youngster in their midst.
Liverpool wanted to sign Doku after his breakthrough campaign and even flew him and his parents to Anfield for talks with Jurgen Klopp and a tour of the club’s training complex.
However, despite meeting Mohamed Salah and being told he could be the perfect heir to Sadio Mane, Doku didn’t want to pursue a move to England and instead opted to join Rennes in a deal worth in the region of £22m as Anderlecht cashed-in on their academy talent.
Jeremy’s brother and agent, Jefferson Doku, admitted that it wasn’t a difficult choice to make and went on to make his Rennes debut at the start of the 2020-21 season after signing a five-year deal with the club.
He would go on to uproot former Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar by completing the most successful dribbles in a Ligue 1 match (12) and finished his opening year in the nation with two league goals.
Doku would go on to become a mainstay in the team, despite suffering a series of muscle and ligament injuries in his second year at the club, and featured in European competition with a move to Man City seeing him prepare to play in the third league of his career.
What are his strengths?
Speed, trickery, and outstanding dribbling skills are the key qualities that will have attracted Pep Guardiola to the youngster.
Raw pace runs in the family with his father, David Doku, reportedly earning credit as an athlete in his youth while attempting to balance sport with raising a family of four children.
However, Jeremy has excelled in honing his speed and has become a nightmare for Ligue 1 defenders to deal with as his balance and acceleration make it a near-impossible task for others to keep up with him.
Doku boasts excellent physical capabilities and reached a career top speed of 19.57mph, just eight short of the fastest man ever Usain Bolt’s record.
Nicknamed the ‘Belgian Flash’ after the superhero character ‘Flash’, Doku has received plaudits from some of the biggest names in football for his terrifying speed.
Kylian Mbappe, who is no slouch himself, previously admitted that Doku had really impressed him while speaking with Get French Football two years ago.
Mbappe said: ‘Recently I was talking with my father about which players impressed me when I was injured.
‘One of them, because of his speed, is Jeremy Doku from Rennes. In five years as a professional football player, I have never seen someone develop so much strength from a standstill as him.’
However, it’s not just his blistering pace that has caught the attention of the Premier League and Champions League holders, with Doku able to play on either wing with confidence.
His link-up play and strength in one-v-one scenarios with defenders see’s him rarely shoved off the ball as he moves into attacking areas.
Doku also thrives in coming off the ball into the middle of the park where his decision-making resembles that of a far more experienced player.
What people have said about him
Mbappe has already marvelled at Doku’s speed, but the Rennes winger has also received plenty of praise from other team-mates and competitors.
Former Belgium coach – now Portugal boss – Roberto Martinez once labelled the player as ‘magic’ when speaking before last year’s World Cup.
Doku has received plenty of praise from team-mates and competitors.
‘When I talk about him, I have to smile. He’s one of those players who brings magic to his game. We need players who can be one-on-one,’ said Martinez.
‘It’s true that he hasn’t played enough but I don’t agree that his body is difficult to handle.’
Doku will also soon be linking up with his Belgium national team-mate Kevin De Bruyne at Manchester City, with the sensational playmaker previously echoing similar sentiments about the young star.
After Belgium cruised to a 5-1 Nations League victory over Iceland three years ago, De Bruyne identified some of the key talents that Doku possesses.
‘He is nimble, fast and he can dribble. Of course, he sometimes makes a mistake, but who doesn’t? He is a diamond in the rough,’ said De Bruyne.
Quite the praise from some of the biggest names in the sport for the 21-year-old.
Are there any complications?
His move to Manchester City should go through without any major hiccups. The player appears keen on joining and the reigning Premier League champions have the necessary funds to push the deal through.
However, at just 21-years-old there is always the risk that forking out on potential may not bring in the rewards that early career signs have promised.
City only have to look at their neighbours Manchester United and the huge sums they have forked out on promising talents in recent seasons to see the risk involved.
The 21-year-old has struggled with sporadic injuries over the last two seasons in France
The Red Devils forked out £73million to Borussia Dortmund for winger Jadon Sancho in 2021 with the Englishman at the time hailed as one of Europe’s best young talents.
He has so far failed to build on that status and has dropped down the pecking order with United having to reinforce their attack with other arrivals and Sancho appearing to need a strong season to prevent being shown the exit door.
Doku’s injury record is also questionable with his spectacular spell at Rennes interrupted by a series of problems that have seen him flutter in and out of the team.
The Belgian missed 11 Ligue 1 matches last season through a combination of muscle injuries and prior to that missed 39 games at both club and international level in the 2021-22 season through similar problems.
