Robert Lewandowski? Nope. Man who’s name I can never spell, Aubameyang? Nope. Thomas Muller? Nope. Jamie Vardy? Nope. (He’s going to Real Madrid of course.) Neymar? Messi? Cristiano Ronaldo? Was injured, is injured, and nope. Europe’s leading scorer is in fact Alex Teixeira of Shakhtar Donetsk, having already scored 16 (!) goals in 11 league matches.
Now, technically, if we follow UEFA’s Golden Shoe methodology, Teixeira is only fourth since goals scored in the Ukrainian league count at 1.5x factor. But then that would ruin my lovely headline. And either way, that’s A LOT of goals already. (There are others who have scored in the 20+ range already as well, but their leagues, like Latvia or Ireland, are all on the opposite cycle, i.e. spring to fall.)
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In any case, all that’s slightly besides the actual point, which is that Chelsea have apparently not only made contact with Alex Teixeira but have already tabled an offer.
“I have an offer. It was a pleasure to know that Chelsea wants to sign me. It would be great if the transfer already happens in January.”
-Alex Teixeira; source: Mail
“When Douglas (Costa) and Luiz (Adriano) left last season, the coach (Mircea Lucescu) asked me to stay. I obeyed and stayed. But [he’s] aware that my desire now is to get out. I think that will facilitate this transfer, it will be good for the club. The president told me that [only reason he didn’t sell me was] because of these other two negotiations…”
“There are still speculations. I am very happy to know that a club like Chelsea are interested in me. It is important to compete in a league like the Premier League. If it were for January would be excellent. For my part would be great to face a new challenge.”
-Alex Teixeira; source: Globo Esporte via Google Translate
The two translations are a bit conflicting, but I suppose I trust the Mail’s version over my poorly translated-by-Google one.
If those quotes are giving you a strong sense of deja vu, I assure you’re not alone. Douglas Costa said very much the same thing back in January and then again in March, but then, despite the personal attentions from Mourinho, he ended up signing with Bayern instead (while we got, errr… Cuadrado, and then Pedro). While there’s no guarantee that Douglas would’ve made the same impact for Chelsea as he has made in Germany, it was a missed opportunity on our part nonetheless. Luiz Adriano (at AC Milan) also isn’t doing all that great, but Willian has been one of our most important players over the last couple seasons so perhaps dipping back into the Shakthar well of talent wouldn’t be the worst idea ever.
Globo do claim that Shakhtar would prefer to hang on to Alex until the end of the season, but beyond that it seems clear that the 25-year-old’s future lies in one of Europe’s big leagues. And it may just be Chelsea who give him that opportunity, especially given the recent confirmed meetings between coaches Mourinho and Lucescu at that fateful Ukraine vs. Spain Euro 2016 qualifier.SB NATION(we ain’t got no history)
