Eddie Mungai

I was inspired by Beng Manuel’s article in African Football HQ on Cameroonian striker Jean-Pierre Nsame of BSC Young Boys in the Swiss Super League to write a response. After reading this article and researching his statistics over the last few seasons, I am ashamed to say this was the first time hearing of this prolific goalscorer. The article poses this question: Can Nsame move to Europe’s big five leagues? To answer this question, I provide a comparison with an African center-forward that made the move to Europe’s big five leagues at 27 years of age (Nsame’s current age): Côte d’Ivoire striker Seydou Doumbia.

To clarify, Europe’s big five leagues are the following: the English Premier League, France’s Ligue 1, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, and Spain’s La Liga. As the African Football HQ article mentioned, Nsame played for Angers SCO for four years. A product of their youth academy, Nsame made 18 of his 23 appearances in Ligue 2 and served several loan spells at Amiens SC and Carquefou in the French third division. Nsame did play in Ligue 1 with Angers following their promotion at the end of the 2014/15 season, but he only played 5 games (a total of 60 minutes) and was released by Angers at the end of the 2015/16 season. Not great. After scoring 60 goals in 94 games for Young Boys (40 goals this season), he has earned the right to be suited by the likes of West Ham. But at age 27, I’m sure there’s trepidation amongst clubs in the big five European leagues.

Seydou Doumbia was also a 27 year-old center forward in their prime that garnered interest from clubs in the big five European leagues. Ultimately, he made the move to AS Roma. Prior to his move, he was also the top scorer in the Swiss Super League for Young Boys from 2008-2010 and amassed 95 goals and 36 assists in 150 appearances for CSKA Moscow in Russia. After completing his move to Roma in January 2015, he made 13 appearances, only registering two goals. What followed the 2014/15 season was a series of loan spells to CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, and Premier League outfit Newcastle United. Doumbia made a permanent transfer to La Liga side Girona in the summer of 2018, where he made 22 appearances, scoring only three goals. If we look at Doumbia’s time in the big five European leagues, he had a total of 39 appearances, scoring only five goals. Abysmal.

I am not saying that Nsame would have similar failure to Doumbia if he made a move (back) to a big five European league at this stage of his career. But I do think a center forward moving to a big five European league at 27 is a little late, and I can understand why some clubs have some reservations. Wilfried Bony, Demba Ba, and Odion Ighalo all moved to the big five European leagues at 25, 23 and 19 respectively, and they had successful stints. It’s a possibility clubs from the big five European leagues deem 25 as the cutoff for acquiring African center forwards. But maybe the 60 minutes Nsame played with Angers in Ligue 1 four years ago could serve to be a positive factor in determining his success in a big five European league, if he decides to move from Young Boys this summer transfer window.

Do I think Nsame should move to a big five European league? No. He should enjoy his prime with a great team. That great team could be in Portugal, Belgium or Scotland (apparently Rangers are interested in him). But I think he should stay with BSC Young Boys and enjoy his prime there.

What do you all think? Vote below! Comment!