Tuesday 14 April 2015 16:30, UK
Porto winger Yacine Brahimi has been linked with a host of Premier League clubs including Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham. Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich offers the latest chance for the Algerian to impress…
Production has been steady. Last summer, Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando went to Manchester City for vast sums. A year earlier, Monaco picked up James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho. It was Hulk in 2012 and Falcao in 2011. In fact, dating back to Pepe's move to Real Madrid in 2007, Porto have sold at least one player for a fee in excess of £20million in seven of the last eight summers.
Although he's only 16 league games into his Porto career, the £5.6m signing of Yacine Brahimi already looks a bargain and he is more than capable of becoming the club's next big-money export. It certainly didn't take long for the Algeria international to announce himself. The 25-year-old scored a hat-trick against BATE Borisov on his debut in the Champions League proper in September and the manner of it highlighted his quality.
The first goal came after dribbling past his marker on the outside and shooting high left-footed into the net. The second goal was different. This time, Brahimi cut inside his man and fired low right-footed just inside the far post. The hat-trick was completed by a free-kick into the top corner. In between, there were examples of close control, passing range, pace and power. As Portuguese-based journalist Tom Kundert reveals, the fans have been wowed from the start.
'Superb dribbler'
"Brahimi is doing fantastically well," Kundert told Sky Sports. "He's a superb dribbler and has proved to be a real handful for opposition defences. He's scored some spectacular goals and is already a big favourite at the Estadio do Dragao. Tello and Adrian were thought to be the marquee signings by Porto in the summer, but Brahimi has outshone them both, and was the team's best performer in the first half of the season, before he went off to the Africa Cup of Nations."
Algeria were among the favourites going into that tournament, so a quarter-final exit was something of a disappointment. Even so, Brahimi impressed sufficiently to find himself targeted by the opposition. "During the Africa Cup of Nations, most defensive midfielders resorted to innocuously clipping his heels nipping any ensuing danger in the bud," Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi told Sky Sports. "Brahimi was fouled 3.7 times per match in the group stages, and a whopping seven times in the quarter-final against Ivory Coast.
Improvement
"What makes Brahimi one of the best dribblers in world football is that he can half-turn on a sixpence, and once facing goal, very few defenders have the ability to execute an open-field tackle against him. Brahimi has only recently turned 25 and the trajectory of his recent improvement is incredibly promising. The discovery of an end product in the final third of the pitch hints at further progression."
The underlying statistics during Brahimi's time at La Liga side Granada had hinted at this potential. Having made his loan deal at the club permanent in the summer of 2013, he proceeded to be named the best African player in Spain last season with his direct running proving particularly impressive. The numbers were remarkable. Brahimi completed 164 dribbles in La Liga, one of only two men to make more than 100 of them. The other was Lionel Messi and he was over 20 behind.
Good company
Brahimi has carried that threat into the Champions League with Porto this season. Again, it's the company that he's keeping that will intrigue the technical scouts. Only Messi at Barcelona and the Chelsea winger Eden Hazard completed more dribbles per 90 minutes than Brahimi in the Champions League group stages. As well as the hat-trick against BATE, there was another man-of-the-match performance in the win at Athletic Bilbao as he grabbed a goal and an assist.
This is the end-product that had been missing from Brahimi's game at Granada where he scored only three goals in 36 games. That tally has long since been surpassed and he added a fifth European goal of the season in the 4-0 win over Basel last month. Brahimi is second only to Jackson Martinez in the Porto scoring charts and, encouragingly, has also admitted that he is "learning every game" since his transfer.
It’s the sort of attitude that’s helped Porto into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, something that the club failed to achieve when the likes of James and Falcao were there. However, it's the accomplishment of Rabah Madjer, the last Algerian to wear Porto's No 8 shirt, that Brahimi will be looking to emulate now.
Madjer won the European Cup with the club in 1987, beating a much-fancied Bayern Munich team in the final. The German side will be favourites again for their quarter-final meeting on Wednesday but if Brahimi can help them even come close to a repeat then Porto will have yet another superstar asset on their hands. Arsenal and the rest may well be watching with interest.
Watch Porto v Bayern Munich live on Sky Sports 5 HD from 7.40pm this Wednesday
