Serhou Guirassy Has 14 Goals in JUST 8 GAMES

We spoke about the Bundesliga last week, about how Leverkusen are crushing it. We didn’t spend too much time on the team currently in second, Stuttgart. They’ve also been doing well this year, and it is in large part thanks to Serhou Guirassy. Serwho?

Serhou Guirassy is a 27 year old striker who joined Stuttgart from Rennes last summer. Last season he had 22 appearances and 11 goals. The year before that in Ligue 1 he had 9 goals in 37 appearances.

Guirassy grew up in France to Guinean parents and played through the French youth national team but ultimately decided to play for Guinea on the senior level.

This year he has 14 in 8. He’s scored more than half of Stuttgart's goals. He has almost 2 goals a game.

Isn’t it incredible that in the incredibly thoroughly scouted European football there can still be a diamond in the rough. Someone who’s gone 27 years before being trusted and breaking through?

Serhou Guirassy has been playing in the European leagues since he was 17, starting out in France’s second tier for Stade Lavalloise and took the step up to Lille in Ligue 1 in 2015. After a short and not so successful stint where he only played 8 games he moved on to Köln where a few rocky years of relegation and promotion as well as not playing too much he moved back to France.

“A few rocky years of relegation and promotion as well as not playing too much” could also describe his time back in France, this time with Amiens. It wasn’t until he moved on to Rennes his luck changed.

Starting Consistently

In Rennes he got time to play - 27 games in his first season and, although his goal scoring wasn’t the most impressive, he was a nailed on starter and played 37 games in his second season. This caught the attention of Stuttgart, which he joined on loan last summer.

Last season wasn’t a great season for Stuttgart. The team finished 16th in the Bundesliga, but Guirassy still managed to score 11 goals, reportedly catching the eye of Chelsea this summer. Then again, which attacker didn’t catch the eye of Chelsea this summer.

Guirassy’s first season at Stuttgart went well enough that the club decided to make the transfer permanent. Rennes took a bit of a loss on the sale of the Guinean.

This season Stuttgart has started out with an almost perfect record, and Guirassy has been a big part of it. Just look at how he’s improved this season compared to all his other seasons:

Source: FBRef https://fbref.com/en/players/923f4dda/Serhou-Guirassy#all_stats_standard

Only twice in his career has he scored double digits and his average goals per 90 minutes is about one every other game. This season he’s almost got four times that average.

This Season for Guirassy and Stuttgart

Stuttgart and Leverkusen both have historically good starts to their seasons. Both teams place in the top five for best starts to a season ever.

And Guirassy, at 27 years old, has the best start for any attacking player, ever. Overtaking Lewandovkis legendary 20/21 start to the season. He has finally had his breakout. And what a breakout.

He is very much an out and out striker, much like Morata or Lukaku who likes to run against the defense. He’s good with his back against the goal and has an instinct for finding the ball in the box and is hailed as a world class finisher. Not a big contributor defensively though.

What's next for Guirassy?

This weekend he scored again, when Stuttgart beat Union Berlin but the game ended for Guirassy in the 30th minute when he had to get off injured. Reports say he’ll be out for a few weeks at least. Sadly, this means that his incredible start to the season has now gotten a little set back. But let’s hope he’ll come back as strong after this injury and keep adding to his already incredible tally.

Rumour has it that Guirassy has a release clause in his contract of €20m and that multiple Premier League clubs have turned their scouting eye towards him. Brighton (and we all know how good their scouting is) and West Ham being the most interested. 

But, with Stuttgart going so strong, his place in the team being cemented after a rocky start to the career and him already (reportedly) having turned down Chelsea, maybe he prefers staying.

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