Precocity, supersub, a shooter's eye… George Ilenikhena’s performances by the numbers!
He has performed incredibly well in his first season in the top flight. Having arrived from Amiens last summer to sign for the Belgian club Royal Antwerp, George Ilenikhena did not need to adapt, scoring 14 goals in 50 games. These are remarkable stats for someone who has just signed Thursday with AS Monaco as a striker. Here’s an opportunity to look back at his numbers in more depth, thanks to Opta. 📊
Top scorer born in 2006 or later 👶
Aged just 17 – he will be 18 on 16 August – the pure left-footer is therefore a member of the 2006 generation. It’s quite simple, with eight goals scored in the Jupiler Pro League, he is the only player born in 2006 or later to have scored more than five goals in the top 10 leagues in the UEFA index, notes Opta.
8 – George Ilenikhena est le seul joueur né en 2006 ou après à avoir inscrit plus de 5 buts dans les 10 premiers championnats à l’indice UEFA (8 au total). Monaco. #WelcomeIlenikhena pic.twitter.com/mQyoVZvJ9N
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) July 25, 2024
He is notably ahead of the Golden Boy of the last Euro Lamine Yamal, Lorient’s Eli-Junior Kroupi, both with five, or Warren Zaïre-Emery, who scored four times with PSG.
Second-youngest scorer in the Champions League 🇪🇺
Ahead of his generation, the Nigerian also got into the record books in the Champions League last season. Scoring in added time against Barça, allowing his team to obtain a first victory in the competition, he became the second-youngest scorer in the history of the competition, at the age of 17 years and 119 days, just behind Ansu Fati (17 years and 40 days). This ranking of precocity — which also includes Breel Embolo, ninth (17 years and 263 days).
A supersub in record mode 🌟
This is all the more remarkable as a peformance as he only needed eleven minutes to find the net against the Blaugrana, proving once again his qualities as a supersub. Regularly used in this role by Mark Van Bommel, he has in fact scored six times in this way in the Jupiler Pro League, or one goal every 181 minutes, with no player in the competition doing better.
(Already) a cold-blooded scorer 🥶
The former Amiens player is also extremely effective in finding opponents’ nets. With a goal every 5.3 shots, he has needed very few chances to score, while being able to find the net in complex situations. Indeed, according to Opta, he has the best goal-xG difference in the Belgian first division (1.68 – 8 goals scored for only 6.2 expected xG).
Very involved in the box 🔝
Already very intelligent in his movements, especially to stand out, he knows perfectly how to position himself in the opponent’s 18 meters to receive good balls. And this is materialized in figures since with 20%, the native of Lagos in Nigeria displays the third best ratio between his total number of touches (422) and those in the opponent’s area (84) in JPL.
These are particularly promising statistics that he will try to build on, starting this Wednesday, during the team’s fourth preseason match which will pit AS Monaco against Feyenoord (kick-off, 7:30 p.m.). Daghe George! 💪
