Junior Kroupi\u2019s first season with Bournemouth has developed into one of the Premier League\u2019s most eye-catching breakthrough campaigns. The France youth international has scored in his last two matches to reach 12 goals for the season, a total that equals the record set by Robbie Keane and Robbie Fowler for most Premier League strikes by a teenager in their debut season.<\/p>\n
That form has attracted interest from elite teams. The Times report that Premier League title rivals Arsenal and Man City are both monitoring him, and Barcelona are also named among admirers. Kroupi does not have a release clause in his Bournemouth contract, which makes any transfer discussion more complicated, and the south coast club are determined to retain him for at least another season. Bournemouth view him as a \u00a3100 million ($136 million) star in the making.<\/p>\n
Kroupi has been central to Bournemouth\u2019s unexpected campaign, one that could culminate in Champions League qualification. Only seven players have scored more than him in the Premier League this season, and just two of his strikes have come from the penalty spot. His goalscoring is complemented by versatility: he has been deployed as an attacking midfielder behind Evanilson and has not lost goalscoring output in that withdrawn role. Five of his strikes have come in 13 appearances as a No. 10.<\/p>\n
Technically, Kroupi\u2019s clean ball striking, close control and speed have produced a catalogue of high-quality finishes. He has often been used as an impact substitute this term, starting only 18 league matches and frequently being withdrawn before the 70-minute mark. Despite limited minutes, he is averaging a goal every 121 minutes in the Premier League, a rate bettered only by William Osula (117 minutes) and Erling Haaland (111 minutes) this season.<\/p>\n
Barcelona\u2019s potential need for a centre forward is noted in the context of Robert Lewandowski\u2019s expected departure and Ferran Torres remaining the only natural No. 9. Bar\u00e7a will consider several options, including more established names such as Juli\u00e1n Alvarez, while their financial constraints make a large outlay on a relatively inexperienced player a delicate decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Junior Kroupi has 12 Premier League goals as a teenager, and is being tracked by Europe’s top clubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,969,1163],"tags":[1162,1304,1651],"class_list":["post-13678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-premier-league","category-transfers","tag-analytics","tag-benching","tag-junior-kroupi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}