Christopher Nkunku targeting ‘a lot of great things’ with Chelsea

Christopher Nkunku is one of the many new faces at Chelsea this summer, and his arrival has gone a bit under the radar seeing as how it was arranged way back in September and just about confirmed in December, so by the time the summer rolled around, all we needed was the official announcement. That arrived in due course and Nkunku joined up in plenty of time for the preseason tour.

But that shouldn’t take away from the potential likelihood (if not expectation) of Nkunku playing a key role for us this season (and well beyond), with the 25-year-old not only one of the older players in the squad at this point, but the one with the most proven track record in front of goal with 58 goals in 88 appearances over the past two seasons for RB Leipzig.

Of course, we don’t have to look back too far to find another Leipzig striker coming in with a similar record only to fail to reproduce it — Timo Werner had 53 in 82 for Leipzig, then had 23 in 89 for Chelsea — but obviously every player has their very own story.

Nkunku’s story is off to a decent enough start, with two goals in our three preseason games so far, and he’s settling in nicely with his new teammates as well.

“I want to show what I can do. This is just the beginning. I still need to adapt. To come here and score directly in the first game, I was very happy. The first thing in my mind is to adapt with the team and my teammates – with the club also – and improve every day.

“[...] I was dreaming of playing in the Premier League. This is the league where I wanted to play in my career and have the chance to be. It is the biggest league in the world and every great player wanted to play in this league.”

There’s already a very nice feeling of togetherness coming out of the camp, with everyone working hard towards the shared goal of getting Chelsea back to where we belong.

And for Nkunku, that would be just the start.

“In this project the main thing is about the team. We want to be up in the table, achieve the Champions League [qualification] next season. This is the main thing, and then after yeah I have some goals, but I keep that personal. [We] need to prepare ourselves to be ready for the first game.

“[...] I want to work in every session, every game. I know I can do a lot of great things here. We will see in the future but I am not scared about anything.”

-Christopher Nkunku; source: Chelsea FC

Love to see that confidence. Hopefully it’ll translate to results as well!