Dortmund and Cologne's goalscoring graduates

Haaland, Aubameyang, Silva & Haller: Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt’s goalscoring graduates

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Erling Haaland, Sebastien Haller and Andre Silva (l-r.) are among the recent examples of excellent strikers unearthed at Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt.

From Sebastien Haller and Andre Silva to Erling Haaland and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt have a history of producing some of the most feared goal scorers in the game.

Ahead of Saturday’s top-six clash between the two clubs, Clevpicks.com takes a closer look at some of the prolific forwards the pair have seen plunder goals for them across the decades.

Erling Haaland: Borussia Dortmund 2020-22

Augsburg must be scared of what will happen if a Dortmund striker makes his or her debut the next time they play each other. Haaland set the tone for his goal-filled time in black and yellow by scoring a hat-trick in just 23 minutes after coming off the bench (see below). Aubameyang was one thing, but Haaland was quite another.

He became the first player in Bundesliga history to score seven goals in his first three games thanks to braces in his subsequent two games, and he just kept on going after that. The figures defy belief: 86 goals in 89 Dortmund appearances across all competitions, including 15 in 13 UEFA Champions League games, and 62 goals in 67 Bundesliga games.

“Sometimes people say to me that I’m not normal,” Haaland told SportBild during his time in Germany. “Maybe they’re right [laughs].” Having seen how he has started life in the English Premier League following his summer 2022 switch to Manchester City, perhaps they are! And he reckons he’s not anywhere near the finished article.

“I always try to improve things, even if they’re actually good already,” Haaland said. “That drives me. I definitely have enough potential to continue to improve in many areas over the next 10 years. When I’m 30 years old, I have to see if I can really do everything. But maybe it will be even better then.”

Tony Yeboah: Eintracht Frankfurt, 1990-95

Yeboah’s goal against Liverpool will stick in the minds of Leeds United supporters. The former Ghanaian international’s thunderbolt of a bomb that burst in off the crossbar will actually be remembered by any football fan in England in the 1990s. At the moment, Frankfurt supporters were likely thinking to themselves, “Yep, seen that before!”

He became the first African player to finish as the Bundesliga’s top scorer while playing for the Eagles from 1990 until he went to Leeds in January 1995, scoring a lot of spectacular goals in his 68 goals in just 123 Bundesliga appearances for them.

“It was incredible,” admitted Yeboah, who – along with Andy Möller and Uwe Bein – formed a formidable attacking trio. “I now often watch videos of our games and can hardly believe the goals I scored.”

Yeboah’s ability to score goals first caught the attention of second division Saarbrücken when he arrived to Europe in 1988. After spending time in England, he returned to Germany and scored 28 goals in 100 league Bundesliga games with Hamburg before leaving in 2001.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: Borussia Dortmund 2013-18

Aubameyang didn’t quite emulate Yeboah, who twice won the Torjägerkanone while playing for Frankfurt, but he did lead the Bundesliga in scoring in 2016–17 with 31 goals, which was a record for a player who wasn’t born in Germany at the time. The Gabon forward showed off his well-honed goal-scoring instincts while playing for Dortmund.

After moving to Dortmund from Saint-Etienne in France in the summer of 2013, he made an immediate impact by being the first player to score a hat trick on his league debut. He later scored his 97th Bundesliga goal in December 2017. With 98 goals in 144 league games before joining Arsenal in January 2018, he surpassed Yeboah to become the highest-scoring African in the division’s history.

“When we scouted him at Saint-Etienne he played more from the wing and he played more for me at Dortmund on the wing as well because for us it was not clear how he could keep the ball up front with his back to the opponent, stuff like that,” said ex-BVB boss Jürgen Klopp. “But then he ended up doing that really well as well.”

Luka Jovic: Eintracht Frankfurt 2017-19 & 2021

Jovic has never been better than when he played for Frankfurt, at least not yet. And by “good,” we really mean “sensational.” The Serbian forward joined Frankfurt on loan from Benfica in 2017, and after a disappointing season in 2017–18, he burst the following year, scoring an astounding 10 goals in 14 appearances in the UEFA Europa League and scoring 17 goals in 32 league games to help Frankfurt get to the semifinals. In October 2018, five of those were part of a brilliant performance against Fortuna Düsseldorf.

“He’s been the talk of Europe” said Frankfurt managing director Fredi Bobic of Jovic, who signed a permanent deal with Frankfurt in April 2019 only to then move to Real Madrid that summer. “He’s explosive and a real threat in front of goal, and will be a big miss – but it’s a big transfer for us. We’re proud of how we’ve been able to help him on his way, and we wish Luka the very best in Madrid.”

He returned to Frankfurt in January 2021 on loan from Madrid and scored four goals in 18 league games, including an off-the-bench brace on his second club debut in a 3-1 victory over Schalke. Frankfurt did not miss him for long.

Sebastien Haller: Frankfurt 2017-19, Dortmund 2022-

Since joining Dortmund from Ajax in the summer, Haller has yet to make his debut due to a medical condition, but Bundesliga fans are already aware of the havoc he can cause to opposing defenders thanks to his time spent playing alongside Jovic and Ante Rebic at Frankfurt. Following his transfer from Dutch club Utrecht, Haller’s first season in the Bundesliga would not have filled a postcard to write home; however, his second season was a much longer and more successful story as the Côte d’Ivoire forward and his teammates clicked in lethal harmony throughout the 2018–19 season.

Haller helped Frankfurt finish just outside the top four with 15 league goals and nine assists, a goal involvement total that season was only surpassed by Robert Lewandowski. The five goals he scored for Europe during their run to the Europa League semi-final must have had Dortmund supporters licking their lips, especially since Haller is now happily on the road to recovery.

“My first target is to come back on the pitch, play in front of the Yellow Wall and score my first goal in front of them,” he said after attending a Champions League game at the Signal Iduna Park in September. “It will be a good and emotional moment because I received a lot of support from everyone [at Dortmund], even though I was only there for two weeks. I want to say think you to everyone who gave me the power and the strength to go through. And thanks to them I will be back on the pitch really quick.”

Andre Silva: Eintracht Frankfurt 2019-2021

After signing on loan from AC Milan in the summer of 2019, Silva made his Bundesliga debut against Augsburg but, unlike Haaland and Aubameyang, failed to score in a loss. It was hardly the start the Portugal international attacker wanted given his goal of advancing his stalled career. Fortunately, things significantly improved.

The former Porto sensation proved he had the shoulders to carry the weight of nearly replacing Jovic, Haller, and Rebic, who transferred to Milan as part of Silva’s trade. He scored a spectacular 28 goals in 32 league appearances in 2020/21, boosted by a productive January, after scoring 12 goals in 25 Bundesliga games in his first season in Germany.

“I started in football because I wanted to feel this type of fire inside of me,” Silva told bundesliga.com en route to breaking Bernd Hölzenbein’s 44-year-old club record for a single season tally before joining RB Leipzig in 2021.

“I always felt fire in me to achieve a lot of goals and to make my best all the time, and I think one thing is to make the best for me, and the other thing is to make the best for the people that are supporting us. It feels very good, and I can say it makes my day when this happens. That’s what I play for.”

Randal Kolo Muani: Eintracht Frankfurt, since 2022

Although the French striker, who joined from Nantes in the summer, is only beginning his Bundesliga career, he has already demonstrated his talent.

Despite not fully overcoming the language barrier, he showed off a quick cutting edge and an understanding with his new colleagues that has evolved with surprising speed in his first 10 games in the German top division, scoring three goals and dishing out six assists.

“It’s exactly what I was looking for: discover a new league, a new lifestyle, a new environment,” Kolo Muani, whose form earned him a first-ever call-up to France’s senior side for the first international break of the 2022/23 season, told French sports daily L’Equipe recently. “The language is still a bit difficult, but I’m having two lessons a week, and for the moment, we get by speaking English in the dressing room.”

“I’ve become ‘shy Randal’ again,” added the forward who grew up in Bondy, the same Parisian suburb as Kylian Mbappé, William Saliba and Jonathan Ikoné. “I’m focused on football, even if I try to make fun of a few of my teammates from time to time.”

FIFA World Cup Winners and Runners List

Netherlands looking to prove themselves in Qatar World Cup 2022

Ecuador and Caicedo not just settle for a trip in Qatar World Cup 2022

France aiming to defend the World Cup title in Qatar 2022

Check out more information of football games, players, teams and news on ClevPicks: Reliable football betting prediction using artificial intelligence.