5 days ago
10
Six goals and counting
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It could have been a massive moment for Union Berlin against Bayern Munich. The game was 83 minutes old when Die Alte Försterei erupted. Center-back Danilho Doekhi had just scored his second goal of the game to give Union Berlin a 2-1 lead over Bayern Munich. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t enough as Harry Kane popped up deep in injury time to equalize for the Bundesliga champions. Still, Doekhi’s brace was significant. The 2-2 draw stopped Bayern’s record-breaking win streak to start the season, and it meant that Doekhi is now the top goalscorer among center-backs playing in Europe’s top five leagues.
Including all competitions, Doekhi has scored 6 goals in just 12 games. The only center-back playing in Europe’s top five leagues to score as many goals across all competitions is Tottenham center-back and fellow Dutchman Micky van de Ven. Both sit at six goals each, but Van de Ven has played in four more games than Doekhi (overview). Furthermore, both are in a category of their own. While they have scored six times each, the next best center-back playing in Europe’s top five leagues is Englishman Charlie Cresswell. The 23-year-old has scored three times in 12 games across all competitions for Ligue 1 side Toulouse.
“It's really amazing,” Doekhi said to Transfermarkt. “Before the game, you always hope that you can score. But to do it against Bayern, who are like the top team in Europe, they have won 16 times in a row, we knew it was going to be difficult, and I tried to give it a good performance and perhaps help with a goal. But to score two was insane.” Those two goals brought up Doekhi’s tally to six goals this season. Just to put that in perspective, before this season, Doekhi had scored only 15 goals in his professional career.
More versatile than ever – What is Doekhi’s goalscoring secret?
There is more! A glimpse in the Transfermarkt database reveals that, with the exception of a left-footed goal for Vitesse in a 1-0 win over Utrecht back in 2021, all of Doekhi’s goals in his career have come from headers. That has changed this season. Doekhi scored with his left foot in a 5-0 win over Gütersloh in the DFB Pokal, then scored a header and a tap-in against Borussia Mönchengladbach (3-1), then scored with his right foot in the second round of the DFB Pokal against Arminia Bielefeld (2-1 a.e.t) before scoring with his right and left foot against Bayern.
“We have very good set-piece takers and players who are dangerous in the box,” Doekhi said. “And because of that, I try to stick around a bit longer in the box. Sometimes the first attempt doesn’t work, but then the second cross comes in, and it is a bit more chaotic, so I can use more of my skill set. Then, in the cup games towards the end, the coach put me up front in extra time. But in general, we are also a far more dangerous team than we were in previous years.”
It really has been an incredible start to the season for Doekhi. Even when you combine goals and assists, Doekhi and Van de Ven remain at the very top among players playing in Europe’s top five leagues. As the graphic above shows, both are the only players with six direct goal contributions. Next on the list are Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal) and Alessandro Bastoni (Inter Milan) with five direct goal contributions (overview). In other words, Doekhi ranks among the very elite among Europe’s defenders, making the 27-year-old a player to watch in the coming weeks and months.
