Aubameyang, who joined Barca in the winter window this year, is the first player in Barca's first-team history to come from Gabon; before him, African players who played for Barca (players who represent African teams in international competitions; European national or national youth players with African ancestry or dual nationality, multi-nationality, and Munir, who joined Morocco's senior national team after leaving Barca), also had only 9, the most famous of which include Eto'o and Alex Song in Cameroon, Yaya Toure in Côte d'Ivoire, Keita in Mali, Grand Boateng in Ghana, etc.
Among them, in addition to Aubameyang, there are three other strikers, namely Amunic (who joined Barca in 1997), Eto'o and Grand Boateng. Some of them have become the main force in the front, and some have played very little. Judging from the current performance, Aubameyang has adapted well. After joining the team, he has scored five goals and a hat-trick. So, let's look at the situation of the above forwards: how can a striker from Africa play well at Barca?
Language barrier: Those who have the advantage play better, but vice versa
As we all know, French is the most widely distributed language in Africa, and many African countries are also closely related to France, so some people jokingly call France the fifth because they represent Africa. The only Spanish-speaking country in Africa is Equatorial Guinea, and in Barcelona's history, only the young academy player Aguime has both Spanish and Chiji nationality, and there is not much to do with Chiji. Although Catalonia and France are separated by mountains, the similarity between Catalan and French is obviously lower than that of Spanish. Therefore, for many African players whose native language is not Spanish, the language barrier to Spain is the first hurdle to pass.
At this point, Eto'o and Aubameyang clearly have an advantage. Aubameyang actually has French, Spanish and Gabonese nationalities, his mother is from Spain, so he learned fluent Spanish from his mother and grandmother, and Eto'o, although he did not have the innate conditions of Aubameyang, had been in the Spanish league for many years before joining Barca, especially in Mallorca, which is also a Catalan-speaking region, which also made it easier for him to integrate into local life and communicate more smoothly with his teammates.
Aubameyang's grandmother, who died in 2018, also posted a moving text on social media to bid her farewell
Of course, this is not to say that Amunic and Grand Boateng did not pass the language barrier. Amunik was the hero of Nigeria's Olympic gold medal in 1996 and scored nigeria's key goal in the final to reverse Argentina, but suffered a serious injury six months after joining Barca, which was the main reason for his subsequent poor performance; The Big Boateng was able to speak fluently with the media in Spanish in an interview when he joined Barca on loan, and his lack of opportunities was mainly due to the tactical level.
Technical and tactical level: "system player" will be a better solution
Although African football is not as star-studded as Europe and Latin America, historically countries have also produced a series of quite good strikers such as Eto'o and Drogba. In general, many African strikers – especially those from sub-Saharan Africa – are fast and impactful, as is evident from Eto'o's nickname "Cheetah" and Drogba's nickname "Warcraft".
As an active player, and the Gabonese national team he is in is not a strong African team such as Egypt, Cameroon and Nigeria, it should be said that the achievements so far cannot be compared with these two predecessors. However, due to his upbringing in the European academy (and since entering the senior team, Aubameyang has played in all five major leagues), Aubameyang's ability to integrate into a complete tactical system and connect with other players is in a way better than players from African academy.
In contrast to Aubameyang's situation is Eto'o during the Time of Barça Guardiola. Many people talk about the relationship between Guardiola and Eto'o at that time, often attributed to the discord of their personal relationship, Guardiola trying to remove Eto Olivier, who has already stood the main force, but there is an objective reason: although Eto'o is strong, when Guardiola tries to build a tight and seamless offensive system, Eto'o is not necessarily the most ideal candidate.
Although Ibrahimovic after Eto'o is a pure European, he also has the characteristics of outstanding personal ability but not closely connected with others, so like Eto'o, there are similar "unsociable" traits in the overall performance, and when the manager's personality is relatively tough, he often appears externally as incompatible with the manager (of course, with Ibrahimovic's personality, his personal emotional dissatisfaction is naturally more real).
Of course, we can't deny Eto'o's type of striker because of this, or even simply use a "single" to explain it as some people criticize some of their football predecessors. The absolute strength of this type of striker is beyond doubt, and it is not necessarily psychologically deliberate that he does not want to cooperate with others, but when he is alone, or when he is a fulcrum, he will feel most comfortable and feel that he can play the best; or they simply point the skill point to the goal, without the assist and organizational skills.
However, in the major European leagues that now place increasing emphasis on the tactical system, in Barca, which has been paying attention to overall coordination since the Cruyff era, the trough may be able to hope for the individual ability of a striker to turn the tide, but when the hope is to rebuild and hope to go further, a more "systematic" player may become a more priority choice for the manager.
Other: Heaven and earth, although metaphysical but useful
This aspect is too broad and somewhat metaphysical, but luck is indeed part of success. Amunik, mentioned above, before helping Nigeria win the Olympic gold medal, as early as 1994, at the age of 24, he became a member of the national team that participated in the world cup for the first time in Nigeria's history, scored two goals at the World Cup in the United States, and won the African Cup of Nations that year, becoming the African Footballer of the Year. However, a knee injury kept him from regaining his former glory, and even after leaving Barca, he still did not ease up.
In addition to injuries, the timing of joining Barca is also a rather delicate factor. The Big Boateng actually belongs to the "coming and going" category. According to some media sources, at that time, barca executives only wanted a "forward who is willing to be a substitute, familiar with the five major leagues, has the experience of the giants, and can adapt quickly", which can be almost understood as wanting an experienced temporary worker in case the main striker is injured. They have found a lot of strikers, but either don't want to play as a substitute or don't have much experience with the giants. Big Boateng was a genius at AC Milan, but he wasn't a striker at the time, and it was a decade since he joined Barca. In this transfer, Braida, who is very close to Barca and Milan, is said to have tied the knot and finalized the transfer very quickly in the second half of the winter window.
In fact, in terms of numbers, Barca did not lack forwards at that time, the so-called lack of offensive strength, too many injuries, the reason is still forced to use 4-3-3 when the control of the midfield declines, the gap between the main force and the ability to replace is not enough to ensure effective rotation. Even more deeply, the root behind it is derived from the intervention of the top in the positioning and personnel arrangement of this reinforcement, because it seems that in the whole transfer process, the then manager Valverde was only the one who was "told", and all the operations were decided by the top (this can also be supported by Munir's remarks after the departure of the team), and the condition they proposed seemed to be accompanied by a "subway old man mobile phone" expression at the time and now. Therefore, although the big Boateng is willing to do this green leaf, it is unlikely to have too many opportunities, and secondly, his age and state before joining Barca also make him unable to truly become a "miracle soldier".
Interestingly, Mr. Boatten and Mr. Aubameyang had an interesting intersection: in a live connection in 2020, Mr. Boateng asked Aubameyang, who was then mired in transfer rumors, whether he would stay at Arsenal
In contrast, although Aubameyang is similar in age to the big Boateng when he joined the team, compared with the big Boateng who has been away from the giants for some years, Aubameyang has been the captain and main force at Arsenal, and has maintained a good performance in a high-intensity competitive environment. In addition, the moment he came to Barca is when the team needs a good striker, at present, there are not many people in barca's forward line who can match his level and overlap, although Luke De Jong's status has improved and Depay has basically recovered from injury, but in terms of competition experience, Aubameyang is still relatively better. In addition, compared to Barca's declining midfield control when Grand Boateng joined, the now-young Pedri has improved Barca's ability to organize and sort out the midfield, which will also form a good boost for the front line of Aubameyang and Traore.
However, injuries are the eternal enemy of athletes, and as a 32-year-old veteran, Aubameyang should probably also be more disciplined and pay attention to his body to avoid the tragedy of Amunic. Like him, Dembele played well against Biba, and he was also a teammate with Aubameyang at Borussia Dortmund, but he eventually became a "glass man" at Barca who "charged two hours and talked for five minutes". Although Dembele still has some bright spots from time to time as long as it is five minutes on the phone, he is after all six or seven years younger than Aubameyang, and if the veteran affects his body because of indiscipline, I am afraid that he will not be able to recover so quickly.
brief summary
Although there are not many samples to refer to, Aubameyang already has many advantages over his predecessors in Africa: language accessibility, system integration, time and place, and all of them are available. However, his next path in Barça may still depend on him, after all, the Barça of the time is not the Barça of today, and for Aubameyang himself, it is only the old saying: self-helper, God help.
Aubameyang is a die-hard Fan of Batman, and his current situation is somewhat similar to Batman's: he does not have the superpowers that Spider-Man has acquired by chance, nor does he arm himself completely by "money ability" like Iron Man, and some are just a skill and wisdom that he has trained to protect Gotham's tranquility. Perhaps the less reliable, cosplay-loving Pierre Emerick Aubameyang that we sometimes see in our daily lives is just a "Bruce Wayne" camouflage; but in any case, the Obameyang that fans want to see through that appearance is probably not a superhero, but a good striker who can really shine as a member of Barca.
(Meat-eating rabbit)