Hats off to Leicester’s recruitment team once again.
It seems they’ve found another gem in the form of Patson Daka (£3.0m), the man who scored the Foxes’ goal against Brighton at the King Power on Sunday.
The Zambia international has now scored nine goals in nine starts across the Europa League and Premier League this season.
In fact, in those two competitions, he’s averaging a goal every 97 minutes when you account for his substitute appearances.
The 23-year-old made a name for himself back in October when he followed his first goal for his new club (against Man United no less) with a four-goal rout against Spartak Moscow, an exhibition of one-on-one finishing.
Brendan Rodgers has used Daka relatively sparingly but will surely be impressed with the forward’s impact when called upon in his first season on English soil.
Including his opportunistic strike against the Seagulls, he’s scored three goals and provided three assists in his last six appearances, although he didn’t feature for Leicester between Game Weeks 17 and 19.
This fruitful run has produced 28 Dream Team points, taking him to 87 overall.
Incredibly, he’s once again inside the top ten forwards in the game, despite starting just four of Leicester’s 20 league fixtures in 2021/22.
The question has to be asked: what could be achieve going forward as a regular starter?
Jamie Vardy (£4.1m) turned 35 this month and, while he has made a habit of probing his critics wrong, every player succumbs to the passing of time at some point.
Daka’s energy, speed and finishing ability make him the natural successor for the Foxes’ No9 and we may be witnessing the first stages of coronation right now.
At Salzburg, Daka plundered goals for fun alongside Erling Haaland in the first half of 2019/20 before taking on the mantle of chief goalscorer the following campaign, when he bagged 34 goals in 42 games.
At £23million, he didn’t come cheap but already it looks like another smart piece of business from Leicester’s perspective.
The club have made huge profits through the sales of N’Golo Kante (£2.4m), Harry Maguire (£3.2m), Riyad Mahrez (£6.9m) and Ben Chilwell (£5.0m) in recent years.
Simultaneously, they’ve signed players such as James Maddison (£3.9m), Youri Tielemans (£3.6m), Wilfred Ndidi (£2.1m), Ricardo Pereira (£2.4m) and Wesley Fofana (£3.0m) – who have all proved to be almost instant successes with considerable resale value.
The King Power faithful will be hoping the money earned from previous sales will allow the club to retain the current crop of key players and build back toward to a top-four challenge.
It’s early days yet and there’s no need to heap undue pressure on a player who is yet to reach his prime years but Daka seemingly has the attributes to spearhead Leicester’s next generation.
Dream Team managers would be wise to keep an eye on his returns although it’s possible he may not become 100% viable until next season.