EXPEREINCE: For Leeds United-bound Lukas Nmecha, centre, for Manchester City.placeholder image
EXPEREINCE: For Leeds United-bound Lukas Nmecha, centre, for Manchester City. | Getty Images
Leeds United are closing in on a deal to sign Lukas Nmecha.
Nmceha began his career with Manchester City but the forward only made three appearances for the club who sent him out for loan spells with Preston North End, VfL Wolfsburg, Middlesbrough and Anderlecht.
Having joined City’s Academy as a youngster in 2009, Nmceha ended almost a decade and a half with the club when signing for Wolfsburg on a three-year deal in the summer of 2021.
Having impressed for the club’s under-21s, Nmecha was handed his City debut as a late substitute in the EFL Cup clash at Leicester City of December 2017 which Pep Guardiola’s side won 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Striker shortage presented early City chance
With Gabriel Jesus injured, Guardiola revealed a few months later in February 2018 that Nmecha would now be handed his chance with the first team.
“We have just three strikers plus Brahim [Diaz] and Lukas Nmecha,” said Guardiola, as quoted by Metro.
“From now on Lukas will train with us for the season. It is not enough but Gabriel [Jesus] is coming back soon. I don’t know when exactly.”
Nmecha then savoured his first and only experience of Premier League action with two late outings from the bench at the end of that season in clashes at West Ham and at home to Brighton.
The first of three loan spells away from the Etihad then presented itself in the summer as Nmecha joined Preston North End for the 2018-19 campaign under boss Alex Neil.
The striker made 44 appearances for the Deepdale club for whom he scored three times and also bagged five assists.
“One of the brightest forwards in the country at his age group”...
Upon landing Nmecha on a season-long loan, Neil said: “We have signed one of the brightest forwards in the country at his age group.”
More praise followed towards the end of the campaign as the Preston boss spoke about the City loanee’s best assets.
“Lukas’s biggest strength is when he is front-facing,” said Neil, as quoted by TeessideLive.
“You are more likely to get front-facing when you play on the flank because you can draw your full-back out, turn and get at them.
“When he is up front and having to pin himself against the centre-backs, he doesn’t have the same space to run.
“We’ve stumbled across a bit of a niche for him, certainly until his game develops. Once his game develops, Lukas will be a centre-forward.
“Sometimes you have to get younger players involved in different areas to help them understand the game a little bit better.”
After his year at Deepdale, Nmceha returned to City before being loaned out once more but this time abroad as he joined Wolfsburg for the 2019-20 campaign.
He went with warm words and praise from Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola praise
"Lukas has great prospects," said Guardiola as the striker joined Wolfsburg on loan. "He's hungry, he takes in everything you tell him."
Having found game time limited, the striker’s loan spell was cut short and Nmecha returned to City before joining Middlesbrough on loan for the second half of the season.
Boro were under former Whites boss Neil Warnock at the time.
Warnock gave Nmecha 13 outings but just four league starts and his time at the Riverside ended without a goal or an assist.
But Warnock refused to be too critical of Nmecha following the 1-0 defeat at home to QPR of July 2020 in which the City loanee squandered a golden chance to score.
Neil Warnock refusal
“The chance Lukas had, he put every one of them away in training this week,” said Warnock, as quoted by The Sun.
“But he just flashed at it and I think it just comes down to confidence. Football is cruel and you get kicked in the teeth now and again but you have to keep fighting.”
Upon completing his spell at Boro, a third loan spell that presented itself for Nmecha as this time he joined Anderlecht for the 2020-21 campaign, the team managed by his former City team mate Vincent Kompany.
The move proved the striker’s most fruitful one yet as he bagged 21 goals in 42 outings for his loan side in addition to bagging three assists.
Speaking in December 2020, Kompany was full of praise for the City loanee.
Huge Vincent Kompany prediction
“He also works hard for the team“, Kompany told HLN as quoted by the MEN.
“Of course, he still has room for improvement, but actually he is already a quite complete striker. He does not have any noticeable weaknesses.
“At the moment he is already one of the best strikers in Belgium.
“In time he will be a striker for one of the European clubs who are just below the top or even for a top European club.”
But Nmecha faced an arduous task upon returning once more to City and this time his next move was a permanent one as he joined Wolfsburg on a three-year deal.
Injury troubles
The striker bagged ten goals and two assists from his 31 outings in his first season with the club but just four goals and two assists from 18 games in the 2022-23 campaign which was disrupted by injury.
But injury then wiped out the majority of Nmecha’s third season with the club which looks set to be his last as Leeds close in on his signature as a free transfer signing as his contract expires.
Speaking last October, boss Ralph Hasenhüttl said of the striker: "Due to Lukas Nmecha's long injury lay-off, a document for the sports medical examination was missing from the digital registration system. This has been corrected and Lukas is now eligible to play.”
Nmecha, though, managed just six short outings for just 82 minutes of football over the course of the 2024-25 campaign and it is his 2021-22 season at Anderlecht that considerably stands out as his best.
Leeds will be hoping Kompany’s predictions come true if and when they get their man.
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