As Niclas Fullkrug lashed a thumping finish past Chelsea’s Robert Sanchez before going through the steps upon an entire dance routine, only to see his goal ruled out by VAR, the West Ham United striker must have wondered if his luck will ever change.
Just as he was starting to find his feet last season, following a £27 million move from Borussia Dortmund, the big German suffered a hamstring issue which ruled him out for the first two months of the new year.
But back to full fitness during a fine pre-season – pundit Robbie Earle watched a ‘leaner, sharper’ Niclas Fullkrug score three times over the summer – West Ham United’s number 11 had hoped to put an injury-interrupted debut season behind him for good at the start of the new campaign.
Instead, Jean-Clair Todibo strayed marginally offside in the build-up to a fierce Fullkrug strike which would have put the Hammers 2-1 up in a game they eventually lost 5-1. Now, after Callum Wilson outshone his big-money West Ham rival last time out at Nottingham Forest and after Fullkrug picked up an injury on Germany duty, his long wait for a turning point continues to drag on without an end in sight.
But, still, it could be worse.
According to La Voix du Nord, West Ham offered £40 million for Elye Wahi before eventually signing Fullkrug for £13 million less around 12 months later.
And, while Fullkrug has hardly set the world alight in East London, Wahi’s miserable spell at Eintracht Frankfurt would take some beating when discussing the most disappointing centre-forward transfers of recent times.
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Elye Wahi struggled at Marseille and Lens after failed West Ham United bid
At the time of West Ham’s reported £40 million bid, Elye Wahi was one of, if not the, most exciting, under-21 striker in European football.
The 20-year-old had just scored 19 goals during a breakout 2022/23 campaign with Montpellier. Comparisons were being drawn with Kylian Mbappe, a superstar forward Wahi emulated by breaking the 20-goal barrier in France’s top flight while still a teenager.
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Speaking to Sky Sports, European football oracle Andy Brassell even claimed that West Ham had a deal for Elye Wahi ‘lined up. They planned to use the money brought in via Lucas Paqueta’s departure on bringing the Montpellier marvel across the Channel.
That FA charge denied Paqueta his move to Manchester City, back in August 2023, and also resulted in Wahi slipping through David Moyes’ fingers.
Elye Wahi reacts to a missed chance while playing for Marseille in Ligue 1
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“West Ham would have signed the striker Elye Wahi,” Brassell said. “The deal was all lined up and he would have joined had Paqueta been sold.”
Two years on, while Fullkrug’s struggles have done little to dispel the myth of a West Ham striker ‘curse’, Elye Wahi appears to be stuck in a never-ending cycle of misery and misfortune himself.
One week after Fullkrug’s merry jig was cut short by a cruel but correct VAR intervention, Wahi somehow contrived to miss from one yard out during Frankfurt’s 3-1 win at Hoffenheim.
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Wahi yet to score Bundesliga goal as Frankfurt striker misses sitter
That, in truth, has been the story of his Bundesliga career thus far.
After scoring just nine Ligue 1 goals for Lens – a fee hardly befitting a club-record signing – he then netted a paltry three in the colours of Marseille. Another big-money move, L’OM spent around £25 million in the summer of 2024, and another disappointing return.
Marseille somehow still managed to recoup their investment when Eintracht Frankfurt chucked their Omar Marmoush windfall at Wahi during the January transfer window.
In the space of two years, Wahi has made two club-record transfers, played for three clubs, but scored only 16 goals in 64 games.
The Hammers, then, may have got a lucky escape not once but twice.
West Ham made another Elye Wahi offer in 2024, per RMC Sport, shortly before he left Lens for Marseille. At the time, his reputation was still fairly unscathed, even if he had struggled to emulate his Montpellier form at Lens.
Now, unless there is to be a dramatic turnaround in fortunes at Eintracht Frankfurt, surely Wahi’s days of making mega-money transfers are destined to come to an end in the year of his 23rd birthday.
“Elye can score goals for us. He’s already proven that in his career,” Frankfurt head coach Dino Toppmoller protested during the pre-season tour of the USA. “We believe in his potential.”
As his wait for a first Bundesliga goal heads into an eleventh match, as that one-metre miss last weekend plays on his mind, that belief will not last forever.