Jeremy Doku has just become the most expensive signing in Rennes history. The young Belgian star “costs” Man City £ 55.5 million and has been a target of Liverpool’s pursuit for 2 years. So, who is Doku to make The Citizens spend so much money to bring him to the Etihad Stadium?
Who is Jeremy Doku?
Nicknamed the “new Eden Hazard”, Doku was born on May 27, 2002 in Borgerhout, outside Antwerp, Belgium. Coincidentally, this potential player was born exactly 4 days before the opening of the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
Doku is the second child in a family of 4 siblings (1 brother and 2 sisters) and spent an extremely happy and warm childhood. Doku’s parents are David and Belinda, originally from Ghana, living together in harmony, always creating maximum conditions for their son to pursue a professional career.
The terraced house between Antwerp Zoo and Bosuil Stadium is always filled with the laughter of the Doku brothers and is still imprinted on the 21-year-old player’s face to this day. Contrary to his fierce and fiery style on the field, in real life Doku is a smiling, gentle and somewhat shy guy.
From Doku’s house to Bosuil Stadium (Royal Antwerp’s football club currently plays in the Champions League) is only 6 minutes by car. It was here that aroused the passion for football of young Jeremy. Because from his beloved home, Jeremy can hear the heroic sounds of the screams and cheers of the Royal Antwerp fans.
Coming from a family with a father, his aunts and uncles are former athletes, young Jeremy possesses a tearing speed from the beginning of his career as a player. At the age of 6, Jeremy was brought by his parents to try out at KVC Olympic Deurne (a small Belgian team) and passed the tests with excellent results.
After that, Jeremy started playing for Tubantia Borgerhout and about 2 years later the club went bankrupt. In 2009, Doku went to Beerschot AC, one of the famous youth player training academies in Belgium, about a 17-minute drive from home. Beerschot AC is the training ground for names like Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele, Radja Nainggolan, Jan Vertonghen or Victor Wanyama.
Less than a year after arriving here, Jeremy led the Beerschot AC youth team to the U10 championship and began to show the physique of a future star. Realizing Doku’s many outstanding qualities, many big clubs in Belgium began to come and convince the boy’s parents to sign a contract.
In 2012, when Jeremy was 10 years old, RSC Anderlecht became the lucky team to sign the boy, the same time the club signed Amadou Onana after the player’s family emigrated from Senegal to Belgium.
Because of his passion for football, Jeremy accepted to leave his family to attend Purple Talents boarding school in Anderlecht, which allowed him to practice football from noon to 2pm with the club before returning to the cultural school.
The Rebellion of Puberty
At Anderlecht, Doku met a lot of good players but he always stood out for his superb dribbling and speed. Doku’s outstanding performances on the pitch helped him quickly get called up to the Belgian youth team, starting with the U15 in 2017.
But as he entered puberty, Doku developed an unusual personality on the field with the nickname “The Arrogant and the King of Dribbling”. Doku often puts his foot on the ball, waiting and challenging the opponent to rush in and steal the ball from his feet. In matches, instead of looking for goals, Doku continued to rest his feet on the ball, waiting for the opponent to counterattack.
Even the Anderlecht youth team coach at that time, Stephane Stassin, also expressed anger, constantly shouting at him to score. Even many of his former teammates who enjoyed Doku’s dribbles couldn’t understand why he was like that. One day, after training, coach Stassin called Doku over, seriously saying: “Hey Jeremy, if you want to play for a big team, you have to do more than dribble.”
This advice hit Doku’s very sensitive heart. He returned to training more with passes and assists. The abuse of dribbling tantalizing opposing players also gradually disappeared, replaced by fast play, when needed, an extremely effective one-touch coordination.
The temptation of Liverpool
By the age of 15, Doku began to receive attractive offers from 5-6 of the biggest clubs in Europe. Arsenal, Chelsea and especially Liverpool all want to own Doku. In January 2017, Doku even came close to joining The Kop after visiting the club’s headquarters, meeting with legendary Steven Gerrard and coach Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool “plan” Doku will become a replacement for Sadio Mane in the future. Not wanting to lose his stellar player on the cheap to Liverpool, Anderlecht turned to one of their old heroes, striker Romelu Lukaku.
Respecting the old friendship and also not wanting the Belgian league to lose his remarkable talent, Lukaku agreed to accept Doku’s offer to stay. Anderlecht arranged for the two to meet over a video. “Please scratch Jeremy, I’m Romelu. Like you, I played for Anderlecht for many years. If I can give you one piece of advice, I hope you stay with this club, at least until you graduate from the academy,” Lukaku said.
And, despite the huge sums promised by Liverpool, Doku heeded Lukaku’s advice to stay, signing a professional contract at the start of the 2018/19 season. At the age of 16 years and 182 days, Doku became the third youngest player in history, after Lukaku (16 years, 11 days) and Youri Tielemans (16 years, 82 days) to make his Anderlecht debut.
Success in France and in the Belgian national team
It didn’t take long for Doku to shine in the Belgian league. After just 35 games, Doku scored 5 goals and provided 7 assists with Anderlecht shirt in the Belgian top league. On October 5, 2020, Doku signed a 5-year contract with Rennes with a transfer fee of £ 24.5 million, becoming the most expensive player in Anderlecht history.
Playing alongside the likes of Nayef Aguerd, Steven Nzonzi and Eduardo Camavinga maximized Doku’s abilities. After 75 matches in Ligue 1 with Rennes from October 2020 to August 2023, he scored 10 goals and provided 7 assists. At the same time, he was called up to the Belgian national team.
Three days after making his national team debut, he scored his first goal for the Red Devils in the UEFA Nations League in September 2020. So far, Doku has scored 2 goals, has 3 assists after 12 matches for Belgium.
Where can Doku play at Man City?
Doku is often deployed on the left flank, but is also capable of playing on the right flank in attack. Agility, dynamism, speed, bravery, technique, dexterity, ball recovery, good hand-to-hand dispute, coming to Man City, Doku is fully capable of filling the position on the right corridor that Ryiad Mahrez left. back .
But Doku’s playing style is completely different from Mahrez’s and especially the young talent’s ability to occupy space, explosiveness, collective consciousness and tireless efforts in defense. 21 years old is highly appreciated by Pep Guardiola.