Dortmund’s Aubameyang Who Can Match Usain Bolt Over 30 Metres.
Personal information
Full name: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Date of birth: 18 June 1989 (age 24)
Place of birth: Laval, France
Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position: Striker
Club information
Current club: Borussia Dortmund
Number: 17
Youth career
2007–2008 AC Milan
Senior career
2008–2011 AC Milan 2 Appearances, 0 Goals
2008–2009 → Dijon (loan) 39 Appearances, 10 Goals
2009–2010 → Lille (loan) 24 Appearances, 2 Goals
2010–2011 → Monaco (loan) 23 Appearances, 2 Goals
2011 → Saint Etienne (loan) 14 Appearances, 2 Goals
2011–2013 Saint Etienne 82 Appearances, 39 Goals
2013– Borussia Dortmund 19 Appearances, 8 Goals
National team
2009 France U21 1 Appearances, 0 Goals
2012 Gabon Olympic 3 Appearances, 1 Goal
2009– Gabon 34 Appearances, 12 Goals
A former youth player at AC Milan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s career took off when joining Saint Etienne on a permanent basis in 2011.
His spell at the club ended in July when he joined Champions League runners-up Borussia Dortmund.
Aubameyang’s time with Saint Etienne ended in perfect fashion though, as the club won the 2013 French League Cup – to hand Aubameyang his first piece of silverware as a professional.
Aubameyang certainly does not lack confidence. Last summer, when asked by a German newspaper how quick he really is, the Borussia Dortmund forward answered: “Maybe you should organise a race between me and Usain Bolt to find out … ”
Usain Bolt? The world record holder and six-times Olympic champion? Oh yes. “When I was with the Milan youth teams I ran 30 metres in 3.9sec, that was official, but I’ve run it in 3.7sec too,” Aubameyang said. Bolt apparently needed 3.78sec to get to 30 metres when he set the world record in 2009.
Aubameyang was one of Dortmund’s two marquee signings last summer – Henrikh Mkhitaryan joining from Shakhtar Donetsk was the other – and he scored a hat-trick on his league debut for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
He has added another four goals to stand on seven after 12 league games with Dortmund, second in the Bundesliga as they tackle log leaders Bayern Munich on Saturday.
The Gunners were one of the clubs reportedly chasing Aubameyang last summer. Newcastle were another but when it came down to it the choice was an easy one for the Gabon striker.
“As soon as I heard Dortmund were interested I made up my mind. I was really happy because I had followed them in the past few years and they had come such a long way,” he told Die Zeit. “I just thought: ‘Yes, that’s a good fit’, and then I wanted to join them straight away.”
Aubameyang is 24 but his career has not been straightforward. The son of a professional footballer, Pierre Aubameyang, Pierre-Emerick moved from France to Italy at the age of 17 to join Milan, where his brother Willy was already playing.
He learned a lot but was not able to break into the first team. He was then loaned out, first to Dijon, then to Lille and finally to Monaco.
None of those clubs had seen enough to buy him but in June 2011 St Etienne and their manager Alain Perrin – who had a less-than-successful spell at Portsmouth in 2005 – decided to gamble on the forward.
He did not immediately shine but ended the following season with 19 league goals, second only to Zlatan Ibrahimovic among Ligue 1’s goalscorers. He was on his way to becoming a worldwide star.
He is a hugely committed footballer. His father, who moved from Gabon to France at an early age with a desire to become a professional footballer, even though his own father was against it, has instilled an enormous work ethic in the Dortmund player.
Klopp has said that Aubameyang has a “brutal” amount of quality in him although the player has admitted it has taken him some time to settle in at Dortmund, despite the flurry of early goals.
“The tempo is definitely more extreme here in Germany and I noticed that straight away. I am still getting used to it all, the constant pressing, the backtracking for the forwards as soon as you lose the ball. But when I was at Milan I had Filippo Galli as a coach, so I know all about pressing.”