We’re just over a week away from the beginning of the 2025/2026 Ligue 1 campaign.
At RC Strasbourg, newly appointed club captain Emanuel Emegha (196cm/6’5”, 83kg/182 lbs) is going through his final pre-season preparations as he gets ready to lead his club into the new season.
They intend to compete domestically and in Europe, with UEFA Conference League football on the cards should they make it through their play-off.
Meanwhile, across the British Channel, the fiercest transfer battle dominating media coverage sees Manchester United and Newcastle United vying for the signature of RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Šeško (195cm/6’5”, 85kg/187 lbs).
Indeed, Šeško is an exciting talent.
The 22-year-old Slovenia international scored 13 goals and made five assists in 33 German Bundesliga appearances last season.
This followed a 2023/2024 campaign in which Šeško scored 14 in 31 league appearances.
There’s a lot to like about the 195cm forward.
He’s a good finisher, consistently outperforming his xG, with physicality on his side, who’s not shy of taking on a dribble.
This is not a bad combination.
However, the near €90m fee being touted for his signature raises questions about the player’s true worth.
Furthermore, with two teams seemingly prioritising Šeško’s signature, one is inevitably going to end up disappointed.
This led us to a search for cheaper alternatives to the Slovenian attacker, which proved tough given that it’s quite late in the 2025 summer transfer window and many of the better ‘cheap alternative’ options have already been snapped up.
Realistic and worthwhile alternatives are few and far between.
We conducted a search focusing on strikers who’ve accumulated a decent number of minutes, like Šeško, in Europe’s top-five leagues over the past calendar year.
We focused on finding clinical forwards who also provide an aerial threat.
In the end, we ruled out some on our shortlist due to age, injury-proneness or a current injury.
We landed on Emanuel Emegha of RC Strasbourg in Ligue 1 as the best potential alternative.
Emegha is currently valued at €25m by Transfermarkt, which is €45m less than Šeško.
He remains an unlikely target, due to his prominent role at Strasbourg and the Alsace club’s status as being part of the same ownership group as Chelsea, the BlueCo.
Nevertheless, we anticipate seeing Emegha’s name pop up in transfer discussions around centre-forwards in upcoming transfer windows, too, especially if Chelsea need to boost their firepower up front, with Stamford Bridge presumably the most likely future destination for the 22-year-old.
This Emanuel Emegha scout report and player analysis piece outlines the thriving Emanuel Emegha role within Liam Rosenior Strasbourg tactics.
We’ll outline the Netherlands U21 international’s key strengths and weaknesses, showcasing why he could be a very in-demand striker in the near future.
Emanuel Emegha Data Analysis & Comparison With Benjamin Šeško
Our first section of analysis aims to provide an overview of Emanuel Emegha’s game through the lens of data.
Initially, I had an idea for a piece highlighting cheap alternatives to Benjamin Šeško.
I quickly realised there weren’t a lot of options this late in the window, when limiting the valuation of players, removing those who have already moved in the last six months, including this transfer window, and considering factors like age, injury-proneness, current injury status, etc., for the standout options.
One of the things I wanted to look for in our set of strikers from the top five leagues was finishing ability.
If clubs are interested in Šeško, it’ll primarily be due to his finishing.
I made a scatter comparing non-penalty goals per 90 with xG per 90 to filter for efficiency in front of goal, and Emanuel Emegha was one of the standouts.
I also made a scatter plot comparing shots on target % with goal conversion rate.
Considering the number of minutes played by the forwards included in my analysis, I felt this data was worth looking at for an indication of the most clinical strikers in our dataset.
