We’re just over a week away from the beginning of the 2025/2026 Ligue 1 campaign.
At RC Strasbourg, newly appointed club captain Emmanuel 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 Emmanuel 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 Emmanuel Emegha scout report and player analysis piece outlines the thriving Emmanuel 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.
Emmanuel Emegha Data Analysis & Comparison With Benjamin Šeško
Our first section of analysis aims to provide an overview of Emmanuel 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 Emmanuel 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.
Again, Emmanuel Emegha was well inside the top-right quadrant.
The other players highlighted in both of the above graphs is AS Monaco forward Myron Boadu, a very talented striker who scored nine goals in just over 1000 minutes on loan at VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga last season.
However, Boadu has missed double figures of games through injury in each of the past four seasons, probably making him too big of a risk for the Red Devils or the Toon to hang their hats on.
Emmanuel Emegha Pizza Chart 2024/2025
Like Šeško, Emegha’s percentile rank for goal contributions sits higher than his percentile rank for xG contributions.
They shoot a relatively similar amount, though the Dutchman is slightly less trigger-happy than the Slovenian international.
The main difference in their attacking game is that Emegha dribbles a lot less than Šeško.
However, Šeško’s dribble success rate is also not particularly high; he just produces a relatively high number of dribbles compared to other strikers.
Šeško will get involved in his team’s possession play / chance creation a lot more than Emegha, with the latter focusing his efforts in the final third on making attractive runs and providing his team with good off-the-ball movement to help create goalscoring opportunities.
Again, though Šeško often gets involved in his team’s possession play, there are pros and cons to his on-the-ball ability.
Emegha keeps his focus on making runs in behind and finding space for the creators behind him to target the 22-year-old with through balls or crosses.
As the data suggests, Emegha’s all-around aerial game can improve, as can his hold-up play.
When targeted with long balls from the back or goal kicks, the Dutchman often flounders.
However, the 196cm forward is capable of scoring against top opposition with his head, making him a strong aerial threat inside the box, as is also the case with 195cm Šeško, so the Strasbourg man does tick that box too.
Benjamin Šeško Pizza Chart 2024/2025
The below heat map highlights Emmanuel Emegha’s tendency to mainly get involved in the game inside the box.
Emmanuel Emegha Heat Map 2024/2025
The 22-year-old generally sticks to central areas and focuses on finding space in high-value goalscoring positions.
When he does link up with teammates, his involvement is relatively varied in terms of location.
He will sometimes drop off centrally, while other times, he’ll drop into the half-spaces to receive passes.
Still, the vast majority of his on-the-ball involvement is localised in the middle of the box, where his goalscoring abilities come to the forefront.
Benjamin Šeško Heat Map 2024/2025
In contrast, Šeško is far more involved outside the box, be that centrally, in the half-spaces, or even out in wide areas.
This is where he offers something different to Emegha, and why his dribble volume is much higher than that of the Strasbourg striker.
Šeško’s link-up play and dialogue with the midfield are desirable qualities, as is his willingness to carry the ball forward and run at defenders.
Still, the main area of his game you could consider world-class would be his finishing, and the player would probably do well to focus more on getting himself into the right positions to utilise that finishing ability rather than taking on so many carries, when his dribble success rate is not stellar.
This is where Emegha’s game of less on-the-ball involvement in the final third but with a greater focus on intelligent positioning and movement helps him out.
This is a key reason why Emegha scored 14 Ligue 1 goals last season with Strasbourg and Šeško scored 13 Bundesliga goals for RB Leipzig despite the latter’s xG overperformance and having accumulated more game time than Emegha.
Emmanuel Emegha Style Of Play
This section presents examples of Emmanuel Emegha’s style of play, as outlined in our previous section.
We collected them via video analysis of the Strasbourg goalscorer from the 2024/2025 campaign.
Our first example shows how Emmanuel Emegha’s intelligent positioning and movement helped him capitalise as the attack unfolded and score for Strasbourg.
At the beginning of this move, we find Emmanuel Emegha occupying a Saint-Étienne central defender while Strasbourg have the ball on the right wing.
Emegha’s marker has been drawn to another Strasbourg player, forcing the Saint-Étienne right-back to shift centrally to pick up the big Dutch threat.
However, that frees up overlapping wing-back Diego Moreira to receive in space on the left wing.
The full-back tries to get out to Moreira, which leaves Emegha free inside the penalty box in a very good goalscoring position.
Unfortunately for ASSE, it’s too little, too late.
Moreira finds Emegha inside the six-yard box, and the Dutch forward sends the ball into the net with his right foot.
This attack highlights Emegha’s threat and the problems having him up front against an overloaded opposition backline can cause.
Emegha will position himself in very threatening areas.
When teammates advance and find space near, opposing defenders must decide whether to stick with Emegha and allow him to help a teammate find space or to leave Emegha, thus freeing up the big goal threat.
This helped Strasbourg score on several occasions last season, whether through Emegha or a teammate, mainly thanks to the young forward’s intelligent movement and positioning.
Emmanuel Emegha also poses a significant threat against a high line, through his movement and pace.
Above, we see Emegha beginning his run in behind against a high OGC Nice backline, as his team begins a counterattack.
The ball is well-weighted for Emegha, while the nearest defender struggles to keep up with the striker’s pace, causing him to lose balance and get easily outmuscled by the 196cm striker.
Another major benefit Strasbourg had with Emmanuel Emegha up front last season is that the young Dutchman is one of the best strikers with both feet in world football today.
He’s pretty much as good with his left and right foot, which always makes a player far more difficult to defend against.
Defenders have to second-guess themselves and prepare to defend off either side, as opposed to showing the attacker onto a weaker foot.
This trait also keeps the goalkeeper guessing, which can leave space open in the goal that wouldn’t be there if they were sure of which foot the striker would be proceeding with.
On this occasion, Emegha calmly picked his spot at the near post and powerfully slotted the ball home with the inside of his left foot, completing a successful counterattack.
Emegha has shown a willingness to lead his team’s press aggressively, should the team wish to do so, tactically.
This can help a high-pressing team force mistakes out of the opposition’s backline.
Despite his size, the striker is capable of producing a gentle first touch when receiving the ball to his feet after dropping off from the forward line.
From there, he’ll typically attempt to lay the ball off into his teammates’ path to continue the team’s progress towards goal.
With that said, Emegha could work on having greater consistency in his first touch and link-up play.
The forward still misplaces too many of his first-time passes and loses control of the ball with a heavy first touch too often to really be considered reliable in this area.
So, his first touch and first-time passing under pressure are neither major strengths nor major weaknesses in his game.
They also aren’t areas he typically relies upon.
In spite of his imposing stature, he’s currently a bit vulnerable to aggressive, physical defending.
He also often fails to time his jump well, leading to a lot of unsuccessful aerial duels.
However, if he finds space inside the box, he can still be very dangerous with headed shots.
Conclusion
To conclude our Emmanuel Emegha player analysis and scout report, the 22-year-old striker will probably benefit from spending a season as Strasbourg’s captain, especially one in which the club plans to compete both domestically and in Europe.
The extra responsibility he’ll assume this term could be highly formative to his career in terms of leadership ability.
At the moment, I’d describe Emegha as a very intelligent advanced forward with strong finishing off both feet and with his head.
His hold-up play and all-around aerial ability, the latter especially considering his height advantage over many opponents, remain areas for him and his coaches to focus on making some gains this year ahead of a potential transfer next summer, which seems most likely.
This would be the best thing for his career progression.
Emegha’s positioning, movement, two-footedness, and size will make him a mainstay on top clubs’ watch lists throughout the 2025/2026 campaign, especially Enzo Maresca’s Blues.
