In late November, following a disappointing early Round One exit from this year’s MLS Cup Playoffs, FC Cincinnati announced its first acquisition as it turned its attention to planning for the 2025 season.
It was not just any acquisition, either.
For a transfer fee of $16.2m, it was the most expensive acquisition in Major League Soccer history.
The player in question is 24-year-old Togo international Kévin Denkey, a prolific striker from Cercle Brugge.
Denkey, who was the top scorer in the Belgian Pro League last season with 27 goals, has spent his entire club career and half of his life in Europe, playing in France and Belgium ahead of this forthcoming transfer to the United States.
This is a new challenge for one of the UEFA Conference League‘s current top marksmen — one Cincinnati fans should be very excited about.
Already boasting an attack with the likes of Luciano Acosta and Luca Orellano, adding Denkey to the frontline is the move the club will be looking to as the missing piece of the jigsaw as they aim for their first-ever MLS Cup success next year.
This scout report and player analysis will examine Kévin Denkey’s profile and the qualities that Cincinnati will be looking for him to bring to TQL Stadium in the years to come.
Kévin Denkey Player Profile
Standing at 1.81m (5’11’), Denkey is an all-around striker who, in addition to his impressive strike rate in front of goal, offers many off-the-ball contributions through his physical presence and sacrifice for his team.
These will be the two most important points throughout this piece to focus on, given that Cincinnati have lacked such a centre-forward that can post up the numbers Denkey has in Belgium, especially this year after Brandon Vázquez‘s departure to Monterrey.
Given his size, combined with his desire and willingness to help his teammates defensively, he will offer a different outlet altogether to the slightly smaller and less physically gifted pairing of Yuya Kubo and Orellano, who finished the year leading the attack alongside their talisman, Acosta.
Kévin Denkey Stats 2024/2025
His player radar map from this season for Cercle, above, highlights some of the attributes that Denkey will bring to the Cincinnati attack in 2025.
Undoubtedly, the area that stands out the most above is his attacking metrics.
Denkey ranks in the top 12% regarding shots and opposition penalty area touches per 90 minutes, which blow any current Cincinnati forward, including Acosta, out of the water.
His defensive metrics also stand out.
His defensive duels won rank around the 87th percentile, highlighting that he is much more than just a goalscorer and will fit well in Cincinnati’s hard-working attack.
Kévin Denkey Heatmap & Ball Progression Map 2024/025
Two more maps above display Denkey’s main areas of activity and involvement in the Belgian Pro League this term for Cercle Brugge.
In conjunction, both should offer Cincinnati followers a sample of what to expect in terms of the positions their new signing likes to take up and move into, both with and without the ball.
The Togolese is a menacing forward who will add a new dimension to Cincy’s attack, particularly in the box, but without sacrificing anything defensively that they get from their current options there.
This, in theory, should mean a net gain of more goals for a team that hopes to be a championship contender again next year.
Kévin Denkey Scoring Efficiency
As mentioned, there are two main points to focus on when it comes to what Denkey will be expected to bring when he begins this new chapter of his career in Ohio next month.
Given that it’s his goals that Cincy will mostly be relying on him to achieve, given the hefty price tag assigned to his transfer, that’s the most important aspect of this move that everyone will be judging him on next year, rightly or wrongly.
Kévin Denkey Shots Map 2024/2025
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Denkey was the top scorer in Belgium last season and is one of the leading scorers in this season’s Conference League, his first European competition participation.
Examining his shot map from this season so far, there are reasons to be excited for Cincinnati fans.
Denkey has slightly outperformed his xG of 8.88 by netting nine non-penalty goals this season.
His average xG per shot is 0.19, which is a solid number.
Although he is occasionally willing to strike from a distance, his best work is inside the penalty area, where he has made a name for himself and scored all his goals this season in Belgium.
Cincinnati could use work in that area, as they scored just 45 times inside the 18-yard box all year.
Denkey should bolster them in that department quite well.
Another valuable asset that comes from that is the different ways in which Denkey can score.
He is comfortable shooting with both feet, using his height to climb and win headers, and even creating his own chance with little room to manoeuvre, as he does in the example below against Sint-Truiden.
Denkey, pictured in the centre, is playing with his back to goal, awaiting a ball from his teammate, but with the attention of both centre-backs behind him waiting to snuff out any attempt at a ball played to him by standing in close proximity to him.
This is a difficult situation for most strikers, and even if a ball were to slip into them, it wouldn’t result in a goalscoring opportunity.
But not for Denkey.
Denkey eventually receives the ball and, in one movement, is able to control the ball, complete a half-turn, and fire away a powerful low shoot on his less preferred left foot into the bottom corner for a goal.
It was an intelligent play, but also an impressive invention and improvisation, where he made the most of a sticky situation by outwitting his markers and creating something out of very little.
This ingenuity will be a welcome addition to the Cincinnati forward line and not a rare occurrence for the player.
Kévin Denkey Defensive Work
Of course, Denkey is far more than a static striker waiting in the box for service to score goals.
He offers so much even when his team doesn’t have the ball in terms of pressing and defensive actions, which could add another interesting element to Cincy’s attack, given his obvious physical differences and advantages over their other options.
Kévin Denkey High Regains Map 2024/2025
His high regains map above highlights his defensive work for Cercle in the league alone this season, with more than a couple of dozen recoveries recorded in the attacking half within five to ten seconds of lost possession in his side’s favour.
A good example of his work in this area can be found in the example below against Westerlo.
Here, Denkey is in a deeper, wide-left position, looking to press Westerlo’s right back in possession.
Just as he begins to move towards the player to attempt to challenge for the ball.
Two seconds later, he won it back for his team with the player in question and took it off of nowhere near him.
Here, Denkey cleverly used his size and upper body strength to push the defender off the ball cleanly and regain possession with his feet.
Not something the likes of Kubo, Orellano, Acosta, or Cincy’s other attacking options have the sort of physical presence to achieve, which is why this is an example worth using to express what he can bring differently to their press and defending from the front next year.
How Will Kévin Denkey Fit In At Cincinnati?
Under Pat Noonan tactics, who will enter his fourth year as head coach in 2025, Cincinnati has mostly played in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2 formation, with star player Luciano Acosta typically playing off of two forwards.
If they continue with this setup as expected, Denkey will certainly be one of the forwards, with Orellano likely to be the third.
As one may expect, there will be an adaptation period for Denkey when he arrives as he is in a new league and new country for the first time.
Cincinnati FC will also have to adjust, as they haven’t had a profile like Denkey’s in their ranks: a physical striker who can potentially net twenty or more goals a season and has a proven pedigree of leading the scoring charts in a quality European league.
Given their lack of consistency aside from Acosta, when it comes to having someone regularly fulfil that task, they will have to adapt to him in the same way he’ll have to adapt to his new teammate.
They will also have to put him in the best positions to succeed and do what he’s been brought in to do — score the goals to lead Cincinnati to titles, namely the MLS Cup.
Conclusion
Kévin Denkey has grown significantly as a player and forward in a relatively short period, rising to the top of the Belgian elite in 2024, where he won the Golden Boot, as well as the Ebony Shoe, awarded to the best player of African origin within the league.
Now, as he prepares to make a move stateside to one of MLS’s top outfits of recent seasons in Cincinnati, it will be an opportunity for him to create a new legacy for himself in another club and country, having already done so at Cercle Brugge by becoming their third highest Pro League scorer ever.
And with a relatively new franchise hungry for titles as his next pick to continue his career, the door is open for him to do just that in the years to come.
