Who is Mike Tresor Ndayishimiye, the attacker for Genk?
Ndayishimiye, who is seldom known outside of Belgium, saw his popularity soar last year after winning the Belgian Jupiler Pro League’s award for best player.
The 24-year-old had a standout season with Genk during which he made 39 appearances in the league, assisted an astounding 24 goals, and scored eight times himself. The adaptable attacking midfielder is as inventive as they come with numbers like those, whether or not Belgium is involved.
It’s also hardly a surprise, therefore, that he has attracted the interest of those in England, with the player himself recently revealing his delight that Kompany “appreciates” his qualities.
Used predominantly on the left of midfield, Ndayishimiye averaged 0.66 assists per 90 minutes last season, as per FBref. To give that some context, no player to have featured more than five times in the Championship managed a figure higher than 0.50 last season.
For those quick to dismiss the Belgian top flight, Global Football Rankings rates Genk near enough on a par with Burnley in terms of accumulative player quality.
As a wide player, Ndayishimiye has been known to ‘torment’ defenders, as Breaking the Lines reporter Tom Quartly put it, and that was also the case at former club Willem II.
Indeed, including his final season in Eredivisie and two seasons in Belgium, the Antwerp-born attacker has averaged 0.41 0.54 and 0.66 assists per 90 minutes across the past three years.
Sustaining those numbers in the Premier League will be tough, but Burnley certainly have players – even without Gyokeres – who can feed off the type of service Ndayishimiye can provide from out wide.
Top scorer Nathan Tella, for example, scored 17 goals last season from an expected goals (xG) value of 10.3. It remains to be seen if Tella will stay on at Turf Moor, but whoever leads the line for the Clarets will reap the rewards.
Having already turned to his native Belgium to bring in Josh Cullen, Vitinho, Manuel Benson, Anass Zaroury and Ameen Al-Dakhil, do not be surprised to see Kompany take a punt on a player potentially available for a bargain £4m this summer.
Viktor Gyokeres is fast becoming embroiled in one of the transfer sagas of the summer.
The Coventry City striker scored 21 goals in 49 league appearances last season as the Sky Blues marginally missed out on promotion to the Premier League.
Having been linked with a number of top-flight teams since last month’s play-off final loss to Luton Town, Gyokeres has supposedly told Coventry that he wants to move on this summer.
However, Burnley appear unlikely to win the race for his signature, with the Clarets’ interest said to be elsewhere at this moment in time as they seek a new striker.
But that is not necessarily a bad thing for Vincent Kompany’s men. After all, there is a player potentially on the market who Kompany will know well, and can be signed with far less stress than it will take to get the Gyokeres agreement over the line.
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