Who is Mohammed Kudus? The Ajax youngster tearing up the Champions League

14 Sept 2022 12:07 BST
4 min read

Mohammed Kudus, Ajax, 2022/23 — © ProShots

Mohammed Kudus has already scored two goals and assisted one in two Champions League games for Ajax this season. Who is the nascent Ghanaian midfielder?

Kudus was linked with a move to Everton this summer, and it is quickly becoming clear why the Toffees were so keen to steal a march on the competition for the 22-year-old's signature.

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Ajax endured a mass exodus this summer, with Antony and Lisandro Martinez sealing headline-grabbing moves to Manchester United for a combined €165 million.

Having previously lost last season's top scorer Sebastien Haller to Borussia Dortmund, few would have pegged Kudus as being the Ivorian's successor in attack, though.

But after keeping his powder relatively dry last season, he has exploded into action term. Football Transfers has the skinny…

Goal, assist and 100% pass accuracy 🔝
🇬🇭 What a display by Mohammed Kudus!@AFCAjax || #UCL pic.twitter.com/hWarvV6RLP
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 12, 2022

What position does Kudus play in?

Kudus was signed as a central midfielder when he made his €9m move from Danish outfit Nordsjaelland in the summer of 2020, where he was just as likely to anchor the midfield as he was to play at the tip of it.

He has increasingly been used as a No.10 by his native Ghana - for whom he has five goals in 16 caps - though, and now Erik ten Hagg's successor as Ajax coach Alfred Schreuder has turned to him to lead the line.

How good is Kudus?

Kudus looks to be an extremely promising player, and it is testament to his natural ability that he has thus far been preferred - out of position - to Brian Brobbey in the Champions League; Brobbey having returned from RB Leipzig this summer for €19.35m.

A left-footed player with a powerful shot and a wicked turn of pace, Kudus is also now proving deadly in front of goal, as Liverpool found out most recently with the youngster thumping the ball beyond Alisson in the Reds 2-1 win over Ajax on Tuesday.

Kudus also boasts a pass completion of 92 per cent in the Dutch Eredivisie - the kind of numbers normally reserved for centre-backs who pass it a matter of metres towards their fellow defenders.

What clubs are interested in Kudus?

Frank Lampard knows a thing or two about scoring goals from midfield, and Everton were strongly linked with a move for Kudus this summer, with the player at one point taking a leaf out of Antony's book and refusing to train with Ajax as he attempted to force a move.

No move materialised, and now Newcastle, Wolves and Leicester are understood to have joined the queue to bring him to the Premier League.