Look up goal machine in the football dictionary and you’ll come across a picture of Andrej Kramaric. At least, you should.
Kramaric has been a prolific goal-scorer for as long as he could kick a ball. He joined Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb at the tender age of six, and duly set about scoring over 450 goals for their youth teams, making him the highest scorer in the history of a club that’s produced the likes of Zvonomir Boban, Robert Prosinecki and Luka Modric.
He made his senior debut at just 17, scoring 11 goals in his first full season and helping Dinamo to their 11th league title. The future was bright, and Kramaric was all set to become the next star to roll off the renowned Dinamo Zagreb production line.
Then, for whatever reason, he found himself on the bench. A lot. He was loaned out for two years to feeder club Lokomotiv Zagreb, scored a handful of goals, came back to Dinamo, and again found himself on the bench. So Kramaric went to the press and kicked up a fuss. Not because he’s a prima donna, but because he wants to play. And score.
At the start of the 2013-14 season, Kramaric was duly sold for a song to fellow Croatian top tier side HNK Rijeka, and the 23-year-old hasn’t looked back since. In 2013-14 he racked up 27 goals in 34 games (including eight in one cup tie), helped Rijeka to a second place league finish (for only the third time ever) and Croatian Cup victory (again, for only the third time in their history). Oh, and he scored this rip-snorter against Lyon in the UEFA Europa League:
If last year was good, this season has been exceptional. With 21 goals in 18 league matches, a further 7 in 12 Europa League ties and two in three for Croatia in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, Kramaric is very nearly averaging a goal every game in all competitions: that’s a better return than Neymar and Luis Suarez combined.
All of which explains why, this January, Andrej Kramaric was the subject of considerable attention from Europe’s biggest clubs, including an offer from Premier League leaders Chelsea. But Kramaric has chosen a different path. He doesn’t want to sit on the bench collecting pay checks while Diego Costa et al. hog the game time. No. Andrej Kramaric wants to play. And score.
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Which is why he’s eschewed Abramovich’s billions and likely Premier League glory for a relegation fight with Nigel Pearson’s Leicester City. “Chelsea now is the best team in the Premier League. They are something special, but I chose Leicester because in my opinion I would play more games.”
So can the goal machine from Zagreb fire Leicester to safety? Scoring goals in the Croatian Prva HNL is one thing, but does Kramaric have the firepower to make it in the Premier League? In short: yes. Aside from battering his domestic opponents, he’s scored goals against Sevilla (currently 4th in La Liga), a hat-trick against Feyenoord (3rd in the Dutch Eredivisie) and the aforementioed wonder goal against Lyon (currently top of Ligue 1 in France). As you can see for yourself, Kramaric is no one-trick pony: he scores goals with his feet, goals with his head, tap-ins, solo efforts and long-range howitzers.
When he plays, Andrej Kramaric scores. He should get plently of Premier League game time at Leicester City. And plenty of goals, too.
You can follow Rob Gordon on Twitter.
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