Birthday Boys – Douglas Luiz and Kevin Gameiro

In this series, I will daily look at one or more players and look at there careers so far and what is in store for them. Today, I will examine Kevin Gameiro and Douglas Luiz.

Kevin Gameiro

The 33-year-old Frenchman started his career in his native country for RC Strasbourg. He played at the club for a full three seasons making 66 appearances for the club and scoring on 15 occasions in his earlier career.

This earned the striker a move to Lorient for just under £3 million in the summer of 2008. Another three year spell at a club followed with his goal-scoring record picking up and what a way to secure another move away than to score 20+ goals in your final season at the club. In total, in 120 appearances in all competition, Gameiro would score 56 times and assist 23 times.

Paris Saint-Germain came straight after the Frenchman and signed him in July 2011 for just under £10 million. His goal scoring record for the club would drop off a little scoring 11 goals in Ligue 1 that season which is exactly half the goals he scored for Lorient the previous season. Eight goals in the league the following season saw the player fall out of favour. In 77 appearances he scored 23 goals and assisted six times which saw  PSG offload the player to Andalusia.

Sevilla were the next club for Gameiro, signing for the Spanish club for a fee of £6.75 million. It was back to double figures in goals for the striker in the league. 15 goals in La Liga and it looked like the Frenchman was returning to his best. The next season, the form dipped again and eight goals in the league was what the striker finished on. The striker pulled it out of the bag for the 15/16 season. Back to double figures and it was the best goalscoring season in the league for Gameiro since 10/11.

Atletico Madrid decided to sign the Frenchman in the summer of 2016 for £27 million. The 16/17 season was another good one for Gameiro. 12 goals in the league carried on the great form that the striker had in his locker. Seven goals in the season after saw the slow decline of the player as he approached 30.

After two seasons at Atletico Madrid, he was signed by Valencia for nearly £15 million. Six goals in the 18/19 season and five goals in the 19/20 season completes Gameiro’s career up to now. He has also made 13 appearances for the French national team scoring three goals.

He’s picked up four Europa League titles, one Spanish Cup trophy and a Ligue 1 winners medal.t. He’s made over 400 appearances in his career, scoring on 178 occasions. In my opinion, a striker which is quite underrated for the sheer goalscoring record and goalscoring pedigree that he has had.

Douglas Luiz

The 22-year-old has only had a short career and isn’t the age of Gameiro, but he has shown his Brazilian flair and showed what he can do.

The central midfielder started his career at Vasco de Gama in 2016 being 18 at the time of signing his professional contract for the Brazilian club. 25 games into his professional career, he scored three goals in that time for Vasco and showed his roots of Brazilian flair with many clubs sniffing to get Luiz’s signature.

It was Manchester City who signed the teenager for just under £11 million. He was loaned out to Girona a month later on a 2-year deal. Playing plenty of minutes in Spain as he made 46 appearances for Girona and was showing that he is growing and had huge potential.

Aston Villa signed the midfielder for £15 million as they looked to cement a place in the Premier League and try to avoid the drop back to the Championship. He’s already mad 32 appearances for Villa, scoring three times and assisting on two occasions.

He’s been a vital player in Aston Villa’s midfield and his passing and dribbling have been great for Villa, but unfortunately Villa are near the relegation zone and uncertain of their fate due to the current pandemic.

He has one cap for the Brazilian national team coming against South Korea in November as he came on as substitute for ten minutes.

[columns]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1072″ heading=”News” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”59″ heading=”EPL” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[/columns]