Arkadiusz Milik

21     Striker     Ajax     Poland

Skinny

21 years old and five clubs under his belt already, on paper it looks like Arkadiusz Milik may have struggled. Nothing could be further from the truth and now transferred to Ajax permanently as of the summer, he has a chance to settle for two or three years and really grow. That is, of course, unless someone makes him and his club an offer too good to refuse and if he keeps impressing as he has been, that may eventually happen.

2015 has been…

…good all in, but now needs to get his head down and take it to the next level.

It feels like Arkadiusz Milik has been a next-big-thing for about a decade now. After his debut as a 16-year old he was taking trials at various European clubs long before Martin Odegaard made it fashionable, and then a move, then another, then a loan and then another loan has made it feel like he’s been around for ages. The move to Ajax was earned after the way he played there last season, and we hope now he has a couple of seasons without distractions to really grow.

Those of you who aren’t familiar with him may be wondering if he’s been worth all the bother to this point, and quite simply, yes he has. He’s been a huge part of everything good about Ajax going forward over the last 12 months and has also cemented that place in the national team next to Robert Lewandowski. Poland are on their way to Euro2016 as top scorers in qualifying (Milik contributing five) and he’s scored some big goals over their campaign - the opener in the vital 2-0 win against Germany for instance, and the equaliser against Scotland last October.

He’s started this season in fine form and scoring goals for Ajax, just as he did in the last one, and he’s looking really good. Lewy may deservedly take all the headlines but Milik looks like he could run him close one day.

What’s next?

We hope more of the same and we hope despite the eternal links to Premier League and Serie A sides, he goes nowhere. He looks a real talent but his career lacked a foundation, it looked like he might have all the talent in the world but fall short, some stability has done him the power of good.

We’re tentatively excited here as we first saw Milik in 2012 and thought he could go far. In 2013 we called him “the most exciting talent to emerge in Poland for decades”. In 2014 we gave him a slightly disappointing C but hoped he could find a home with Ajax and get us all fizzy again. 2015’s comment is this; if he carries on progressing at the same rate and continues to enjoy his football, he’ll eventually be a €30m+ level world class striker. We like. We like a lot.

B     Much better year and highly promising recent form, could be fun at the Euros