Without a shadow of a doubt, Christopher Nkunku at Chelsea’s stint barely saw the French striker shine due to a plethora of injuries.
The French striker came to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2023 after a brilliant four-year period at RB Leipzig, during which he made the Bundesliga his nightmare for. In the German side, Nkunku scored 70 goals, provided 56 assists in 172 appearances, and was extremely influential in both the domestic and European cups.
The combination of Chelsea’s technical demands, tactical requirement, and fans’ expectation was the perfect symbiotic relationship which he had never before experienced but which he was so ready to take on.
However, his career with the Premier League was nothing but bad luck one after another from the very beginning. Nkunku suffered a serious knee injury during pre-season, and then he had a hip and muscle problem which only allowed him to play 11 league games during his first season. In two seasons, he was only part of 38 Premier League matches, of which he was a starter in 11, and he scored six goals and assisted two times.
Still, Nkunku found ways to be effective in Europe, where he scored five goals and made three assists as Chelsea won the 2024 UEFA Conference League. Anyway, his most prominent Premier League farewell thus was the disappointment of not exploiting his full potential.
At the moment, Nkunku 27 years old, has just sealed a move of £32m to AC Milan where he is excited to relight the brilliance that made him one of Europe’s brightest stars. The Rossoneri are not the ones to put a stop to his comeback due to a series of unfortunate events during his time at Chelsea but they are the ones to restart his journey for a new chapter.