Bundesliga
Karim Adeyemi has always been blessed with staggering pace, but has discovered a way to increase his impact under new Borussia Dortmund coach Niko Kovač. With his directness and fantastic finishing ability, it is no wonder that Julian Nagelsmann has called the wide man back into the Germany fold.
There are some moments of wonder in football you just want to see again and again. Adeyemi dragging his left boot across a bouncing ball to lash it in from outside the area in the first leg of Dortmund's UEFA Champions League last 16 tie against Lille was firmly in that category.
That was far from the first time the 23-year-old winger has caused jaws to drop during his spell in Black and Yellow. A blistering solo charge against Chelsea at the same stage of the competition in 2023 remains another unforgettable display of his devastating pace. The superb strike against Lille - which proved vital as Dortmund edged the tie 3-2 on aggregate - was symbolic of his resurgence since Kovač took charge at the end of January.
Kovač was clear on taking the reins that he had faith in Adeyemi, who some had viewed as someone not quite hitting his potential since joining Dortmund from Red Bull Salzburg in 2022. The former Croatia international said: "I hope for him and all of us that he fully applies the abilities he has, as then he will be hard to stop and Borussia Dortmund will also be hard to stop."
Stopping Adeyemi indeed takes quite some work in a literal sense, with the 22.77 mph (36.65 km/h) he clocked against Freiburg in the 2022/23 season being the third-fastest speed of all time in the Bundesliga. Pace needs to be utilised well in football, however, and the former Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt and Wolfsburg boss's more direct attacking approach is clearly proving a good fit for Adeyemi, with Nico Schlotterbeck among those tasked with playing long balls behind opposing defences for the winger to chase.
Watch: Adeyemi was on target at St. Pauli on Matchday 24
Adeyemi's finishing can be superb, the Dortmund attacked having played as a centre-forward in Salzburg, scoring 19 goals in 29 appearances in the 2021/22 Austrian Bundesliga. He has always been an incredible option for teams looking to play on the break, and it is no surprise that two of his three goals under Kovač have come that way, in a 2-0 win away at St. Pauli and 3-0 win at Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League knockout play-off second leg.
Those strikes saw the winger make a key personal contribution to lifting the away blues that hampered Dortmund earlier in the season, while also helping the club extend their Champions League run. It is a platform the player who appeared in last year's final clearly relishes, with five goals and one assist in eight appearances in this season's competition.
As pleasant as the narrative of a new coach unlocking Adeyemi's full potential is, there is also the factor of the winger's return to fitness roughly coinciding with the change in the dugout. He netted a devastating first-half hat-trick in a 7-1 win at home to Celtic in the league stage in October - a performance he jokingly credited to his wife cooking him broccoli ahead of the match - only to sustain a thigh injury at the start of the second half that kept him out of action until shortly before the winter break.
The extent to which fresh vegetables or Kovač should take credit for his formidable form is ultimately unimportant, however. An Adeyemi in free flow is a joy to behold and a major asset to any team, which makes his first full international call-up since the 2022 FIFA World Cup by Julian Nagelsmann in March all the more understandable.
With Dortmund targeting a late-season charge up the table and facing a Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona, the winger will have plenty of opportunities to show he can deliver on a regular basis at the highest level.