Hugo Ekitike: Can Man Utd win race for in-demand Eintracht Frankfurt forward that idolises Kylian Mbappe and is being touted as an Alexander Isak alternative for Arsenal and Liverpool?

Ekitike was born in Reims in June 2002 to a French mother and Cameroonian father, and started out playing for Cormontreuil FC, a small amateur outfit located on the south-eastern outskirts of the city. He scored freely at under-age level, but he wasn't one for show-boating. Even as a kid, he was considered incredibly professional and level-headed, solely focused on improving himself as a player.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before Reims came calling and they signed an 11-year-old Ekitike in 2013. As one of his former coaches at Cormontreuil joked in an interview with GOAL, "They must have been fed up with Hugo scoring goals against them every time their teams came to play against us!"

Reims knew they had a potential star on their hands and handed the forward his professional debut in October 2020, after he'd impressed in the fourth tier with the club's B team. However, Ekitike was still only 18 at the time and ever thinner than he is now. It was clear that he was quite ready for the rigours of top-flight football in France.

Consequently, he was sent out on loan for the second half of the 2020-21 season, to Danish Superliga outfit Vejle. The move was made during the coronavirus pandemic, meaning integrating into his new environment was far from easy, especially as the regulations at the time meant that his agent had to leave Denmark two days after arriving in the country to complete the deal.

A source close to the striker told GOAL, "When he understood the situation, he looked at his agent and said, 'Don't worry, I'll manage.' He was only a kid but he showed great maturity, even though he was arriving in a country with health restrictions, the cold and the language barrier."

Despite the obvious difficulties, Ekitike impressed at Vejle and the six-month spell in Scandinavia proved the making of him. It also served him well when it came to coping with his subsequent struggles at Parc des Princes...

Ekitike returned to Reims a far more confident character. He opened his account for the club in a 2-0 win away to Rennes in September and a run of five goals in eight games just before Christmas 2021 led to widespread interest in his prodigious talent. Newcastle even offered an initial £25 million ($32m) for Ekitike on the final day of the January transfer window, but the bid was rejected by Reims, with president Jean-Pierre Caillot explaining that "both the club and the player share the feeling there is still a piece of history to write together."

Indeed, the word at the time was that Ekitike was in no rush to leave the Stade Auguste-Delaune, particularly as Paris Saint-Germain were among the many other clubs keen on signing him. Consequently, it came as no surprise to see the France Under-20 international move to the capital club at the end of the 2021-22 season.

Ekitike initially joined the Parisians on loan, but the deal included an option to buy that would become mandatory if PSG won the league, which they inevitably did. Consequently, the move became permanent in June 2023 for €28.5m (£24m/$31m), plus €6.5m (£5.5m/$7m) in bonuses.

By that point, though, it was clear that Ekitike's days in the French capital were already numbered. He scored three times in four Ligue 1 games midway through the 2022-23 campaign, but started just 12 times in total.

PSG also tried to use Ekitike as a makeweight in their negotiations with Eintracht Frankfurt over Randal Kolo Muani, only for the youngster to reject the chance to move to Germany. However, when Eintracht came calling again in January 2024 after just one Ligue 1 appearance under Luis Enrique during the first half of the season, Ekitike reluctantly agreed to move - and he's not looked back since.

Ekitike immediately felt at home in Frankfurt. "Eintracht is like a family," he enthused. "We're all very close."

That unity has been key to the club's emergence as a force in the Bundesliga, with Eintracht currently sitting third in the table with seven rounds remaining, meaning Champions League football is a very real target for Dino Toppmoller's team.

Of course, there had been serious concerns that the loss of Marmoush midway through the season would ruin their top-four hopes, but Ekitike is doing more than most to keep the dream alive. He's scored five Bundesliga goals since the Egyptian's exit, while also playing a starring role in last month's Europa League second-leg rout of Ajax, to take his overall tally to 19 goals in 39 appearances in all competitions.

"Sometimes I sit at home and think, 'Wow, it's already been more than a year!'" Ekitike said last month. "I've gone through all the stages - starting on the bench, coming on as a sub, getting my first starts and now I'm lucky to be playing regularly.

"As I always say: I’m happy, but I want more. I want to score more, assist more. I’m still hungry."

Ekitike has admitted that he's studied Kylian Mbappe's game more than any other player over the past few years - and you can tell. The 22-year-old loves nothing better than picking the ball up wide on the left-hand side before cutting in onto his favoured right foot and having a crack at goal.

Furthermore, while Ekitike may not be quite as fast as Mbappe (few are, in fairness!), he does have an explosive turn of pace over the first five metres and can be just as dangerous a dribbler as his compatriot, as he's also blessed with tremendous balance and agility.

Ekitike isn't selfish either, as underlined by his tally of eight assists in all competitions so far this season. He's always looking for room to run into down in the inside channels and is also willing to drop deep to try make things happen or just create space for team-mates to exploit.

Ekitike may be 6'3 (1.9 metres), but he's not exactly an intimidating presence. The Frenchman is a very slender figure and sometimes struggles to win duels against robust centre-backs - particularly in the air.

Consequently, some have expressed reservations over whether he's really suited to playing for a top team in the infamously physical Premier League as his hold-up play is not great and the threat he poses in behind backlines can be rendered irrelevant against deep-lying opponents.

Of course, Alexander Isak - to whom Ekitike has been regularly compared - has a similarly slight frame and is now widely regarded as the best striker in England's top flight.

However, if Ekitike is to thrive in the Premier League, he's going to have to improve his finishing. He's underperforming his xG so far this season and his shot conversion rate in all competitions (15.08 percent) is well below the level one would expect of an elite No.9.

In fairness to Ekitike, though, part of the reason for his poor strike rate is his propensity for taking pot shots from distance - and that's tied to the fact that his starting position is often quite deep, or at least it was when he was effectively playing off Marmoush. In recent weeks, though, we've seen a slightly different version of Ekitike, as he's now being asked to play as a lone striker rather than a support striker.

"I realised I could shoot more during matches and be more dangerous like that," he told the French press last month. "I want to be more direct and face goal more. They told me that I sometimes went too far from my position by participating in build-up play too much, and that I wasn't in the zones where a forward should be. I have put that right. I try to move about the pitch less. I liked being part of the play, but I have also understood that real pleasure comes from scoring goals."

The tweaks and improvements Ekitike is making to his game are certainly paying off. He scored three times for France's U21s in last month's win over their England counterparts, with two of those goals coming from tap-ins - the most obvious illustration to date of his newfound desire to get into the box as regularly and as quickly as possible.

Of course, that performance against Lee Carsley's pride of extremely talented young lions only aroused further interest in a player that is now being closely followed by not only Manchester United, but also Arsenal and Liverpool, with Ekitike being touted as a cheaper and more obtainable alternative to Isak. It's also been claimed if the Swede were to leave St. James' Park for a nine-figure fee this summer, Newcastle would try to sign Ekitike as a replacement.

Manchester United will, of course, be hoping that Ekitike will be swayed by his existing fondness for the club, but no matter whom he decides to join next, it now feels inevitable that he'll be granted his wish to face good friend Marmoush again soon - most likely in next season's Premier League, in fact.