I have to be really honest with you, until today I had not yet heard of Dodi Lukebakio. Today, however, the man with that name introduced himself to the world.
Dodi Lukebakio just turned 21 years old exactly two months before the most remarkable day of his career so far. He was born in Asse, a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. Lukebakio is from Congolese heritage and has played one match for the national team of DR Congo, already back in 2016 in a friendly against Kenya. Later he committed himself to the Belgian team, however. Thus far he was playing in eleven matches for the Belgian under-21 side.
Lukebakio started his career at RSC Anderlecht. For them, he scored one goal in 17 appearances. Anderlecht loaned him out to Toulouse FC (5 matches / no goals) and Sporting Charleroi (19 matches / 3 goals). They then sold him to Watford FC, where he is still under contract, but was only used in one official match. In this current season, Lukebakio spends his time on loan in Germany, at newly promoted Fortuna Düsseldorf, scoring two goals in his first nine matches.
The match against FC Bayern München
Before today's match against FC Bayern München started, Lukebakio had only scored six goals on the highest level during his career. Bayern is the main club in German football/soccer history and will probably never be overtaken unless another team is going to dominate even more in the future. This season does not really seem to be Bayern's year, as they have already dropped quite some points. However, one would expect Bayern München to win at home against a newly promoted Fortuna Düsseldorf.
There was no real doubt at the beginning of the match as FC Bayern took an early lead, despite an early warning by Lukebakio in the first minute. Niklas Sule put the home team in front in the 17th minute from a loose ball after a corner kick. Just three minutes later Jerome Boateng hoops the ball forward towards Thomas Müller, who doubled the score for Bayern to 2-0. Just before halftime, Lukebakio brought the excitement back in the game. He got the ball in his feet after a scrimmage and shot the ball past Manuel Neuer. His goal should have been a warning of what was about to come.
Bayern did however not worry and through Thomas Müller, they took a 3-1 lead shortly after the second half started. Lewandowski's backheel pass was close to perfection. Still, another 30 minutes to play for in front of their 75.000 fans. A bit later, with only 13 minutes left on the scoreboard, it was again Dodi Lukebakio who managed to score. He broke through the defence and defeated Neuer, but the referee disallowed the goal due to him being offside. The VAR overruled the referee and the goal counts. Bayern was still winning, and after 90 minutes the score was still in their favor. Three minutes into stoppage time, however, it was Rouwen Hennings who quickly brought the ball forward towards a running Lukebakio, who kept his could and scored the 3-3 in an extraordinary achievement.
In one match Lukebakio went from six career goals at the highest level to nine. A great achievement. This will be a player to keep an eye on. How is he going to develop further this season? What is going to be expected from him in the next couple of years? Did you already know the player before the match against Bayern? Let me know in the comments section below.
Small side note
Lukebakio scored three goals in six matches for Toulouse's second team. He also scored four goals in two matches in the DFB Pokal against weaker (lower division) teams. He also scored four goals for the under-21 team in Belgium. In reality, Lukebakio has therefore scored 10 more goals during his career, but these were not included in the above-mentioned statistics.
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