Choupo-Moting picks Cameroon and Africa Cup of Nations

The Schalke attacker has probably been Schalke’s best player so far this season with 9 goals and 5 assists to his name. He was brought in for during the summer after his contract with Mainz 05 ended and was seemingly brought in as a back-up with Schalke already boasting attacking talents such as Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Jefferson Farfan, Max Meyer and Julian Draxler but he has outshone them all in his half-season with the club.

With his 9 Bundesliga goals only Eintracht Frankfurt’s Alexander Meier stands ahead of him in the race for the Torjägerkanone (Top Scorer Cannon) the award given to the Bundesliga’s top goal scorer at the end of the season.

His goals have come at crucial times for Schalke to help them climb up the table after a poor start which saw head coach Jens Keller sacked 10 games into the season. He scored a quick fire double against fellow Champions League hopefuls VfL Wolfsburg early on to help see them off with a 3-2 win. He scored the winner in their biggest game of the year against arch rivals Borussia Dortmund in a 2-1 win.

In their most recent game against SC Paderborn he scored just on the stroke of half-time just when Schalke seemed to have no hope of getting back into the game despite only being 1-0 down.

He has also proved his worth in European affairs when he scored a 90th minute penalty to secure a 4-3 win for Schalke against Sporting Lisbon, a game which went a long way in helping them qualify for the knock-out stages.

His performances have not gone unnoticed in the Schalke hierarchy either with Sporting Director Horst Heldt recently saying “Choupo is a real team player” and this correlates with the player’s own personal motto, which is “First and foremost you have to win your duels. Then you can begin to play nice football”.

As mentioned earlier the player in question will miss at least 3 games at the start of the Rückrunde, a fact that has been commented on by Choupo-Moting himself. He was quoted as saying, “The fact I miss 3 games in the Bundesliga is something that annoys me, on the other hand you have to decide because there are still many games left in the Bundesliga, even if I get far with Cameroon.”

That last point that he made is crucial because if Cameroon do progress, which they should do considering the top two advance from each group and apart from Ivory Coast the other 2 group members are Guinea and Mali, sides which don’t have a decent record in the tournament, then Choupo-Moting will miss even more games.

The initial 3 games includes a trip to Bayern Munich and a home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach and if Cameroon go all the way then Choupo-Moting might be in danger of missing the Champions League game against Real Madrid on the 18th February.