Aubameyang's German chapter is not just about football

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Scoring for fun already!

The 24-year-old will find few peers in European football when it comes to acceleration over a short distance – he’s faster over the first 30m than Usain Bolt, they say in Dortmund – but his overall game needs to improve if he wants to reach the same levels of his Dortmund colleagues. There won’t always be as much space available as in Augsburg, where the home side had to open up in an effort to chase an equaliser.

Doubts about his technical ability were probably responsible for a relative lack of interest from top clubs outside Germany. Bayer Leverkusen made an offer to St.Etienne, but apart from francophile Newcastle United, no Premier League club seemed interested.

That is remarkable when you consider his 19 goals and 14 assists last season. Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic was more prolific in Ligue 1.

To his credit, the €13 million signing is aware of his limitations. He admitted to needing a lot of space for his game. “I know I have to develop in that respect,” he told Kicker. “I need to know how to act best against deep opponents”.

Few coaches are as good at coaxing the best out of players as Klopp. And few teams rely so much on pace, especially when they counter-attack. Aubameyang and Dortmund look like the perfect match – almost.

Borussia, based in Germany’s post-industrial, working-class Ruhr area, have been careful to cultivate their image as the people’s club. With his extrovert hair-cut, over-the-top goal celebrations (he used to wear a Spiderman mask in France and loves somersaults) and white Ferrari, Aubameyang doesn’t quite fit in.

Klopp had to tell him that wearing green boots adorned with 4000 crystals in training was not a good idea. “Please wear normal boots,” he said. Dortmund’s success is based on a collective playing identity; too much individualism is frowned upon. Aubameyang has even been gently ribbed in the dressing room, Sahin revealed.

In his defence, “Auba,” as Klopp calls him, has explained that his appearance is not representative of his character. “I’m not as loud and extrovert a person as it looks,” he said, “I’m very different. People in Germany will see that soon”. His former national manager agrees. “He’s a decent guy, not a show-off,” said Gernot Rohr.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Klopp will pick him again for the home game against Eintracht Braunschweig on Sunday or send a message of “calm down, everyone” by benching him instead.

The return of fellow new boy Henrikh Mkhitaryan to fitness certainly offers further options up front. For all his “brutal quality” (Klopp), Aubameyang’s success will come down to application and adaptability in the long run. Dortmund are not only one of the best footballing sides in Europe, but also one of the most demanding.

The early signs are promising. “We look better than last season,” said striker Robert Lewandowski. Aubameyang can run defences ragged to create more room for the centre-forward and Marco Reus, the other wide attacker.

A mere one game into the season, Dortmund already seem to have tremendous momentum – thanks to their new rocket man.