On the January 7, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was awarded the Confederation of African Football’s player of the year, narrowly edging out the Ivorian Yaya Touré.
The Man City midfielder had been such a safe bet that host Robert Marawa probably had to read the results card three times over to avoid a Steve Harvey turn of events – that being said, the event was pretty awkward.
But to put it simply, the Borussia Dortmund striker has had the kind of year that has made him hard to ignore. Here’s a few things you may not about the star aside from his footballing talents.
If you see the man at a comic convention wearing a Batman costume, don’t be alarmed. His obsession with the Dark Knight borders on ridiculous, as these images show.
When he can’t find his Batman paraphernalia he turns to Spiderman.
Pierre’s father played for the Gabonese international team in the 1994 and 1996 African Cup of Nations and played for a number of top teams in France.
Back when he starred for Saint Etienne, he played a game wearing a pair of boots encrusted in Swarovski crystals. I hope he didn’t mark them up because they cost GBP£2,500.
Earlier this year, a team featuring past and present stars of Saint Etienne played against team Ronaldo-Zidane XI in a charity match to raise funds to fight Ebola. Many players saw the match as nothing more than a kick about but the Gabon striker was taking nothing lightly, coming on after 63-minutes and scoring a hat trick to win the game.
At the end of 2015, Pierre Aubameyang finished at the top of the Golden Shoe Rankings. If he stays there for the remainder of the season he would be the first African to win the prestigious award. Let’s just hope if he wins that he doesn’t play in gold-plated boots, because they would no doubt be a little heavy (and painful).
Newcastle tried to sign the striker in 2013 while shortly after Qatar offered a cool €10m per year.
But, according to an interview in the French newspaper L’Equipe, he decided to turn it down because of his father’s advice.
‘The following season, St Etienne wanted to sell me to Newcastle but we opted for Dortmund, finalist in the Champions League because my father studied Jurgen Klopp’s game, even though the money was lower.’
Daddy’s boy!
The striker began his career at AC Milan, where his father was a scout. After failing to establish himself as a first-team player in Italy, he was sold for EU€1 million and established himself in France with Saint Etienne. His brothers Willy and Catilina also began their careers with AC.
Pierre is definitely a man of firsts. He was the first Gabonese player to play in the Bundesliga (where he scored a hat-trick on his league debut, including a goal with his first shot). He also scored Gabon’s first-ever goal in the Olympics in London 2012.
This article was updated on February 22.