Moise Kean: Who is Cristiano Ronaldo’s replacement at Juventus?

Football is no Netflix. But even so, ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelt for season two of Moise Kean x Juventus. Without shedding a drop of tear publically, Cristiano Ronaldo left Continassa and the club altogether on Friday, having spent just around 40 minutes in the training ground meeting his Bianconeri teammates and bidding them farewell in the process.

Soon came the news of the Bianconeri being interested in Moise Kean from Everton. Interest became concrete as Juventus gradually emerged as the favourites in the pursuit. And after around 24 hours of speculation, he is now set to don the White and Black shirt once again.

Willingly or unwillingly, the Piedmontese side had to let Cristiano Ronaldo leave on Friday. The Portuguese legend then swiftly boarded a plane for Lisbon, where he completed his medical before his sensational return to Manchester United after 12 years of separation. Leaving the bittersweet memories of his days in Turin behind, Ronaldo will embark on a new adventure in the Premier League, for sure.

A new adventure in a league where he has played before — doesn’t that sound familiar? Moise Kean would like to voice a word or two.

The background

Born in Vercelli — one of the oldest places in Northern Italy, Moise Kean belonged to a humble upbringing. Son of Ivorian parents, Kean had to make a crucial decision when he was four. At the time of his parental separation, he chose to be at the side of his mother, Isabelle.

During his childhood, he would do all sorts of tricks with the ball on his feet, chasing down the moving orb down the suburbs of Asti, where he and his mother had to move after their separation from his father, Biorou. There was something special in that kid. And special talents don’t go unnoticed in a place like Italy.

Renato Biasi, a former Italian goalkeeper, recognised the kid’s talent and admitted him to the junior side of Asti. While playing for Asti, Kean caught the eyes of numerous reputed clubs from Northern Italy and beyond. Torino, a prestigious Italian side with incomparable fame, ended up clinching Moise Kean’s services.

Envious of Torino’s youth prospect, Juventus came calling for Kean’s entourage and got success in snapping him up in 2010. Having played a plethora of games in the youth circuit and developed through ranks, Kean, at the age of 16, eventually made his senior debut for Bianconeri in Serie A on November 19, 2016. Though, it was not until the 2018/19 season when he truly established himself in the eyes of the widespread football devotees. He scored six goals from only 541 minutes that season (as per FBref.com).

It seemed as if his one-year loan spell at Hellas Verona, where he had logged four goals in the 2017/2018 Serie A campaign, finally yielded some fruits. However, following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid in 2018 and Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax in the subsequent summer, Juventus had to cut some slack and ease some burden off their annual wage bill. While financial limitation was a barrier, Kean’s need to play games more regularly came up as a concern for the Old Lady. As a consequence, the club ended up offloading the talented young Italian to Everton.

Struggles under Carlo Ancelotti

In the summer of 2019, Everton spent an initial transfer fee of around €27.5 million to sign Moise Kean from Juventus. With Marco Silva at the helm, Everton convinced Kean to pen a five-year deal. According to the stats from Transfermarkt, Kean, still growing, went on to play 13 games (449 minutes of football) without opening the account for his new club. He was able to get one assist, though.

Nevertheless, on the back of a run of poor results followed by poor collective performances, Everton relieved Marco Silva of his managerial duties, hiring one of the biggest names in the managerial world, Carlo Ancelotti.

From the beginning of his tenure, it became clear that the Italian was interested in the prowess of Dominic Calvert-Lewin over that of Moise Kean. While it wouldn’t be fair to say that Kean was not given opportunities, he looked nothing more than a cover for Calvert-Lewin or an irrelevant outlet under Mr Ancelotti.

Playing 620 minutes under the guidance of Ancelotti, Kean racked up four goals and one assist in all competitions by the end of the 2019/2020 season in England.

Moise Kean’s potential resurrection in the “City of Love”

Unsettled and confused, Kean needed a loan spell to prove his mettle, to showcase that he was rightly touted to be one of the next big things in Italian football. Paris Saint-Germain came to match the ambition brewing inside the forward. PSG, led by Thomas Tuchel, signed him on a season-long loan deal in 2020.

Joining a team piled with superstars such as Neymar Jr, Kylian Mbappe, Ángel Di María, and Marco Veratti, Kean soon rose to prominence, scoring his first brace in a Champions League game for PSG against İstanbul Başakşehir.

Tuchel got replaced by Mauricio Pochettino, but Kean remained poised to reach his aim as the striker made another 25 appearances for the Argentine, scoring eight goals en route to impressing everyone around PSG and the “City of Love”.

In terms of scoring, the 2020/21 season was his personal best. He amassed 13 goals from 1,698 minutes of football in Ligue 1. In the wake of a successful loan spell, PSG were willing to sign Kean permanently. But with three years left on Kean’s prevailing contract, Everton refused to nod at the offer posed by the French club. Per the reports, the blue Merseysiders wanted a transfer fee of around €45 million for Kean’s permanent sale.

The asking price deterred PSG, who then chose to persuade Lionel Messi to join their party. Gradually, the interest from PSG in the 21-year-old went astray, and Moise Kean, knowing that a permanent move to PSG was not imminent and hoping for a turnaround in his Everton future, returned to England with a rejuvenated ideology.

Juventus interest following a return to Everton

The first thing Moise Kean noticed on his return from a prosperous loan spell at PSG was the departing news of Carlo Ancelotti, who was re-appointed to the throne of Real Madrid vacated by the abrupt exit of Zinedine Zidane earlier this summer. On the other hand, Everton hired their new manager in Rafael Benítez.

Once the manager of the red side of Merseyside, Benítez has also been seen putting his confidence in the efficacy of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Moise Kean has made just one start in the EFL Cup, where he, unfortunately, received a red card under the supervision of the Spaniard.

Kean’s future seemed far from established at Everton. Henceforth, a move away from English Premier League was impending.

Losing Cristiano Ronaldo quite unexpectedly amid the whirlwind of the summer transfer market, Juventus have reportedly completed a deal in principle for Moise Kean, as per a very reliable Goal Italia journalist in Romeo Agresti.

Fabrizio Romano reports that it is going to be a one-year loan deal with an obligation to buy (under certain conditions). The total fee of the deal is expected to be around  €20 million. Kean has understandably agreed on his personal terms with Juventus and is set to undertake his medicals in Turin on Sunday.

Is he any good to replace Cristiano Ronaldo?

Let’s be candid here! Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the best player of all time, was an irreplaceable asset for Juventus. Even his equivalent in Lionel Messi might not be able to emulate every aspect of the Funchal-born phenomenon.

Scoring 29 goals from 33 matches in Serie A (per FBref.com) last season, he led an inconsistent and incompetent Bianconeri to a top-four finish, helping them qualify for the Champions League apparently on his own. There is a metric called npxG [Non-Penalty Expected Goals], which gauges whether a player overperforms or underperforms in front of the goal.

The data from Statsbomb denotes that Ronaldo accumulated an npxG of 20.4 last season in Serie A, meaning, according to the npxG metrics imposed by Statsbomb, Ronaldo was expected to score around 20 goals. Yet, the 36-year-old ended his domestic season with 23 non-penalty goals, signifying that he was overperforming — converting more difficult chances into goals — for Juventus in Serie A 2020/21.

Likewise, when we take a look at Moise Kean’s last season npxG, the data shows that Kean seized a tally of 13 non-penalty goals from a collective npxG of 10.7 last season in Ligue 1, meaning that, like Ronaldo, Kean was also surpassing the expectation last season while playing his trade for Paris Saint-Germain.

From FBref’s scouting graph, it is obvious that Moise Kean, when it comes to non-penalty goals, is one of the best with a percentile of 92 across the men’s big five leagues and European competition. In this respect, he accumulated a better non-penalty goal ratio of 0.67 per 90 minutes than Cristiano Ronaldo’s 0.66 per 90 minutes.

Now is he the astute and fitting one to replace Cristiano Ronaldo? Time, our friend, will let us know sooner or later.