Zambia forward Patson Daka has been named the 2020-21 Austrian Bundesliga Player of the Season. The Salzburg striker led his team to the league title.
Daka scored a really impressive 27 goals in just 28 league appearances to end the campaign as the league’s top scorer, as RB Salzburg won an eighth straight Austrian Bundesliga crown.
The 22-year-old successfully filled Erling Haaland’s shoes at Salzburg and has already been linked with a move to Europe’s biggest clubs. This amazing goal tally makes him the second-highest scoring African for the season in Europe’s top 10 leagues behind Nigeria star Paul Onuachu who surpassed the 30-goal mark for Genk in Belgium.
In winning the Player of the Season award, he joined a growing list of Salzburg players to do so over the last few campaigns, with fellow African and Guinea international Naby Keita having won the award previously in the 2015-16 season.
“I am really proud of this and would like to thank all the presidents, club managers and coaches for the award,” Daka said. “My biggest thank you goes to my teammates and coaching staff, however, who I would like to dedicate this honour to.”
In total, Daka scored 34 goals in 42 appearances across all competitions in the 2020/21 season, which has really left a mark on scouts.
Premier League giants Liverpool and West Ham United are the early favourites to sign Daka in the off-season and if the Reds of Merseyside come calling then it will be hard to resist.
Daka and fellow Zambian Enock Mwepu continue to impress at RB Salzburg, earning the club a new legion of Zambian fans.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re playing against Manchester United or Real Madrid – everybody’s supporting Red Bull because of us,” he explained.
“Right now it’s really crazy in Zambia. Most of the time people ask, ‘how can we get the jerseys?’
The English Premier League remains popular in Zambia and Daka says it is a league he would like to compete in at some stage in his career, “when the time is right.”
“I’ve been a Liverpool fan and also a Barcelona fan in Spain,” he admitted.
West Ham United will also be a fantastic option for the Zambian as West Ham will be playing in next season’s UEFA Europa League so that exposure will be fantastic as well, however, Liverpool are in the premier European club competition – the UEFA Champions League so we will have to wait and see how things turn out.
