Serhou Guirassy: Bundesliga’s leading goalscorer
Serhou Guirassy has broken Robert Lewandowski’s record for most goals to start a Bundesliga season.
Guirassy’s 13 goals in seven league games have helped Stuttgart to second on the Bundesliga standings – a point above champions Bayern Munich. The German outfit have won five league games on the bounce and are in fine fettle.
“We’re on a roll right now and up front we’ve got a striker in Serhou who’s putting everything away,” Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß praised the Guinea international.
Guirassy, 27, began the 2023/24 campaign by scoring eight goals with eight shots on target in his first four top-flight games for Die Roten – a feat never before achieved by any player at the club. He added another two in the 3-1 win over Darmstadt on Matchday 5 and bagged a second hat-trick of the season in a win over Wolfsburg on Matchday 7.
The hattrick saw him move further in front in the top goalscorers’ race as he surpassed Robert Lewandowski to record the highest-ever Bundesliga goals haul at this stage of a season.
Despite scoring 11 goals across various youth categories for France, Guirassy chose to represent Guinea in March 2022. He has since won seven caps for the country of his parents’ birth and has scored senior international goals against Brazil and Egypt.
Born in the southern French city of Arles to Guinean parents, Guirassy enjoyed an eye-catching start to his young career by posting some prolific goalscoring numbers with USM Montargis and, in particular, at J3 Amilly. Despite an unsuccessful trial at Auxerre, Laval took the rapidly developing forward under their wing and they would eventually make Guirassy the club’s youngest-ever pro at 17.
Showing a sharp eye for goal and boasting an unselfish side that saw him laying on several assists, the 6’2″ striker began receiving youth caps for France soon after joining his new side. His progress to the Laval’s seniors led to him netting seven goals in 38 games across two seasons and earned a move to the French top flight with Lille.
However it was while scoring eight goals in 16 second-division games on loan at Auxerre in the second half of the 2015/16 campaign that would first bring Guirassy to the Bundesliga with Cologne.
Despite a tricky start to life on the banks of the Rhine, Guirassy netted his first German top-flight goal for Cologne against Bayer Leverkusen under the team’s then coach Peter Stöger on October 28, 2017. Despite Guirassy being the Billy-Goats’ top scorer in all competitions that season, however, his efforts couldn’t prevent Cologne from suffering relegation.
A return to France with Amiens and then Rennes saw Guirassy raise his level further and a highlight during his time back in France was scoring Rennes’ first-ever goal in the Champions League. Stuttgart subsequently swooped and snapped up the Guinea international on loan for the 2022/23 season.
Netting 11 Bundesliga goals and adding a further strike in the two-legged relegation/promotion play-off victory against Hamburg saw Guirassy seal a permanent move to the MHP Arena.
Bundesliga.com
