Unprecedented!
With his goal in the 2-0 home win against Union Berlin, Lois Openda achieved something historic. Our goal-getter scored his 14th goal of the season, setting a new record for goals in a Bundesliga by a Belgian player. The previous record holder was a former Schalke crowd favorite, Emile Mpenza, who held the record for an impressive 23 years.. until now!
Lois Openda tops Emile Mpenza
- Lois Openda enthusiastically celebrated the early goal to make it 1-0 against Union Berlin with his teammates, making it 14 Bundesliga goals for our number 17 this season. It’s a goal he’ll be asked about for years, as his powerful close-range effort surpassed Schalke’s Emile Mpenza as the most potent Belgian goalscorer in a Bundesliga season.
- The lightning-fast striker only needed 20 games to achieve this mark. For comparison: Mpenza, the former Schalke 04 and Hamburger SV hitman, needed 25 games to score 13 goals in his record 2000/01 season for the Royal Blues.
Amazing Parallels
- Both strikers are not only the same height at 1.77 meters, but are or were also very similar in profile. Lois’ predecessor was also fast, agile, physical and ice-cold in front of the opponent’s box. Even in terms of age, the two top scorers were close together at the time of their record. Lois is 23 years old, Mpenza was 22 years old when he scored his 13th goal of the season on May 5, 2001 against VfL Wolfsburg. He celebrated his birthday just about two months later.
And the chances are good that the RBL clipper will increase his number even further. After all, there are still 14 more Bundesliga games coming up this season. It’s quite possible that another 25 years will pass before the next Belgian breaks his mark.
Weitere News
Portrait of Lois Openda
Belgians in the Bundesliga
29 goals left until the next record!
- The most successful Belgian of all time in German football’s upper house is still Thorgan Hazard. The ex-Gladbacher and Dortmund player, who is now playing again at RSC Anderlecht, scored 43 times in 234 games. The attacker had his two highest-scoring years in 17/18 and 18/19 for Borussia Mönchengladbach (ten goals in 34 and 33 appearances respectively).
Of course, another name is also missing from this list – that of Kevin De Bruyne. The now 32-year-old has been pulling the strings in midfield for reigning Champions League winners Manchester City for almost nine years. The star of the superstar and captain of the “Red Devils”, as the Belgian national team is also called, rose in Germany.
In the 2012/13 season, De Bruyne scored ten times in 33 games for Werder Bremen, and also ten times in 34 appearances for VfL Wolfsburg in 14/15. He also scored 21 goals this season and was named Germany’s “Footballer of the Year”. At the end of his Bundesliga career, he netted 23 times in 85 games.