Wout Weghorst arrives in the Premier League via the road less travelled.
At 6ft 6ins tall and with strong opinions on everything from Covid vaccines to the “selfish, every-man-for-himself” world of football, Weghorst feels like the most intriguing of all the Premier League’s deadline day deals.
Granted, Newcastle’s Saudi-powered trolley dash and Everton’s capture of two international calibre playmakers might have swiped the headlines but Weghorst arrives with the potential to transform Burnley’s season.
“There have been a lot of teams looking at him over the years but he gets judged because of his size I think. It’s exceptional business from Burnley,” one recruitment source said.
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It wasn’t until 2014 that he was discovered by Heracles Almelo thanks to the input of data scientists at Dutch company Sci Sports. They were handed the unenviable task of finding a target man on a meagre budget and found Weghorst, whose statistics were an “outlier”.
“He looked a little bit clumsy but scored a lot of goals,” said Sci Sports founder Giels Brouwer. They rated his anticipation in the box and ability to score “important goals” despite mostly coming off the bench.
“If you want something enough, you can go far,” Weghorst said in an interview in 2014. “Sometimes my fanaticism gets me into trouble. Sometimes when I see myself on TV I think ‘What are you doing?’
“But that’s me, I always go full throttle.”
That experience of “fighting” for his career means he will fit right in at Turf Moor, where they need to rediscover their edge and ability to prove the doubters wrong.
For Burnley, it was a deal that they desperately needed. With mounting questions about their ability to stage another great escape and rising concern about the ambition of Alan Pace’s ALK Capital group, a statement signing was required to plug the gap left by top scorer Chris Wood.
Weghorst, with 59 goals in 118 games for an ordinary Wolfsburg side over the last four seasons, looks just like that and more.
Since the start of the 2018-19 season, only Robert Lewandowski has scored more Bundesliga goals than Burnley’s new No 9.
“It seems like a pretty big upgrade on Chris Wood to me,” Bundesliga journalist Matt Pearson said.
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“People see his height and presume he’s someone who flicks it on, wins the ball in the air and who you throw balls into the box for, but he’s better than that.
“He presses the ball really well – which is what everyone in the Bundesliga needs to do – and it feels like an excellent fit.”
Fans can expect a big personality in Weghorst, who recently had to apologise for posting anti-vaccine messages on his Instagram account. He has qualifications in sports management and business and reckons he might one day follow his brother in studying architecture.
At Burnley, they’ll build their survival hopes around the 29-year-old. There is a lot riding on Weghorst, which makes him one to watch among the Premier League’s crop of new arrivals.
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