When Andre-Pierre Gignac first transferred from Marseille in Ligue 1 to Tigres in Liga MX, my esteemed coworker Sam Klomhaus said something along the lines of, “What!? Tigers just got the second leading scorer in France last year on a free transfer.” He was right — Gignac scored 21 goals in 14/15, and was a free transfer — but I didn’t pay too much attention to the hype for whatever reason, maybe because this was the same Klomhaus that had before said that Robert Lewandowski wasn’t that good.
Recently, however, I can’t deny how prophetic his exclamation was that day. Gignac has been destroying Liga MX. He is tied for top scorer with 13 goals. His Tigres side is currently unbeaten in its past 9 games. His transfer is looking like the most brilliant coup since Toronto FC nabbed Sebastian Giovinco. His most recent goals are a manifestation of all of these points.
First is his deftly taken, somehow lofted bicycle kick in the first leg of Tigres quarterfinal matchup against Chiapas. He goes full Zlatan here, it doesn’t make sense that a man that big can pull off an acrobatic kick so gracefully.
Then, more true to his built-like-a-bull form, he scored in the very next leg against Chiapas with this thunderbastard.
In the animal kingdom, I believe that’s called establishing dominance. In soccer…well, it’s called the same thing. Chiapas will be having nightmares about these amazing Gignac goals for days.
With the success of the Gignac Experiment, as ESPNFC is calling it, one has to wonder if more and more Liga MX clubs will splash the cash to bring in European talent. Gignac is currently Liga MX’s highest paid player at $4.5 million a year, a lot of clubs would be willing to break that mark if it meant having what Tigres has: the best player in the league.
Zlatan’s contract at PSG is up in 2016. I’m just saying.
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