A man who played alongside the enigmatic talent for the Potters has offered his take on the forward’s recent rise to prominence
Eric Choupo-Moting has “obviously got a fantastic agent”, according to Peter Crouch, who has admitted to being surprised by the success his ex-Stoke City team-mate has had at the highest level of European football.
Choupo-Moting was a relatively unknown quantity when he arrived at Stoke from Schalke in August 2017, and he managed to score just five goals in 32 outings for the Potters in his only season at the Bet365 Stadium.
The Cameroon international’s crowning moment came when he netted twice in a 2-2 draw against Manchester United, but he was ultimately unable to help Stoke avoid relegation to the Championship and was released in the summer of 2018.
He wasn’t without a club for long though, with Paris Saint-Germain snapping him up on a free transfer as Thomas Tuchel sought to bolster his options in the final third of the pitch.
Choupo-Moting went on to score nine goals in 51 appearances for the French champions, including a last gasp winner against Atalanta in the Champions League quarter-finals last season.
He also appeared in PSG’s final defeat to Bayern Munich, but wasn’t offered the chance to extend his stay at Parc des Princes beyond the 2019-20 campaign.
Bayern obviously liked what they’d seen from the ex-Stoke forward though, as they offered the 31-year-old a one-year contract at the start of the month amid budget constraints caused by the coronavirus pandemic which limited the club to loan deals and free transfers.
Choupo-Moting has scored twice in his first four games for Hansi Flick’s team, leaving Crouch amazed by how far he has come since his brief spell in English football.
“We both scored five goals in 2017-18. Maybe I undersold myself and retired too early. What I would say, in fairness to Eric, is that he had so much talent,” the former Stoke, Liverpool and England striker told the Daily Mail. “You could see in training he was a player but it just didn’t happen as it should have done for him on a matchday.
“It was probably fitting that he ended up in Paris after Stoke. When he was around, the dressing room resembled Paris Fashion Week. He used to wear some clobber that, really, you needed to have some confidence to pull off. He had a pair of jeans that were draped with a set of oversized keys and chains. He had trench coats that went all the way to the floor – nothing was off-limits.
“Eric was a good lad and he’s obviously got a fantastic agent who has got him some fantastic opportunities. Good luck to him.”
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