Gift Orban: The Man Utd-linked Nigerian tearing up the Belgian Pro League

Neel Shelat

• Updated: 28 Jun 2023 12:53 BST
• 8 min read

There were a fair few moves made in the January 2023 transfer window, but the best of the bunch without a shadow of a doubt was Gent’s signing of Gift Orban.

The Belgian club paid a relatively hefty fee of €3.3 million to then-second-tier Norwegian side Stabaek, but he could well be worth about ten times that now!

Orban’s rise has been absolutely rapid. Around this time last year, he was playing in Nigeria for Bison FC. In the summer, Stabaek decided to give him a shot as they had a bit of a striker crisis. They certainly did not regret that, as he netted 16 goals in 22 league games to help them secure promotion and finished the season as the league’s joint top-scorer despite playing there for just half a year.

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Despite this mightily impressive record, Gent knew that spending over €3m on him was a bit of a risk as the step up from the OBOS-ligaen to the Belgian Pro League is quite a big one. For Orban, though, it has barely turned out to be a hop. He has made 22 appearances in all competitions for Gent since signing in late January, returning with a measly 20 goals.

It should hardly be a surprise that almost every club in Europe’s major leagues is interested in his signature. Even the biggest ones like Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea have been linked with him, although he may not want to make the jump to a club of that stature so quickly.

Orban’s standout attributes

It certainly is worth taking a closer look at Orban to see what the hype is all about, so let us analyse his work in Belgium this year. Although his return averages close to a goal a game, it should be noted that Orban’s scoring has been slightly patchy. His exploits include three hat-tricks of which two – including the quickest ever in a UEFA club competition – came in the same week. Soon thereafter, he endured a goal drought (by his standards) that lasted five games.

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Either way, it is quite clear that Orban scores lots of goals. But what else does he do? Let us take a look at his pizza chart.

It should be no surprise to see Orban’s goalscoring and shooting numbers look impressive, but his chance creation stats are also worth taking note of. We’ll get onto those later, but first, let’s dive deeper into his shooting.

Orban’s shotmap makes for interesting reading – of course the sheer volume of goals and shots stand out, but he does seem to be quite trigger-happy and takes a good few low-percentage shots.

Of course, we do have to acknowledge his absurdly good finishing at this point. At a point, it seemed whatever he touched turned to gold.

His ball-striking is simply astonishing.

And when you consistently score goals like that, confidence naturally shoots up. This is how confident Orban got this season:

But there is more to Orban than just sensational finishing. His off-ball movement, particularly in the box, is quite impressive – especially for someone who did not particularly focus on training in that aspect until he was 20 years old.

The Nigerian striker seems to have a natural knack of gravitating into the right spaces where the ball will come away from opposition defenders.

Gent’s style of play this season was relatively direct, so Orban found himself making runs in behind quite often. Here too, he showed impressive signs and was willing to move around and get forward in the channels.

While we speak of movement, we must also acknowledge Hugo Cupyers, Orban’s strike partner with whom he forged a great relationship on the pitch.

Clearly, Orban is not just a pure goalscorer who dwells in the box, but he likes to move around too. His heatmap is a testament to that fact.

As he drifts around and drops deep, Orban also gets involved in his side’s build-up play. That should explain his chance creation numbers, but of course, they don’t paint the full picture. The Nigerian striker also is a valuable asset in transition as he can hold the ball up and bring his teammates into play, playing through balls from deep as moves develop. But, on the whole, his build-up involvement is certainly an aspect of his game he can improve upon, as his decision-making is not always the best and his final ball can be disappointing at times.

The other question mark looming around Orban is what his true scoring rate is. Yes, he is an exceptional finisher and should be expected to outperform his xG, but the rate at which he is doing so right now surely is not sustainable for a career. So, big teams will wonder how he might react to a long goal drought, and whether his decision-making in terms of choosing when to fire shots away can be worked on.

Of course, these were the exact questions Gent might have been asking about six months ago, and they have gotten an emphatic answer. They are, nonetheless, valid because a step up from the Pro League to a major European club can prove daunting for anyone. From what Orban has shown so far, though, he certainly is worth taking a punt on for a big club looking for a striker. At best, he could grow to be one of the top strikers in the world, and if not, he is already operating at a very decent level for a top-five European league.