Nordi Mukiele used to play with Lionel Messi, but he had a certain view of the Argentine World Cup winner and instead, dedicated himself to coming and playing for Régis Le Bris.
Exaggerated song lyrics or not, Mukiele has flourished since landing on Wearside. His spell here has helped Sunderland and after seeing his name back on the team sheet, I was delighted, reminding everyone around me in the Fans’ Museum how good he is at getting us moving up the pitch.
So you can only imagine my delight when
on the hour mark on Sunday, Mukiele surged infield, taking several Tottenham players out of the game and rifling in the winner — albeit via a deflection. However, fortunate or not, that ball doesn’t get near the net without Mukiele taking a gamble on that attacking run.
After Granit Xhaka, Mukiele was the next signing that left me genuinely shocked when he was announced by Sunderland. Playing for Bayer Leverkusen, PSG, and RB Leipzig during a varied career, he was sold ‘the project’ by former Leverkusen teammate Xhaka, and the rest is history, as they say.
When Mukiele is in the side, we look far stronger, both going forward and at the back. His tackle on Dan Burn during the derby win back in December was crunching, and was a reminder to that lot up the road that we were going to make their afternoon hell.
His forward runs open up the right hand side and link up play.
We’ve created plenty of chances this season, and six goals and assists in twenty six appearances for a first season in the Premier League — regardless of his European experience — makes for good reading, and he could and probably should’ve had another goal before his second half strike on Sunday.
As well as being a quality footballer who makes things happen, Mukiele seems like a brilliant character.
We’re thirty two games into the season, so maybe this is nothing new, but his experience and charisma have gone a long way in helping us towards a top-half finish and allowing us to dream of Europe.
Given that he’s made 300+ appearances in Europe’s top divisions, the €12 million we paid for Mukiele in August feels like a bargain in the current market. Then again, you can say that about almost all of our summer signings; some of the best value players we’ve ever recruited.
The best thing about Mukiele is that like Reinildo and Omar Alderete, his age probably means he’ll not receive as much interest as some of our younger players. He’s worth far more to us than he would be to a new team, and having settled in almost perfectly on Wearside, we’ll hopefully see a good few more years of Mukiele in a Sunderland shirt.
In many ways, Mukiele is the sort of signing we needed to make last summer. His experience and quality would be a coup for most teams in the Premier League, never mind a newly-promoted one, and if similar players can be added in the summer, we’ll still be in a very good place.
