Jeremy Baffour Doku (born 27 May 2002) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Manchester City and the Belgium national team.
Doku began his senior professional career with Anderlecht, during the 2018–19 season, where he went on to score five goals in 34 league appearances over several seasons. In 2020, he joined Ligue 1 club Rennes, going on to make 75 appearances and netting ten goals, before signing for Manchester City in August 2023 for €65 million.
Doku was called up to the senior Belgium squad in 2020, having played at every youth level since the under-15s and represented his nation at UEFA Euro 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Doku is equally comfortable playing on the left wing and on the right wing. According to The Athletic, Doku is "a ball-to-feet winger who constantly changes his positioning to present himself as a progressive passing option". Doku is naturally right-footed, but he also has a strong left foot which he often uses to shoot at the goal after cutting in from the right side or cross from the left. An extremely quick and explosive player with great acceleration, agility, balance and body strength, Doku is most famous for his elite dribbling skills, flair and trickery. His low centre of gravity, body control, unpredictable footwork and rapid change of pace has helped him become one of the world's most effective forwards in one-on-one situations. Doku's signature move is the shoulder drop ("the chop"), putting his right foot over the ball and making a feint towards the inside, forcing the defender to lean in, followed by a sudden burst to the right, as he keeps the ball under close control. He also frequently uses a drag-back spin move when backed against defenders, turning quickly and advancing up the pitch.
As a youth player, Doku was called "arrogant" for his tendency to wait for opposition defenders to recover so he could repeatedly beat them with the ball. Doku declared himself in 2021 "the best dribbler in League 1". Due to his directness, he draws a lot of fouls from opponents, having received a foul once every 35 minutes on average, resulting with him being the tenth-most-fouled player in Ligue 1 in 2023. Doku also possesses excellent vision and crossing ability, completing more than 80 percent of his passes; however, he has been criticised for his lack of end product, having scored 9 league goals in his first three seasons at Rennes.
Due to his direct playing style and African heritage, Doku has often drawn comparisons with Senegalese forward Sadio Mane. He is also frequently compared to Belgian compatriot Eden Hazard and is seen as his successor in the Belgium national team. Doku considers Hazard to be his idol. He also cited Messi and Brazilian legend Ronaldinho as influential in the early development of his footballing profile. |
