Forget the MNM in Paris, RC Strasbourg Alsace are enjoying a fine season and their attacking trio of Ludovic Ajorque, Habib Diallo and Kévin Gameiro have helped make Julien Stéphan’s side the most prolific in Ligue 1 Uber Eats outside the capital.
Ajorque, Diallo and Gameiro have scored 19 goals between them out of Strasbourg’s total of 31 in 16 games this season. “It is in the club’s DNA to attack and take risks,” said Stéphan after Racing hammered Girondins de Bordeaux 5-2 on Wednesday, the fifth time this season they had scored three goals or more in a Ligue 1 game. Only Paris Saint-Germain (35) have bettered Strasbourg’s goal tally and yet their superstar front three of Kylian Mbappé, Neymar Jr. and Lionel Messi have managed just 11 goals between them.
Strasbourg’s front three have been ably supported by Adrien Thomasson, who has netted five goals and provided two assists from his attacking midfield role. In Stéphan’s favoured 3-5-2 system there is rarely room for all three of Ajorque, Diallo and Gameiro in the same starting line-up. In fact, they have started together just once this season. Nevertheless, Ligue1.com decided to pay tribute to the three together. Let’s call them the ADG.
Ludovic Ajorque: The lethal giant
Giant striker Ajorque, with his 1.97m frame, has picked up this season where he left off in the last. In 2020-21 Ajorque scored 16 league goals in Thierry Laurey’s Strasbourg side. This season, under a new coach in Stéphan, the Réunion-born frontman has already found the net eight times and provided five assists. It is little wonder Ajorque is pretty much the first name on the teamsheet each week - only goalkeeper Matz Sels and centre-back Alexander Djiku had played more minutes heading into Round 17.
Strasbourg are unbeaten in their last five games and Ajorque has scored four times in that run, including a brace in Wednesday’s demolition of Bordeaux at the Stade de la Meinau. Ajorque, who recently played his 100th game in the top flight, scores all kinds of goals but he is of course a huge threat in the air.
Given his frame, it is little wonder that Ajorque models his game on that of Guillaume Hoarau, the former PSG striker who also hails from the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. Dimitri Payet is another native of the French overseas département. He won 38 caps for France. Ajorque, 27, has never been called up but if he keeps scoring goals at his current rate perhaps he could yet break into Didier Deschamps’ squad. Ajorque has already turned down an approach from Madagascar to play for them.
Highlights: Prolific Strasbourg hit Bordeaux for five
Kévin Gameiro: The return of the prodigal son
Eyebrows were raised when Gameiro returned to Strasbourg in the close season, 13 years after he departed his first professional club to join FC Lorient. Now 34, Gameiro ended an eight-year spell in Spain when he arrived from Valencia on a two-year deal. “You can rest assured that I still have the same qualities. I am not in retirement mode yet. I want to show to all the Alsatians that they can still count on me," he said on signing.
Gameiro, who has won 13 caps for France, has quickly established himself in Stéphan’s line-up, starting 11 league games so far and scoring four goals, including a penalty against Bordeaux in midweek. His experience of the highest level is proving precious for a club that has spent a lot of its time in the bottom half since returning to the top flight in 2017.
“I think we have made a lot of progress since the start of the season,” Gameiro said after Wednesday’s win, which left the 1979 champions in sixth place. “There are still things we can improve and we must not get carried away. Our objective remains to secure survival as soon as possible. We are enjoying ourselves in every game we play. Everyone plays for each other.”
Habib Diallo: The record signing
The signing of Diallo at the start of last season was a real statement of intent by Strasbourg, who shelled out a club record €10 million to buy the Senegal international from eastern French rivals FC Metz. Diallo scored nine times in his first campaign at the Stade de la Meinau and has already been on target seven times this season, including scoring braces in wins against Metz and FC Lorient.
Diallo’s goals return is all the more impressive given he has often been the one left out from Stéphan’s starting line-up. Indeed he has started just eight games, his other seven appearances all coming from the bench. Strasbourg may also have to do without the 26-year-old for several weeks at the start of the new year, assuming he is called up by Senegal for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
“We have three strikers of a very high level. They are all different, they all complement each other and they all work hard for the team,” Stéphan recently told L’Equipe.
