The leading goal scorer in Italy through the first 8 games of the season is probably not who you thought it would be. Especially considering some of the goal scoring machines running around on Italian pitches in Higuain, Ronaldo, Mandzukic, Immobile or Icardi. His name is Krzysztof Piatek and he sits atop the goal scorers list at 9 goals with Insigne behind him with 6 goals. Piatek is a striker for Genoa and what makes this even more interesting is that Genoa is one of only two teams in the league that have played only 7 games instead of 8. So he has 3 more goals than the next best with one less game. I am sure even some soccer fans are wondering who this kid is, and I am going to answer that for you.
Born in the architecturally rich Polish town of Dzierzoniow in 1995, Krzysztof (equivalent to the name Christopher in America) played for the town’s youth soccer team while growing up. When he was just 19 years of age he debuted for the Polish club Zaglebie Lubin in the top Polish league called Ekstraklasa in 2014 (dont worry, i can’t pronounce either of those either). He played in over 70 games for the team scoring 15 goals before joining a different team in the same league, Cracovia. It is here where he began to show his talent. In two seasons with Cracovia, Piatek played in 65 league games and found the net 32 times. Of those 32 goals during his tenure with Cracovia, 21 came in his second season which put him at 3rd in the goal scoring ranks in Poland’s top league that year. This was enough to gain interest from different teams outside of Poland, eventually finding him a four-year contract with the Italian Serie A club Genoa in June of 2018.
Krzysztof wasted no time in his first outing with Genoa, scoring a whopping 4 goals in a game against Serie B team Lecce during one of Italy’s annual tournaments. In late August he played his first league match in Serie A and netted a goal in the first six minutes of the match leading to a win over opponents Empoli. A week later he checked off his first two goal game for the team in a loss to Sassuolo and then slotted yet another goal in each of their following games against Bologna and Lazio. Those 5 goals in 4 games made Piatek the first player since 1999 to tally 5 goals in their first 4 appearances in Serie A. The fun did not stop there. His next goal pushed him to 10 across all European competitions making him the first player in each of Europe’s biggest leagues to do so this season. In late September he had yet another two goal game in a Serie A match making it 8 goals in 6 league matches. I am sure he was thrilled to find out that this made it the best start to a Serie A season for any debuting player since 1949.
The 23 year old striker has shown no signs of slowing down. Records are made to be broken and he is living proof of that. Some have loosely referred to him as the next Lewandowski. Although it is pretty early to make comparisons like that, it is still an honor as a young player to even hear that about yourself. There have even been reports of interest from some of Europe’s top clubs. If he continues this wonderful rampage of goal scoring every time he steps on the pitch, it would only be right for top teams to want to take a closer look at him. He shows that his ceiling is high and that he knows what it takes to find the back of the net. With such a potentially promising future ahead of him one can only wonder what the next move will be for Krzysztof Piatek.
