Dodi Lukebakio is the man of the moment in Germany.
The 21 year old, on loan from Watford, scored a hat-trick for Fortuna Dusseldorf at the weekend to help his team come back and earn a 3-3 draw away to Bayern Munich.
He was playing as a striker in that match, but the youngster has also played on the right and as an attacking midfielder for his loan club so far this season.
The Belgian has nine goals in 12 matches, five of those games being substitute appearances, but the start of the stay didn’t go swimmingly.
There was poor timing keeping and it took Lukebakio’s teammates a little time to get used to the confident young man.
Bild say the player’s ‘extremely strong self esteem’ made the dressing room unsure. He struggled to get used to ‘German timekeeping’ and was even pulled out of the squad on one occasion because he was late for a team meeting.
Bild quote captain Oliver Fink as saying: “I just like the guy with his style. Dodi needs a bit of affection, a little bit of understanding. With his self-confidence, he can play football incredibly well. I knew the boy could be very important for us.”
Another teammate, Adam Bodzek, added: “Dodi is incredibly valuable, incredibly fast. For us a very important player. We must continue to guide him so that he remains so valuable.”
Should Lukebakio be playing under Javi Gracia next season then he’ll need to be punctual. Less than a week ago the manager revealed he’d implemented a fine system so Watford players have to pay for every minute they’re late.
“The goal is not to raise[money], but to avoid being late,” Gracia explained. “So if it happens, bad sign. Punctuality could be improved and they accepted it from the first day. These are rules that I propose in the locker room and they serve us all.”
