It is an obvious step-up for Ujah, who only two years ago had to leave modest Mainz in search of first-team playing time. Werder are historically the third most successful team in the German top flight with four Bundesliga titles, and are presently in the hunt for sixth place. In the intervening period, the Super Eagles striker has powered the Billy Goats to promotion, and ten goals have proved the difference between mid-table (by no means a foregone conclusion yet, mind) and a relegation scrap (which remains a serious prospect, albeit an unlikely one).
There are merits to the move for both player and club.
Werder get a striker who has proven himself capable in the top-flight, while Ujah earns a chance to prove he has learnt enough to justify leaving Thomas Tuchel, a coach he confessed to greatly admire upon arriving in Germany from Norway.
Of course, there is still much for him to improve upon as a player – he is hardly the finished article – but ten Bundesliga strikes is not to be sniffed at. If this seems an underwhelming tally, do consider that Koln are not the league’s great entertainers; that’s Bayern Munich you’re thinking of. The Billy Goats have the second-lowest tally for shots per game (10.6) in the league, and only two teams have managed fewer goals this season: Paderborn and Hamburg, both a point above the relegation zone.
Ujah has scored a whopping 33 per cent of his team’s goals. For context, only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Dortmund) and Alexander Meier (Eintracht Frankfurt) have been as indispensable. Take away Ujah’s contribution in goals and assists (three) and Koln would (on goal differential) be second from bottom.
There is, of course, only so long a player can carry a modest club before either one thing or the other results: the player decides he wants to test himself at a higher level, or a bigger team makes an irrefutable offer. In this case, the latter has taken place, but the former must result quickly if the 24-year-old is to be a success with Die Werderaner.
Viktor Skrypnyk’s side are not the force of the early to mid-noughties that won the title in 2004 and were runners-up twice more in a four-year span. In the face of financial difficulty, expectations are rather tempered these days; the club is essentially now a stepping stone. A fine recent example is Belgium international Kevin de Bruyne, who excelled there on loan from Chelsea in the second half of the 2013 season, thereby snagging a move to Wolfsburg last summer.
The Wolves will almost certainly play in the Champions League next season on the back of de Bruyne’s contributions.
Might Ujah toe a similar path and feature in the Champions League in the near future? Next season at Werder may provide the answers; while he possesses great speed and a ridiculously good leap at just 5’11”, there are a lot of facets to his game that need to improve for him to become an elite forward.
For one thing, his footwork could be much better. There are also huge question marks over his concentration, both in front of goal and in open play. Considering the primacy of pressing from the front and winning possession quickly, this does somewhat take away from his all-round game – he notably had to be shouted at by his team-mates in a 2-1 win over Schalke in December after switching off.
It may seem like a little thing, but that ability to put in extra yards upfront is exactly the sort of thing top forwards have; the ability to keep the opposing defenders perpetually on their toes, and punish a momentary lapse, thereby creating something out of nothing.
In terms of his finishing as well, it remains clinical so long as he does not have too long to think about it. If he does, he becomes frustratingly easy to read. In a way, this is true of most forwards, and in any case at a higher level there is less space and time in advanced areas, but it is something he has to work on with the coaching staff at Werder.
At 24, there is obviously a lot of upside still. By conventional wisdom, his peak remains a good four years in the future – if in that time he picks up the mental side of his game, he may eventually make the leap to a bigger club. The Bundesliga could do with another prolific Nigerian striker, not since Jonathan Akpoborie and (to a lesser extent) Victor Agali has the German top-flight had a seasoned Nigeria international forward.
Ujah will hope his international career is rather more momentous than theirs though.
