IT was the kind of apparently anodyne incident upon which entire careers can turn. Jimmy Briand was warming up before Bordeaux’s Ligue 1 home game with Monaco at the end of November when he felt a pain in the back of his left thigh.
The decision was taken to remove the veteran striker from Bordeaux’s starting XI and Josh Maja, who had been preparing for another watching brief on the Matmut Atlantique substitutes bench, found himself thrust into the line-up.
The 20-year-old London-born striker played well enough in Bordeaux’s 2-1 win to hold onto his place in the team and on his next outing, away at Reims, his superb back-heel volley served to earn Paulo Sousa’s side a 1-1 draw. That was just the warm-up.
4 – Best scorers aged 20 or under in the top 5 European leagues this season:
Victor Osimhen – 8
Jadon Sancho – 5
Kylian Mbappé – 5
Josh Maja – 4
Mason Mount – 4
Netflix.#FCGBNO pic.twitter.com/MtNbFrKH5E
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) December 3, 2019
Against Nîmes on Tuesday night, Maja scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 victory that propelled his side up to third place in the Ligue 1 standings. It was his first treble in senior football and the crisp quality of his goals – all scored with his right foot in the space of 29 minutes either side of half-time – made the achievement all the more memorable.
His first two goals were ice-cool one-on-one finishes, while his hat-trick strike, eight minutes into the second period, saw him gather a pass from Vukašin Jovanović on the edge of the box before arcing a glorious shot into the top-left corner. He was not finished, either, teeing up Nicolas De Préville for Bordeaux’s fourth goal shortly before the hour. When he was replaced by Toma Bašić with 15 minutes remaining, he left the field to a standing ovation.
“It’s very good for him and for his confidence,” said Bordeaux centre-back Laurent Koscielny. “You feel that his integration is beginning to bear fruit. He works hard in front of goal and tonight he got his reward.”
Prior to Briand’s injury, Maja could have been forgiven for wondering whether he was ever going to get a decent run-out. All 11 of his previous league appearances this season had come from the bench and on his previous five outings, he had been on the pitch for a cumulative total of just 38 minutes. Having shown Sousa what he can do, the former Sunderland player now hopes to hold onto his place in the side for Sunday’s showdown with second-place Marseille.
“It’s a special moment for me, for my family as well, and I’m just looking to keep improving and keep helping the team,” he said. “I’m hoping to get another opportunity to play. It’s a big game and whoever wins will get a big boost.”
Born in Lewisham to Nigerian parents, Maja played for Crystal Palace and Fulham at youth level and also spent time at Manchester City. After City declined to offer him a scholarship, he was picked up by Sunderland in March 2015 and it was there that his career began in earnest.
His league debut, in December 2017, was particularly memorable as Maja scored the goal against Fulham that gave Sunderland their first home win in 364 days, turning him into one of the stars of the Netflix documentary series Sunderland ‘Til I Die. Sunderland’s subsequent relegation to League One helped Maja to claim a first-team place and after plundering 16 goals over the first half of the 2018-19 campaign, he elected to join Bordeaux in a £3.5 million move last January.
Josh Maja (20) against Nîmes Olympique:
⚽ Goal in the 24th minute
⚽ Goal in the 37th minute
⚽ Goal in the 53rd minute
️ Assist in the 58th minuteHis first hat-trick in professional football.
— Scouted Football (@ScoutedFtbl) December 3, 2019
As well as angering Sunderland’s fans, the decision to move to a new country at such a young age raised eyebrows, but Maja considered it a calculated gamble.
“I could have gone to the Premier League, but it would have been very difficult for me to get a lot of game time because a lot of young players in the league don’t get as much as they should,” he told The Times in April. “Around France you see a lot of young players starting every week. There’s a big difference.”
After struggling to impress former Bordeaux coach Ricardo, Maja scored on his first start under Sousa, Ricardo’s successor, at Nîmes in April, only to then succumb to a thigh injury that brought his first season in France to a premature end. He scored only once in his first 12 league appearances this term, but Sousa was encouraged by his progress.
“When we arrived with my staff, he had lots of trouble integrating – both in terms of the play, because it’s different to the English third division, and in terms of the language,” the former Juventus midfielder said in August. “We made sure that he was able to better understand certain aspects. He also did a lot of muscular work to stabilise himself after his injury. He’s grown in strength.”
Maja, who made his international debut for Nigeria in September, has given Bordeaux’s supporters something to smile about during what has been a testing period for the club, in spite of the team’s lofty position in the Ligue 1 standings. Tuesday’s game against Nîmes was suspended for 25 minutes in the first half after a group of Bordeaux ultras were prevented from accessing their seats in the Virage Sud because they planned to display two banners protesting against the club’s American owners. Tensions between fans and the owners have rumbled on since the beginning of the season, with the former accusing the latter of impeding their access to tickets in an attempt to sanitise the stadium, and attendances have suffered as a result.
There is also conflict at boardroom level between the two American investment companies – King Street and General American Capital Partners (GACP) – that jointly own the club. GACP led the firms’ takeover in July 2018, but King Street is the majority shareholder, holding 86 percent of the club’s shares, and is expected to take full control in the coming weeks.
Amid all the quarrelling, Maja’s huge potential is one subject upon which everyone can agree.
