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Why Are Stoke City And Watford After This 22-year Old Gabonese International?

Stoke City seem set to make a move for one of the hottest properties in world football. Mario Lemina, who moved to Juventus last season from Marseille, seems set to join Mark Hughes’ rag-tag bunch of eccentric stars in the Premier League.

The 22-year-old Lemina is one of the most talented Gabonese players to have made it to the big leagues recently and with his playing time severely curtailed at Juventus, he could be a great option to have on loan this season as the Potters look to make it to European competition next season.

Stoke might even try to sign him up for good but the fact that Paul Pogba could be leaving the side from Turin could be one reason why the Serie A side might want to loan the 22-year-old out to gain some valuable experience of playing regular football at the top level.

What does Lemina bring to Stoke City?

The Gabonese star is a midfielder by trait and is deployed mostly as a central midfielder with a tendency to be more defensive in nature for the side. The 22-year-old might not have played too many games for Juventus last season but he was impressive every time he came onto the pitch.

Lemina is a player who is great at holding the ball and is exemplary at dribbling, crossing and pinging the ball about to start attacks. He is a proper controller of the tempo in midfield, which would be a great addition for any side and the Juventus star is also great at tackling, thus almost making him the perfect player for a Premier League side.

Mario is also great at set-pieces and it would be interesting to see how it plays out when Xherdan Shaqiri would also be on the pitch as the Swiss star is also excellent at dead-ball situations. The 22-year-old is great at long-balls as well and this should help Stoke play a more dynamic game with quicker passes as Lemina could pick out players such as Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic.

Lemina might need to play a lot of games before he can fulfil his potential but the fact that Stoke City are trying to bring him to the Premier League could only mean good things for the Gabon star. Mario could really pick up a lot of tips by playing in the Premier League since it is a tough league, at least tougher than the Serie A and this deal could very well work out in favour of both Stoke City and Lemina.