Jean-Paul N’Djoli has come out of nowhere to score a wild amount of goals so far this season, with Premier League clubs already sitting up and taking notice of him
Ever heard of Jean-Paul N’Djoli? No, nor had we until very recently. But why are we at the Daily Star suddenly paying attention to some random footballer nobody has ever heard of? Well, because he’s just scored his 11th goal in seven games in a league that many consider to be on par with the English Championship.
And N’Djoli has now suddenly emerged on the radar of Premier League scouts, with Brighton & Hove Albion reportedly monitoring his explosive start to the season, according to several reports.
Heracles Almelo striker Jean-Paul N’Djoli has taken the Eerste Divisie by storm, firing in an astonishing 11 goals in just seven appearances. The 25-year-old French-Congolese marksman only arrived in Almelo during the summer transfer window after a relatively low-profile stint with Swiss outfit FC Wil 1900, yet he has swiftly established himself as the most lethal finisher in the Netherlands . . . and all of Europe.
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N’Djoli’s latest strike arrived in Heracles’ 2-0 victory over Vitesse, where he broke the deadlock after just 11 minutes with a well-worked finish from a rehearsed corner routine over the weekend. That goal helped Heracles pull clear at the summit of the table, capitalising on slip-ups from title rivals Almere City.
Until a few weeks ago, he hadn’t really pulled up any trees whatsoever. He began his football journey in his native France, spending his youth career from 2016 to 2018 with Évreux FC 27 before transitioning to their senior squad. As a forward standing 6 feet 3 inches tall, he made 31 league appearances and scored 3 goals for Évreux FC 27 between 2018 and 2021.
In 2021, he moved to Spain, briefly joining Rayo Vallecano B where he did not make a league appearance, before finding more regular playing time with Hércules CF B. Over the 2021–2022 season, he scored 6 goals in 34 appearances for the B team, which led to a promotion to the main Hércules CF squad, where he made 31 appearances and scored 3 goals between 2022 and 2024.
Skip forward a few years, when he moved to FC Langenthal, scoring 3 goals in 13 appearances. His goalscoring form then saw a significant increase; during the 2025–2026 season with SC Brühl, he scored 12 goals in just 16 appearances. This was followed by a stint at FC Wil in 2026, where he added another 5 goals across 15 matches. He then joined his current club, Heracles Almelo. It has also been claimed that both Brighton and the strikers current club share the same scouting system.
His electric run has drawn inevitable comparisons to club icon Joop Schuman in Dutch media, who famously netted 44 goals in a single 34-game Eerste Divisie campaign. Remarkably, N’Djoli is currently matching that legendary scoring rate. When pressed on the historic benchmark, however, the grounded forward brushed off personal plaudits, insisting he is entirely focused on helping his side secure promotion rather than chasing individual records.
While Heracles have the striker tied down to a long-term deal through to 2028, with an option to extend, holding onto their talisman could prove tricky if his prolific form continues to attract serious interest from England’s top flight.