Royal Antwerp attacker Michel-Ange Balikwisha has been linked with a move to Celtic.

Brendan Rodgers has already added goalkeepers Viljami Sinisalo and Kasper Schmeichel to his squad this summer. With less than two weeks until the Premiership opener against Kilmarnock at Celtic Park though, Rodgers is said to stepping up his interest in other targets, including Antwerp’s Belgian forward Balikwisha.

Belgian journalist Sacha Tavolieri broke the news of Celtic’s interest in the player last week with the latest reports suggesting Rodgers has now held personal talks with the player.

This scout report will take an in-depth look at the former Belgian youth international, analysing his data and playing style to assess what he would bring to the Celtic attack, should a move materialise.

Player profile

Balikwisha started his youth career with Anderlecht before joining Standard Liege where he made his professional debut in September 2020.

The Ghent-born forward spent just one season with Standard Liege and joined Antwerp in July 2021 for around £4m. He has since gone on to make over 120 appearances, scoring 25 goals and providing 14 assists.

Capped 10 times for Belgium at under-21 level, Balikwisha helped Antwerp to a domestic double in 2022/23 and last season the 23-year-old netted ten goals and laid on eight more in 44 appearances. He also scored a vital Champions League goal in their play-off tie against AEK Athens last year, securing group-stage football.

Used predominately as a left winger in Antwerp’s favoured 4-2-3-1, Balikwisha has been deployed in several other positions too. He played 1,547 of his total 2,778 league minutes on the left wing but showed his versatility, playing 779 minutes as a central attacking midfielder/central midfielder, 351 on the right and 101 at centre-forward. In terms of his physical profile, Balikwisha has a lean, athletic build and is 5’10” and weighs 69kg.

Data analysis

The chart below can help build a picture of Balikwisha’s playing style. Using Wyscout per-90 data converted into percentile ranks, the chart compares him to other wingers and central attacking midfielders (minimum 1,000 minutes played) in last season’s Belgian Pro League The charts are split into three sections and cover several key attacking, possession and defending metrics.

Looking at his attacking section first, we can see Balikwisha’s six non-penalty goals in the league last season, which worked 0.19 per 90, ranked just above average compared to his positional peers. This was in line with what he was ‘expected’ to score with Balikwisha posting an average of 0.20 xG per 90, again just above average for a player in his position in the league.

The attacking section also shows Balikwisha did not average a huge amount of shots, 1.33 per 90, just above the bottom quartile. However, his high xG per shot of 0.16 (80th percentile) indicates that the attempts he did get on goal tended to be high-quality ones.

In terms of crossing, Balikwisha averaged a high amount, 3.24 per 90 (top quartile), but his accuracy percentage of 26 per cent only ranked just above the bottom quartile.

Dribbling-wise, he averaged 4.18 per 90, in the 50th percentile while his successful dribble percentage of 55.81 per cent was comfortably above average for players in his position in the Belgian top flight last season. Coupled with his almost three (2.92) progressive runs per 90, a continuous ball control that draws the team significantly closer to the opponent's goal, this highlights ball-carrying as one of Balikwisha’s strengths. Finally, in his attacking section, we can see Balikwisha got in the box plenty with his 3.89 touches in the box per 90 ranking in the top quartile.

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Looking at his possession section, Balikwisha’s ranks for the volume metrics are around average to just above average. This is unsurprising given Antwerp were the most ball-dominant side in last season’s Pro League, averaging 58.9 per cent of possession. Most importantly, and impressively, his accuracy percentages ranked very well, around the 75th percentile rank. His 87.57 per cent short/medium passing accuracy percentage (82nd percentile) indicates a level of technicality on the ball and ability to retain possession. His 81.53 per cent accuracy for his progressive passes (74th percentile) highlights an efficiency in progressing the ball through his passes as well as his carries.

His possession metrics relating to chance creation, such as through passes (0.36 per 90/36.36 per cent accuracy), key passes (0.55 per 90) and xA (0.15 per 90) all come in around average for a winger/attacking midfielder in Belgium’s top flight last season.

The defensive section is where Balikwisha truly stands out, both in terms of volume and efficiency. His 6.74 defensive duels per 90 ranked in the top quartile versus his positional peers in Belgium while his win percentage of 68.75 per cent was amongst the very best for a player in his position in the league. His 4.65 PAdj interceptions per 90, ranked very highly too, in the 89th percentile, further highlighting his utility off-the-ball.

Overall, Balikwisha’s data shows a profile that is well rounded with his off-the-ball work a particular stand-out.

Goal threat

His excellent work rate off the ball may stand out most but that is not to say Balikwisha does not offer plenty going forward too, including providing a potent goal threat.

As also shown in the data analysis, Balikwisha tends to get to high-quality chances and this is further highlighted in his shot map below.

Mapping his shots over the last calendar year, the graphic shows Balikwisha getting into high-quality areas between the posts around the six-yard box. He does tend to take on most of his efforts towards the left though, consistent with most of his minutes coming on the left wing, but these mostly come from inside the box too.

He certainly does prefer to cut in on his stronger right from the left but is also capable on his left too. As the below example from last season shows.

Here, after making a well-timed run in behind the opposition defence, Balikwisha takes a nice first touch with his weaker left before then calmly finishing with the same foot.

Balikwisha gets to his higher-quality chances through clever, sharp movement in the box, such as the below examples which show two of his goals last season. The first shows Balikwisha, from a wider starting position, getting himself in front of his man and towards the middle of the goal to get on the end of a cutback. The second is from a more central striking position but again Balikwisha shows smart movement to stay between defenders and then a sharp burst to tap in the cutback again.

As was seen in his first example, a big part of Balikwisha’s goal threat does come in transition scenarios where he can use his pace to exploit space. Perhaps not quite as fast as Daizen Maeda or Nicolas Kuhn, he is certainly a level or two above the likes of Luis Palma and Yang Hyun-jun in this regard. He has a good initial burst too.

The best example of this last season was perhaps his goal in Athens which sealed Antwerp’s place in the group stages of the Champions League.

As Athens chased the tie late on, Balikwisha made a run off the back of his man as the home side turned the ball over. Positioning himself on the other side of his man inside his own half, Balikwisha then got onto the through ball before leaving the Athens defender in his wake.

He again showed nice composure in this situation, giving himself an angle to then cooly slot the ball back across the onrushing keeper.

Chance creation

Although more of a goal threat than a creator (he also scored more than he provided the season before last too) Balikwisha still offers a decent level of creative output as well. In total, he has provided 36 shot assists in the last calendar year, mapped below, which were worth a total xA of 5.98. This works out a decent average quality of chance provided of 0.16 xA per shot assist.

As his shot assist map shows, some of these have come from corner kicks with Balikwisha a clean dead-ball striker – one of his six goals last season came from a direct free-kick. There are plenty from open play too though with the attacker getting into good positions to provide form teammates.

Consistent with his decent xA per shot assist value, a number have come from high areas further up and inside the pitch. One example of this is shown below.

Here Balikwisha makes a nice underlapping run for his full-back, exploiting space inside the opposition box. Getting onto the ball down the side, he then lifts a nicely weighted cross with his left to pick out his striker for an effort in on goal.

Although he didn’t rank too highly for his cross accuracy last season, his accuracy was higher the season before, there are also still a good few other recent examples of Balikwisha picking out his man such as the below.

Here, in a much wider position, he does well to take on his man on the outside, generating enough space to cross. Demonstrating his ability on his weaker left again, he fires in a pacey cross that allows the striker to get a decent-headed effort on goal.

Ball-carrying

As the last example showed too, Balikwisha’s ball-carrying ability is one of his strengths. Capable of quick turns to lose his man, his low centre of gravity makes him difficult to defend against one-on-one. The below graphic gives further detail on him when it comes to ball-carrying.

Showing dribbles in the final third, most of his actions in this regard also come on the left with Balikwisha completing an average of 2.33 dribbles per 90. From all of his dribbles in the final third, he managed to retain possession over 77 per cent of the time, leading to the creation of 3.95 worth of xG.

Below is another example of his ball-carrying abilities leading to the creation of chances for Antwerp. Holding a high and wide position on the left, Balikwisha neatly takes a high ball under control. Drawing his man in, he then demonstrates a nice change of pace to beat him on the outside and deliver into the box for another headed effort from a teammate.

As the previous example from the Champions League play-off against Athens showed, Balikwisha is capable of carrying over larger distances too. This is something that would also be particularly useful for Celtic in Europe as well, especially away from home to alleviate pressure.

Build-up

Balikwisha’s efficiency in possession was another area of his game that stood out in his percentile rank chart. Part of the issue with many of Celtic’s winger options last season was high turnover rates with the likes of Palma and Yang among those most guilty.

By comparison, Balikwisha is a lot more secure in possession, as his percentile rank chart showed. The below graphic gives further detail on his role in build-up phases. It again highlights high passing accuracy, especially for a creative player. This efficiency in his passing is further emphasised by high xGChain (0.68 per 90) and xGBuildup (0.32 per 90) values. xGChain is a metric that assigns the xG value of a shot to every player that made any action in the attack that led to the shot while xGBuildup excludes the xG and xA of the shot to evaluate player contributions in deeper-lying playmaking.

The next graphic also reinforces his impressive accuracy when it comes to his passing game with Balikwisha completing 172 of his 206 progressive passes (83.5 per cent) with his completion rate at 20-30m distances onwards very impressive.

A technically accomplished player, this ability in possession is likely why Balikwisha has been readily trusted to take up different positions in Antwerp’s attacking set-up. 

Off-the-ball

As his data also showed, his work out of possession is arguably Balikwisha’s biggest strength. Given the importance Rodgers places on pressing and counter-pressing, it is therefore no surprise that Balikwisha’s profile appeals to the Celtic manager.

Although not the most physically imposing player, he holds his own in physical duels thanks to his good balance and decent lower-body strength. The below graphic gives further insight into Balikwisha’s efficiency off-the-ball. Mapping his recoveries in the final third, it shows most have, unsurprisingly given his positioning, come in that wide-left area but there is also a number in more central, dangerous positions.

Numbers-wise, he has averaged 1.91 recoveries in the final third and 0.52 dangerous recoveries with his efforts to win the ball back in this area generating 2.54 worth of xG and leading to four goals for Antwerp over the last year in the Belgian Pro League.

Below is one of those four recoveries in the final third by Balikwisha that led to a goal. Here, in a central area, he quickly moves in on his opponent’s touch, nipping the ball back with his left foot and putting it into the path of his teammate to finish just inside the box.

Conclusion

Balikwisha's arrival at Celtic would undoubtedly bolster Rodgers’ attacking options significantly. With a decent level of pace, impressive technical ability and tactical versatility, he would add a dynamic dimension to the forward line.

His overall volume of goal threat and chance creation could, admittedly, be a bit higher but the level he has shown in Belgium would likely translate well enough to Scottish football. His off-the-ball attributes would also provide a boost, particularly in the Champions League context.

As we know, Celtic have a few more areas of the squad to improve before the end of the summer window but the potential addition of Balikwisha would immediately enhance the quality in the wide areas while his adaptability would also offer Rodgers something different through the middle too.