Turbo-charged Aubameyang gearing up for Torjägerkanone footrace
With 59 goals in 101 Bundesliga appearances, it is hard to believe that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did not always play as Borussia Dortmund's out-and-out frontman.
Although the Gabon international struck 13 times in his debut season at BVB, his statistics since trading the right-hand side of attack for the traditional lone striker's role once occupied by Robert Lewandowski have gone through the roof.
After six matches of the 2016/17 campaign alone, Aubameyang already has five Bundesliga goals to his name, with braces against 1. FSV Mainz 05 and VfL Wolfsburg and his effort against SC Freiburg - the product of 16 strikes on goal no less - propelling him to the top of the scorers' charts.
Click here to see the top scorers' chart after Matchday 6
Watch: Aubameyang helps himself to his 12th Bundesliga double:
Want more Bundesliga Action?
It is a position he shares with four other of his Bundesliga contemporaries: 1. FC Köln's Anthony Modeste, Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez and Hertha Berlin's Vedad Ibisevic and last season's Torschützenkönig, Lewandowski. And it is a position he knows well, despite having yet to scoop the prize himself.
The highest-scoring African to grace Germany's top flight came up five goals short of his former Dortmund teammate in an ever-changing race for the Bundesliga's top individual accolade last term and finished joint-third on the podium in 2014/15, but is doing everything in his power to make it a case of fourth time lucky in 2016/17.
More on the Strikers of Fire series
Click here to download the Official Bundesliga app!
The good natured banter notwithstanding, the quest for Torjägerkanone gold is serious business. There is still a long road ahead, but after supplanting Lewandowski as Dortmund's leading non-German marksman and reaching the 100-Bundesliga appearance mark with three more goals to his name, Aubameyang is in a prime position to strip his prolific Polish peer of the Bundesliga's goal-scoring title.