Kenneth Zohore is ready to prove he can be a Danish success for the Bluebirds.
The Copenhagen-born striker celebrated his 23rd birthday with a magnificent goal during Cardiff City’s 2-0 Championship win against Preston North End.
“I enjoy scoring that type of goal,” said Zohore. “I scored a similar goal for Cardiff’s under-23 team a couple of weeks back.”
Pace ace Zohore left three Preston defenders trailing when he blazed a trail down the middle from halfway, running onto a slide rule Peter Whittingham pass, and finished in clinical, composed style when goalkeeper Chris Maxwell raced off his line.
“I knew I had the pace needed and when I picked up speed there was no way back,” said Zohore, who has scored two goals in 13 appearances for City this season.
“Scoring a goal like that on my birthday was fantastic. It was a good day,”
Zohore has impressed manager Neil Warnock with his physical presence and ability to cause problems for opposing defenders.
“He has ability, the lad”, said team-mate Gunnarsson. “He’s only 23, strong, fast and highly technically gifted as well.
“The gaffer (Warnock) has worked wonders with him and I think Kenneth needed that goal.
“We needed Ken to produce against Preston and he did. It was a great run and a fantastic finish. I made sure I wished him happy birthday as well!”
The previous Danish striker to sign for Cardiff, £8m centre-forward Andreas Cornelius, proved a flop and failed to score for the Bluebirds.
Both Cornelius, who is back at FC Copenhagen, and Zohore were born in Copenhagen and are currently 23-years-old.
Zohore is winning the hearts of Cardiff fans thanks to his willingness to run and work for the cause in or out of possession.
Ricky Lambert is still recovering from a back problem, while former Welsh Premier League striker Rhys Healey is now earning a regular place in Warnock’s squad.
Frederic Gounongbe is completely out of favour and hasn’t figure for Cardiff in two months, while Ibrahim Meite, the new signing from non-League Harrow Borough, is aiming to make progress via the under-23 team.
Warnock’s Bluebirds, who have won three of their last five league fixtures, are now 15th in the Championship table, 11 points clear of the bottom three.
Their next match is against Norwich City at Cardiff City Stadium this Saturday (3pm).
Lee Peltier and Sol Bamba suffered minor injuries against Preston which meant they had to go off, while Anthony Pilkington and Lambert are both hoping to be available for the match against Norwich.
Zohore is Warnock’s number one, no doubt about that, and he will start against Norwich, but the Canaries have a selection dilemma.
Manager Alex Neil must decide whether to stick with former Bluebirds striker Cameron Jerome, who has scored twice in their last three fixtures, or recall Nelson Oliveira.
Portuguese international Oliveira, who is available again after serving a three-match ban, scored 10 goals in 12 fixtures before being sent off at Rotherham.
“It’s a great dilemma to have, especially going to a place like Cardiff,” says Neil. “It won’t be easy down there. We are going to need all the squad fit. We have Nelson coming back and we just need to make sure we utilise the strengths of both lads as well as we can because they are complete opposites.
“When teams squeeze the pitch and want to play high that suits Cameron down to the ground. The one thing we all know is he has got is blistering pace and strength and he used that against Birmingham. Not only that, we used him really well.
“At times we can play too short and we need to encourage the lads to go a bit longer, particularly when teams squeeze the pitch, because we have someone who can run like a gazelle.
“For the first goal he robbed a lad in the middle of the park, runs the length of the pitch, dips his shoulder and shows a great bit of composure with his finish. For this level that is quality.”