Southampton: Dom Ballard can be Shearer 2.0

Football FanCast

Southampton: Dom Ballard can be their next Shearer

By Callum Davies

Published Nov 17, 2022

Southampton could soon unleash their young marksman Dominic Ballard, who could be their second coming of the great Alan Shearer.

Boasting one of the most prolific academies in recent history, Southampton have produced some of the greatest talents that the Premier League has ever seen.

Gareth Bale went on to win it all for Real Madrid, whilst Matt Le Tissier was a supreme playmaker and goalscorer who would play his whole career on the south coast.

But arguably their most impressive export has to be Alan Shearer, with the Newcastle-born marksman going on to earn and still hold the record for most Premier League goals of all time.

To think that the record is held by a Saints academy graduate is incredibly impressive, and in Dominic Ballard they might have a man who could somewhat replicate the goalscoring exploits of the legendary striker.

Although to compare him with the greatest goalscorer England has ever seen is high praise, his lethal finishing and relentless hunger to find the back of the net for the youth sides make him a natural comparison.

This season alone, playing far above his age group in Premier League 2, he already has six goals in eight games, and upon earning his first-ever call-up to the senior squad, he capped his appearance in the EFL Cup with a goal too.

His display sparked the former manager Ralph Hasenhuttl to shower the 17-year-old in praise, noting that he is a “positive mentality player” who “likes to score goals”.

Promotion into the ‘B team’ at St Mary’s was certainly warranted too, after he had scored 15 goals and assisted four in 19 games for the U18s as a 16-year-old, and in the same season took his opportunity with aplomb by scoring five goals in eight games in his first outing in the Premier League 2.

Ballard is a pure goalscorer, who finds a way to finish no matter the opposition.

It is this lethal instinct that could liken him to Shearer, who consistently found the net enough to form a tally so insurmountable that it is yet to be overtaken.

However, should Nathan Jones choose to give him extra involvement soon, this young finisher could begin his journey towards getting somewhere close to the infamous 260 goals needed.