Aubameyang’s wild career has taken another turn with 2026’s most fun transfer
Nothing beats the opening weekend for those ‘wait, when did they sign for them?’ moments.
In 2026, nobody embodies that phenomenon quite like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, leading the line for Deportivo La Coruna after eight years away from La Liga.
It’s easy to lose track of the Gabonese striker’s movements after his peak years at Arsenal, such has been his nomadic nature. Since leaving the Emirates in 2022, he hasn’t spent longer than a season at any one club.
There was a brief resurgence at Barcelona, that complete non-starter of a stint at Chelsea, two separate, decent enough spells at Marseille and a year out in the Saudi Pro League for good measure. Everywhere except Stamford Bridge has seen the veteran notch respectable goalscoring returns.
Catching up on Aubameyang’s late-career exploits has led us to a spectacular story in L’Equipe that we aren’t quite sure how we missed at the time.
“The problem arose when Aubameyang used a fire extinguisher to spray Bob Tahri, the sporting director’s representative responsible for enforcing the curfew at the training ground, his bed, and his personal belongings,” the report states.
“The former 3000-metre steeplechase champion took it very badly and reported the incident to the higher-ups at the Marseille club.”
Aubameyang, the club captain, was the supposed ringleader of the late-season hijink. He was suspended from the final match of the season as a result, before being quietly ushered out the door in the summer.
As an aside, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg succeeded Aubameyang as Les Olympiens’ captain, but he’s already been stripped of the armband after refusing a summer move to Newcastle. One regular day of Marseille; will never happen.
And so here we are, Aubameyang back for his second spell in Spain’s top flight.
The striker has scored bagloads of goals across the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League and La Liga. The only one missing to complete the set is Serie A, having missed out after being sold by AC Milan before he could make his debut.
His latest goal, on his competitive debut for Depor, saw him move joint-ninth with Kylian Mbappe and Luis Suarez for the most goals scored in Europe’s five major leagues this century, and the eight names above him are undisputed legends of the game.
The manner in which he took it, with “delicious control” as the commentator so aptly put it, is living proof of one of the greatest goalscorers of his generation.
Vintage Aubameyang! 😍
A great moment as Deportivo la Coruna celebrate their first goal back in LALIGA 🔵⚪ pic.twitter.com/7gpHfWbVUb
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) August 17, 2026
Despite that exceptional record, his trophy cabinet is relatively lacking. A smattering of domestic cups. Zero league titles. Auba’s Wikipedia honours list does include the 2022-23 La Liga trophy, but he made one appearance for Barca in August of that season before moving to Chelsea. We’re not having that.
Compare that to the other names in the 200+ goals club in Europe, and it’s full of serial title winners. Mbappe and Suarez, yes, but also Edinson Cavani, Karim Benzema, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robert Lewandowski.
There’s a parallel universe in which Aubameyang has represented the likes of Bayern Munich, Juventus, PSG and won countless titles almost by default. In this realm, he’s played for some massive clubs, but with a sense of ‘right place, wrong time’.
Borussia Dortmund during Pep Guardiola’s Bayern dynasty. Late Wenger Arsenal. Todd Boehly’s Chelsea. Post-financial-collapse Barcelona. Chaos just seems to follow him around, but maybe he brings it with him – fire extinguisher in tow.
So here he is, aged 37, back in La Liga and leading the line for Deportivo. A club with a glorious history, newly promoted from the second tier, and now boasting one of the most prolific strikers of the century.
It’s hard to think of a more fun transfer this summer, and we can’t wait to see where this one goes.
By Nestor Watach
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the top 25 goalscorers in Europe’s five major leagues in 2025-26?