Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Comments on Cristiano Ronaldo, Jurgen Klopp, More

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has named Cristiano Ronaldo among his footballing role models and hailed the impact Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has had on his career.

According to Marca, the Gabon international told France Football:

"

I often watch Ronaldo, the Brazilian one. My favourite player? I also look at Cristiano and former strikers like Hernan Crespo, and watch videos of players I admired like Thierry Henry, Jean-Pierre Papin and Sonny Anderson. There was also Francois Calderaro at Toulouse; I was a big fan of his style.

"

The 26-year-old has emulated his goalscoring heroes on plenty of occasions this season, as OptaJoe revealed after he fired his side into the lead against Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie:

His form has undoubtedly seen his value shoot up, per ESPN's Alex Shaw:

Aubameyang has also provided 11 assists this season in an outstanding campaign with Thomas Tuchel's free-scoring Dortmund side.

He credited the German as one of three coaches who've shaped his career—the prime one being Klopp, the man who brought him to Dortmund in 2013:

"

Klopp brought me a lot. He gave me strength of character and made me develop defensively. The two years I spent with him were very useful to help me step up a level. He's someone charismatic and I have a lot of respect for him. He's one of the three coaches who gave me the chance to become who I am today along with [Saint-Etienne's] Christophe Galtier and Tuchel.

"

Aubameyang scored 41 goals in two seasons under Klopp, starting out as a right-winger before being moved into the centre during his second year, and he has not looked back since as his form has demonstrated.

Not only can Klopp be credited with helping him transition from tricky winger to predatory centre-forward, without the German coach, Aubameyang's career could have taken a very different path, as football journalist Philip Harmeling noted:

The striker also commented on winning the African Footballer of the Year award for 2015, in which he pipped four-time successive winner Yaya Toure to the gong: "It's a torch that I have to carry as far as possible here in Europe. It gives me extra responsibilities. The time has come for me, this is my moment. There's a hell of a lot of work and sacrifice behind all that."

His form has slightly eased off since the winter break—his tally of six goals in 12 games in all competitions is still respectable, but not quite at the heights he enjoyed in the first half of the campaign.

However, those goals have been spread out at fairly regular intervals, so it's far from an alarming dip.

Dortmund face Hertha Berlin in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal and are almost certain to knock out their strongest rivals for the Europa League on Thursday when they face Tottenham Hotspur in the second leg of their round-of-16 tie.

If Aubameyang can fire his side to glory in one or both of those competitions and enjoy a strong start to next season, he could well be in line to win the award again.