Will Lankshear Justifies Hype with Stunning Finish

Will Lankshear needed just 61 minutes in a Middlesbrough shirt to justify the hype. One clean swing of his boot, one ruthless finish, and Kim Hellberg was ready to make a huge claim.

“The best finisher I’ve ever seen,” the head coach said afterwards. No hesitation. No caveat.

The 21-year-old, signed from Tottenham Hotspur this summer in a deal initially valued at around £10 million, announced himself with a sharp volley that edged Boro past Wrexham in a tight EFL Cup first-round tie. It was the kind of goal that looks simple only because the technique is so pure: timing, balance, conviction. Hit once, hit clean, game won.

This was not some early-round stroll. The sides were separated by just two places in the Championship last season, and the contest felt like it. It was scrappy at times, tense for long spells, and always one mistake or one flash of quality away from swinging either way. Lankshear provided the difference.

Hellberg has seen enough already to understand what he has on his hands. Training sessions have been a showcase.

“I’ve seen the trainings and he’s the best finisher I’ve ever seen in terms of left foot, right foot, how hard he shoots, his headers,” he told BBC Radio Tees. “I’m not surprised he can do these goals.”

That last line matters. For Hellberg, this wasn’t a pleasant surprise from a young forward feeling his way into senior football. It was confirmation. Middlesbrough have spent the summer searching for more punch at the top end of the pitch to match their neat, progressive build-up. In Lankshear, they believe they’ve found it.

Boro are still nursing the scars of promotion heartache in May, still reshaping a squad that came so close and fell short. New faces have arrived, the mood has been reset, and there is a sense of a club trying to turn frustration into fuel. Lankshear has quickly become the symbol of that fresh push.

Yet for all the talk of his finishing, Hellberg kept circling back to something else.

“The best thing with him is how he is as a person,” the Swede said. “How hard he works, how much he wants to learn, how quick he is to adapt. That’s been absolutely brilliant.

“Add on to that, the quality he has, he’s an unbelievable player and he’s just going to get better.”

The goal against Wrexham will go down as a neat line in the match report: 61st minute, volley, 1-0. Inside the club, it will be remembered as something more significant — the moment a young striker stepped into a demanding brief and looked entirely at home.

If this is the starting point, the Championship defences waiting down the line have been warned.