Pepi has made impressive progress since stepping out of his MLS comfort zone at FC Dallas in January 2022 and linking up with German outfit Augsburg. He was given little opportunity to catch the eye there, but plundered 13 goals during a loan spell at Groningen in 2022-23.
Those exploits secured a switch to PSV, with the target being found on 45 occasions in Eindhoven through 102 appearances – becoming a three-time Eredivisie title winner in the process.
His output has been increasingly year on year, with a personal-best return of 19 goals being posted last season. Pressed on whether Pepi is now Premier League-ready, former Leicester, Tottenham and Fulham shot-stopper Keller added: “Now that’s the tricky part. And we’ve seen that before with the transition for goal scorers from the Eredivisie to that next step. It’s not been consistent for a lot of players when they’ve made that move.
“I saw Ricardo in the friendly the other day [against Senegal], start the match. And the one thing that I really liked about it, you have strikers that if they don’t score a goal for you, they don’t give you anything. And then you have other strikers that are linking up, they’re there, they’re the first line of defense, they’re pressing, they’re good defensively on corners. There’s other attributes they give you besides scoring goals.
“Yes, of course, strikers have to score goals, but sometimes when they offer you more, and I think that’s sometimes even more important at a club like Fulham where mid-table is great – anything above that’s a bonus and if you’re not looking over your shoulder come March, then fantastic.
“So sometimes it’s not about finding a 30-goal-a-season scorer. It’s about a guy that’s going to give you 10, 12, if you get more than that, bonus, but he gives you other things as well. I think Ricardo can do that.”