An explosive start to the season has Anthony Modeste dreaming of a France call up and Blackburn dreaming they had made his loan permanent.

Time for a bit of context, first and foremost. Blackburn Rovers are currently 23rd in the 24-team Championship, scoring just 12 goals in 12 games. Forwards Marvin Emnes, Sam Gallagher, Danny Graham and Anthony Stokes (below) have netted just seven between them in a combined total of 33 appearances and 2,092 minutes. Got all that? Good.

Now, remember Anthony Modeste? The bumbling, Bambi-on-ice of a forward who arrived on loan at Ewood Park in January 2012 with the 1995 Premier League champions in turmoil under Steve Kean and left six months later with Rovers relegated?

You would be forgiven if not. In fact, Modeste mustered more red cards than goals in Lancashire, an immediate dismissal for kicking out at West Brom’s Billy Jones about as good as it got for the Frenchman.

Well, now things have changed. Modeste is the top scorer in the Bundesliga after netting both goals in Cologne’s 2-1 win against Ingolstadt on Saturday. He also bamboozled Manuel Neuer a week earlier to rescue a point at the Allianz Arena, inspiring the habitual mid-table side to second place.

All in all, that adds up to seven goals in seven games. Seven goals in just 600 minutes of top flight football. That is more than Robert Lewandowski, Javier Hernandez, Thomas Muller and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Crucially, it is as many all of the forwards at Owen Coyle’s disposal have mustered between them all season at Blackburn.

This content could not be loaded Anthony Modeste is proving a great buy for Köln since the loss of Anthony Ujah. 26 goals in 44 games for €4.5m. — Daniel Pinder (@DanielJPinder) October 16, 2016

This content could not be loaded Bayern Munich drop points and #effzeh win 2-1. @fckoeln_en up to second! Modeste is on — 1.FC Köln Fans UK (@effzehUK) October 15, 2016

This content could not be loaded Anthony Modeste just dribbled past three Ingolstadt players in one move. — Archie Rhind-Tutt (@archiert1) October 15, 2016

This content could not be loaded Premier League clubs are definitely going to come after Modeste this season. Hope Köln can resist. — Cristian Nyari (@Cnyari) October 15, 2016

Doesn’t quite fit but we appreciate the sentiment nontheless.

In other news, Arsenal have received £1.1m thanks to Chuba Akpom deal