Wesley Fofana was called up in Blue by Didier Deschamps this Thursday, March 16 for the Euro 2024 qualifiers. A selection that deprives Côte d’Ivoire of the coveted central defender…
He could have played for Côte d’Ivoire, he will celebrate his first selection for the France team on March 24, against the Netherlands. Wesley Fofana is part of the list of Blues called up this Thursday by Didier Deschamps in his list of players for the Euro 2024 qualifiers. While Jean-Louis Gasset, coach of the Elephants, has multiplied the calls for the young Chelsea central defender has opted for Côte d’Ivoire in recent weeks, his counterpart at the Blues seems to have pulled the rug out from under him with this summons.
“On pressing or otherwise, I have never made a choice since I became a coach to prevent a player from taking this freedom”, justified “DD” at a press conference. “I consider it a freedom for dual or trinationals. It is above all not to prevent them from making the second choice they may have.”
Wesley Fofana, recovered from a knee injury, benefits above all from a very favorable context for his arrival in the France team. “It happened there, it could not have happened, it could have happened before. He had a serious injury too. It could have happened after. It’s time”, decided Didier Deschamps.
With this selection, the prospect of playing the CAN 2023 at home is therefore moving away for the former Stéphanois who could on the other hand be part of the adventure of the next Euro. A status and an adventure that reach out to him. In a few months and after a successful transfer from Leicester to Chelsea, one of the biggest in the 2022 transfer window, Wesley Fofana has carved out a place for himself among the best French central defenders.
Born on December 17, 2000, Wesley Fofana grew up in the northern districts of Marseille, in a family of Ivorian origins. The young defender knows where he comes from and he will never forget it. “ I haven’t had a difficult life”, confided the native of Marseille to SoFoot following his recruitment at Chelsea. However, he would have seen on the outskirts of the Marseille city the “difficulty with his own eyes”. He himself lived in rather precarious conditions. He would have lived at five in a small apartment and without his father whom he never knew, who died a few months before his birth.
But the Marseillais wanted to get his family out of this mess and decided to invest in the world of football. The young man has revealed himself in several clubs in the region. By dint of work, Wesley Fofana has managed to arouse the curiosity of the biggest clubs who have requested him. He quickly joined AS Saint-Etienne. The day a more expensive offer arrived from Leicester, he did not hesitate to accept even if this upset his former coach at the Greens, Claude Puel. “This contract can change my life. I have to protect my family by sheltering it”, he still confessed on SoFoot. The springboard will also have been sporting, Wesley Fofana chaining performances with the Foxes, then with Chelsea.
During a friendly match between Leicester and Villarreal in 2021, Wesley Fofana suffered a violent tackle from Fer Nino. “At that time you think of dark things like the end of your career. And they put a tube in your mouth… I was going crazy,” the player replied to the magazine. SoFoot after this episode.
Returning to the field in the summer of 2022, the Blues player relapsed in a friendly match and was again removed from the field. He makes his big comeback in Graham Potter’s eleven on February 18, 2023.
Wesley Fofana is one of the young international defenders who can claim a place in the France team and why not succeed Raphael Varane. He celebrated his 22nd birthday in December 2022.
Before signing professional and playing in the jersey of Saint-Etienne, Wesley Fofana represented four clubs in the Marseille region. Then his performances, more than satisfactory, convinced Leicester who secured his services. In 2022, another English team looked into the matter and offered the defender’s services. This is Chelsea.
Wesley Fofana has played very little with the tricolor jersey. Never called in A before his selection in March 2023, the young libero appeared 7 times with the hopes.
In Leicester, the defender would have had a so-called evolutionary contract equivalent to 100,000 euros gross monthly according to 20 minutes Sportune. By signing for Chelsea in 2022, the Libero should have had a raise.
The young Chelsea defender has a romantic relationship with a certain Cyrine.