YOUSSOUF FOFANA. Youssouf Fofana could make his World Cup debut on Tuesday during the France-Australia encounter in Qatar. The young midfielder of the Blues appears as a powerful and serious alternative in the midfield. Presentation.
[Mis à jour le 22 novembre 2022 à 19h13] He is one of the young faces of the France team in this 2022 World Cup, Youssouf Fofana is preparing to play his first World Cup match this Tuesday during the France – Australia match marking the entry into contention for the Blues in Qatar. Announced as a possible holder and associated with Aurélien Tchouaméni, his ex-partner at AS Monaco before his teammate’s departure from Real Madrid this summer, Fofana should ultimately rather take his place on the bench of substitutes, Didier Deschamps preferring experience to him by Adrian Rabiot.
Youssouf Fofana should nevertheless have a certain role in the course of the Blues at the Qatar so much his activity, his power and his technical ease to play “box to box” (going quickly from one surface to another to, as desired, supplement his defense or support the attackers and provide offensive solutions) seduced Didier Deschamps during of his first cape last September. At 23, Youssouf Fofana has a great revenge and his selection appears to be a note of hope for young players who have not been able to integrate a training center, presented as the essential key to integrating professional football.
Selected in U20 and Espoirs in France, he was called up to the France A team by Didier Deschamps for the first time in September 2022 for two Nations League matches, ten years after having had to leave Clairefontaine and its pre-training center, the INF. , through the back door, without having found a training club. Two months later, Youssouf Fofana was called up to the list of 25 Blues (became 26 after Marcus Thuram’s call-up then again 25 after Karim Benzema’s withdrawal, not replaced) for the 2022 World Cup.
After joining the INF Clairefontaine, presented as THE haunt of young French football talent, Youssouf Fofana seemed to have a career mapped out. Alas, he left the center two years later without any offer from a professional training center. Back to square one for the midfielder who joins the Drancy club to evolve with the U17 reserve! Far, far from the dreams of Clairefontaine but it is on these grounds of Ile de France that he is finally spotted with the U19s of Drancy by recruiters from Strasbourg. He finally exploded in Alsace, signing his first professional contract in 2018 before signing in 2020 at AS Monaco where he won in the middle alongside Aurélien Tchouaméni before making the latter forget, who left for Real Madrid at the summer of 2022 and to establish himself as Monaco’s midfielder alongside rookie Mohamed Camara.
Like his namesake Youssouf Falikou Fofana who passed through AS Monaco successfully at the end of the 80s, Youssouf Fofana could have worn the jersey of the Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire but also that of Mali, the countries of origin of his parents. . It was under the blue jersey that he chose to evolve and had his first selection against Austria in September 2022, ten years after leaving INF Clairefontaine without having found a training club. “When I learned that I was called, I said to myself ’10 years later, I came back through the main door to Clairefontaine, after leaving it through the small door’, and that’s good! When the coaches saw me, they were happy. They said ‘thank you for proving us wrong,’ he testified in September after his summons. No apparent revenge…