Milan, Fofana has won over Sevilla: superb display against Valencia, the fans are already crazy about the French midfielder
Milan, Fofana joined Sevilla an hour before the end of the transfer window: a very positive impact in La Liga for the French midfielder
Youssouf Fofana has had a rollercoaster summer: from wanting to get back to playing in midfield under Amorim to the Portuguese manager deciding to leave him out of his plans just three weeks before the start of the season.
The former Monaco player spent a long time weighing up Galatasaray's proposal and had promised himself to Lyon, but on the final day of the transfer window literally everything happened: at 1pm Milan reach an agreement with the French club over the breakdown of the 1999-born player's salary. Done deal? Not even close, because Lyon are unable to complete Tagliafico's transfer to Atletico Madrid and inform Milan, at around 6.45pm, that they cannot proceed with Fofana's registration because they do not have the wage space.
Then the former Monaco player is left waiting for a last-gasp call, which comes at around 7.15pm: on the other end of the line are Sevilla and the 'yes' comes immediately, with little time to complete all the bureaucratic steps. Those 45 minutes change the course of Fofana's season and he can now make the difference in Spain. And if a good morning shows the day ahead...
Convincing debut
Sevilla needed to sign a midfielder on the final day of the transfer window, but on a limited budget they were never going to aim high. The market throws up stories like this, though, with deals that have to be snatched on the run and can change history: Fofana has signed for the Andalusian club on a free dry loan, with more than 50% of his wages covered by AC Milan.
Then came his La Liga debut on 6 September away to Espanyol. Introduced with half an hour left, Fofana went close to the big target and, overall, delivered a very convincing display in the 1-1 draw.
Best player on the pitch against Valencia
Fofana put an exclamation mark over the start of his La Liga adventure yesterday in Sevilla's 1-0 win over Valencia: handed a start, the former Monaco man turned in an outstanding display and was the best player on the pitch.
His numbers tell the story: 90% passing accuracy, 100% successful long passes, 6 defensive recoveries, 8 ball recoveries and 3 shots on target in total. All the leading Spanish sports newspapers rewarded Fofana with a rating of 7.
Fans excited about Fofana
"Complete performance", "We have signed a great midfielder" are two of the comments proving most popular on X among Sevilla fans. Fofana has already won over the Andalusian support, even if his future has yet to be written. AC Milan and Sevilla completed the deal as a straight loan because there was not enough time to agree the right valuation for the option to buy, but the two clubs could still resume talks at the end of the season.
