What is all the hype about Sevilla’s Kondogbia?
Reports this week suggest that Arsenal have renewed their interest in Sevilla’s Geoffrey Kondogbia, who is also targeted by Premier League rivals Chelsea and Manchester United.
For fans outside of Spain the name Kondogbia may mean nothing than a fleeting glimpse on the back page of the newspaper or mentioned in an online article.
So fanatix aims to find out what all the fuss is about.
The 20-year-old was born in France and broke into professional football via Ligue 1 side Lens’ youth system, going onto make 39 appearances for the club in two years.
Kondogbia has represented France at every level up to the under-20s, currently playing at the World Cup in Turkey where the nation will face Uruguay in the final on Saturday – with the midfielder having played every game, scoring two goals and providing one assist.
The Frenchman earned a £3.5m move to Sevilla 12 months ago but the value of the midfielder has risen greatly since then, having impressed during 37 matches for the La Liga side.
Kondogbia operates as primarily a defensive midfielder, sitting in-front of the back four and is not scared of putting in challenges on opposition players – making the player’s discipline record less than desirable with four yellow cards last season.
In the Arsenal side the youngster would provide the physicality in the middle of the park that the Gunners are so often criticised for lacking, whilst at Chelsea the youngster would play a similar role to that of another great France international, Claude Makelele, by breaking up the play and feeding the more creative talents.
At United Kondogbia would of course be required to play a similar position, although with Michael Carrick sitting deep the midfielder may be encouraged to break forward more often.
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