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Wesley Fofana was around 10 years old when he was suspended from school for a week for smashing a soccer ball through a classroom window.
It was the end of the day and he was waiting to be picked up to go train with his club in Marseille, so he decided to spend the time kicking a ball.
Soccer was not allowed at his school and after that, you can see why. But for Fofana, now Leicester City’s 32 million pound center-back, that was it. It was always football.
“I never thought of anything else,” he says. “Soccer was my only goal in life because it is what I have always liked.”
Fofana idolized Didier Drogba. He grew up in Vitrolles, a northern suburb of Marseille, and was raised by his Ivorian mother and grandmother. Fofana gorged on YouTube videos of the former Ivory Coast captain, dreaming of emulating the legendary striker, and watched on television when Drogba won the Champions League with Chelsea.
Now he enjoys the influence of another Ivorian legend in Leicester in the first team coach, Kolo Touré.
“Kolo has taken me under his wing and has helped me not only on the field, but also in my life in England,” says Fofana. “When I was little, Kolo Touré was a hero for me, since he was a great center back and also from the Ivory Coast.
“It is an absolute dream to work with him every day. I’m very lucky. I listen to everything you say. He had a great career. He advises me on things I can do to make sure I do it too.
“It’s not just about what’s on the field, he advises me on what to do in terms of nutrition, staying hydrated and everything that comes off the football field. Soccer isn’t just about what happens when 11 goes against 11. He also gives me that advice.
“As for the game, it has helped me a lot tactically and also in communication, although I speak in a language that I am not used to at the moment. I am very grateful for all that he has done. ‘
Fofana has gone from breaking glass to breaking expectations. He hasn’t gotten much out of his teens and when Brendan Rodgers signed him from Saint-Etienne a month after the season, he had only started 17 league games in his entire professional career.
He signed his first professional contract less than three years ago. He would surely need some time to adjust. But he has started 18 league games this season.
Now back from injury, he will line up alongside Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu at the heart of Leicester’s defense today against Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals. He is tall, strong, he feels comfortable with the ball. He is already being talked about as one of the future stars of soccer.
Watford forward Troy Deeney recently compared Fofana’s start in Leicester to Virgil van Dijk’s in Southampton. Saint-Etienne coach and former Leicester coach Claude Puel said the French Under-21 international has the potential to be “one of the best defenders in the world.”
“If he said that, then it is very flattering and I am very grateful,” said Fofana. ‘I am someone who is always determined to be the best in everything I do. If he said that, it just strengthens that mindset, even in me, that I’m going to give everything I can to make sure it comes true.
‘Maybe my career really took a bit longer than expected or planned, but that never bothered me. I am someone who has always worked hard. Maybe it means he was working in the shadows.
“I was never the best of my generation, never the one who stood out, but I was always completely focused on my goal and I think it shows today.”
Rodgers only needed one training session to see it. “It shows with a young player, especially with the best, the best young players,” Rodgers said.
That first session, his awareness of space, how he passed the ball and his aggression. He still has a lot of improvements to do, but that will come. It is their personality and charisma that they bring to the game. With him at 6 feet 2 inches, fast, aggressive and comfortable on the ball, it was immediately apparent.
‘He is a great young man, he has given us everything we expected and more, and at 20 he has great potential. It’s only going to get better. ‘
Fofana began her English lessons when she joined Leicester, but for the purposes of this interview, she is more comfortable in French. Even through the language barrier, through an interpreter, Fofana has a charming and confident figure.
Away from soccer, he loves to watch basketball and rugby. Most of the answers come with a smile. So it has always been.
“I was always someone who smiled and got along with everyone,” he says. “I started playing soccer when I was young, which meant that I met new people through soccer and there were certain people who came into my life and helped me on that journey.
“When you start in football there are many temptations that can lead you away from the right thing and it was thanks to those people that I kept the right path.”
Fofana joined the local Repos Vitrolles club when she was five years old before moving to ES Mining Basin two years later. At age nine, he joined Youth Sports Pennes-Mirabeau before joining SC Air Bel in Marseille. He was 14 when he moved to Saint-Etienne.
It was then that he had to leave his family behind. ‘They are very important to me. It was hard to get out of the house, but I was always confident that I could make it work, ”he says.
At first, he lived in the training center with the other young players from Saint-Etienne but once he signed his professional contract they moved in with him. They are still there now. I talk to them every day. They are with me at every stop on the trip. I hope one day to bring them to England. ‘
Fofana describes Saint-Etienne as a great club and “one that will always be in my heart”. With them he reached the final of the Coupe de France. Saint-Etienne lost 1-0 to PSG, but Fofana kept Kylian Mpabbe quiet. However, his departure from the French club was marred by the behavior of some of the club’s fans.
Once Leicester approached Fofana, he informed Saint-Etienne that he wanted to leave. Here was an established Premier League club, offering him a five-year contract that would change his life and that of his family. Saint-Etienne resisted.
When his move was finally carried out, Fofana was labeled a mercenary and a traitor. Some fans abused his mother. Fofana’s sister was attacked at school, insulted and pushed. She cried for her brother, so Fofana accompanied her to school the next day.
“It was very hard for me and my family because, above all, it had nothing to do with them,” he says. “This was a choice that I made for my career, but at the same time when I made the decision to leave, we were prepared for there to be a reaction.
“We managed to overcome it as a family. We build a barrier between ourselves and the outside world. We are talking about some followers, not all. I didn’t let that get to me. I built a wall around myself and knew I was making the right decision. ‘
Everyone can see that now. Fofana’s performances have helped give Leicester a chance to win their first FA Cup and, if their league form continues, a place in the Champions League, the competition that saw Drogba win all those years ago.
“It is incredible to think that I have the opportunity to play in that tournament. I’m going to give everything I have to make sure things keep getting better for me. ‘
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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