Current leader of the English Championship, Leicester broke his piggy bank to afford Wesley Fofana, whom everything predisposed to come a long way at Saint-Etienne, or even at OM.
Leicester City is delighted to confirm the signing of defender @Wesley_Fofanaa from Ligue 1 side AS Saint-Étienne for an undisclosed fee, subject to Premier League and international clearance 🦊📝 # WelcomeWesley
- Leicester City (@LCFC) October 2, 2020
Pure Marseille product
Originally from the Marseille region and raised by his grandmother in a district of Vitrolles, Wesley Fofana did not put his suitcase down in Saint-Etienne until 2015 to follow his training.
The OM radars obviously did not detect this nugget, while he was playing in a neighborhood club, Air Bel, in U13.
“It is not for lack of having pointed out on numerous occasions to recruiters of OM the potential of Wesley, confided David Diaz, a coach of Bel Air, to 20 Minutes.
It was only at the end that an educator from the club came forward.
"
Saint-Etienne was the fastest.
The Forézien club spotted the young defender at the age of 12, then made him sign a non-solicitation agreement at 14.
At the Greens, everything went well for Wesley, who signed his first professional contract in May 2018.
Record transfer for the Greens
If Claude Puel, the Stéphanois coach, wanted to keep his central defender at least until the end of the season, he had to agree with the advice of the club's management board, determined to seize without waiting the best opportunity from Premier League.
And to achieve the biggest transfer in the history of the club.
Fofana's departure from Leicester, which had to face competition from West Ham, was the subject of lengthy negotiations which began at the start of the summer and during which the sale price climbed by 25 million euros to 40 million euros.
In the end, the young player, sold for 35 million euros plus 5 possible bonuses, climbs directly to the 4th rank of the most expensive French players in his age group, behind Mbappé (from Monaco to PSG), 145 M € , Anthony Martial (from Monaco to Manchester United), € 60m and Ousmane Dembélé (from Rennes to Dortmund), € 40m.
Fofana is ahead of his ex-Saint-Etienne teammate, defender William Saliba, transferred to Arsenal for € 30 million last year and loaned to Saint-Etienne until June 2020.
Only 20 Ligue 1 matches
Wesley Fofana will have flown abroad before being able to really stand out in Ligue 1. Launched at 17 for two appearances by Jean-Louis Gasset in 2018-2019, he played only 14 games last season and only 4 this season.
That is to say 20 matches in the elite to which are added two matches of the Europa League and six matches of the Coupe de France including the 2020 final, against PSG (0-1).
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
Fofana, who took an active part in Saint-Etienne's victory in the Gambardella Cup in 2019, is not yet an international Espoirs.
But it is certainly only a matter of months for the new Foxes player.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/S7UVDTX7DREC7DXVCZN6MEKGBY.jpg)
