A little year and then goes away. Ayoub Yousfi, who joined the PSG under-19 team in August 2019, leaves the capital and heads for Angers, where he will sign his first professional contract for three seasons as soon as the summer transfer window opens. A club that the 17-year-old left-hander and his entourage consider more suited to his progress. “At PSG, I would have stayed with the under-19s since there is no reserve team, says the young man. In Angers, there is a team in Nationale 2 and we liked the vision of the coaches, of the club. "
The PSG's decision to delete its reserve team in the spring of 2019 therefore continues to weigh on the choices made by the members of its training center. Ayoub Yousfi was one of the "talents" targeted by the Parisian management, who offered him a three-season contract.
But playing time at the upper echelon of the under-19s was impossible. "Angers will also compete in the Youth League (Editor's note: the Youth Champions League , awaiting the formalization of UEFA) , said one of his advisers Sidi Makhfaoui. We knew a little about the club and we are working so that it can progress at best. "
A childhood spent in Catalonia
The SCO has long followed Ayoub Yousfi. In January 2019, the attacking midfielder was still evolving in Cergy-Pontoise (Val-d'Oise), where the Hispano-Moroccan family had settled a few years earlier from Catalonia for professional reasons. But an administrative problem finally prevents him from joining Angers, which leaves the possibility to PSG, a few months later, to get his hands on it.
“I had already tested at PSG and I had met Thiago Motta, remembers Ayoub Yousfi. The first weeks in Paris were hard because I didn't know anyone. But it went well in the end. PSG have a game that I like and I got on well with the coach and the teammates ”. Under the orders of Stéphane Roche, U19 coach, Yousfi made ten appearances in the league, three in the Youth League or a remarkable performance during the brilliant Parisian victory in Lyon in the Gambardella Cup.
Already sponsored by Nike, the left-hander who defines himself "rather technical and with a good vision of the game" discovered in Paris a very different world. Through several training sessions with professionals, he rubbed shoulders with the best players in the world and even allowed himself a “sombrero” on Gana Gueye during a match between U19 and the first team. A gesture that the Senegalese community will take with a smile.
His idol in the soccer world? "Hatem Ben Arfa! He was the player who inspired me the most, ”he claims in a voice marked with a slight Hispanic accent. Born in December 2002 in Lleida, near Barcelona, Ayoub Yousfi grew up with Spanish football, between the Sports Union of Balafia and Atletic Segre, two clubs in his hometown.
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But it is therefore in France that it will continue to grow. "I still have to work on my physique or my speed," he readily admits. An aspect that Ayoub Yousfi already tried to perfect during the period of health crisis, individually, accompanied by a physical trainer or some of his friends from PSG like Ziyad Larkèche or Hussayn Touati.