All you need to know about Tottenham Hotspur’s new signing Yves Bissouma
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Tottenham Hotspur have agreed to a £30 million deal for Brighton & Hove Albion’s coveted Mali midfielder Yves Bissouma. The 25-year-old becomes Spurs boss Antonio Conte’s third summer signing, following deals for goalkeeper Fraser Forster and winger Ivan Perisic.
Bissouma, whose contract with the Seagulls expires in 12 months, has made 124 appearances since joining the club from Lille in July 2018. He is expected to undergo a medical at Tottenham later this week and the deal is subject to personal terms being agreed upon with the player.
Here are some known and unknown facts about the Mali international who was coveted by the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Bayern Munich before signing for the Lily Whites:
1. Bissouma plays for Mali but was born in Ivory Coast
Yves Bissouma was born in Issia town, Ivory Coast, on 30 August 1996 and lived there for 12 years with his family. The young Bissouma joined one of his hometown clubs and his brilliant performance led him to promotion to Majestic SC, an Abidjan junior club.
Following his impressive playing style at the tournament in Bamako, Mali, Yves attracted a lot of attention and at the end of the competition, JMG Academy Bamako invited four youngsters and Yves was one of them and thus moved to Mali and since represented the African outfit at senior level.
2. Bissouma idolizes former Spurs player and has been nicknamed after him
Yves described how he got ‘Zokora’ as his nickname and mentioned how thrilled he is by the title he has got. He said, “I admired Didier Zokora so much that my friends nicknamed me Zokora. The way he defended, his aggressiveness, and the way he worked so hard. We got the same education because he was raised in a Jean-Marc Guillou academy, albeit in a different country.”
“I could not watch him when he was at Spurs because we did not have the necessary channel, but I never missed his international matches. For me, he is one of the greatest ever African players,” he added.
3. Bissouma has been compared with Paul Pogba in the past
Yves Bissouma’s performances during his time at Lille when he helped the french outfit avoid relegation earned him comparison with World Cup winner Paul Pogba. As a reaction to them, Yves said, “He has won titles, played in the Champions League final, lifted the World Cup, he has blazed his trial.” He then described himself, “I am just starting. So, there is no comparison, or maybe they think we have the same hairdo.”
4. Marcelo Bielsa played him as a right-back during his time at Lille
After arriving in Europe to join Lille in 2016, It took Yves much time but after a hard time with the weather, he adapted to it eventually by time. He reviewed those days by saying, “I will describe it as terrible. Indeed, my hands and feet usually got so cold to the point which I wanted to stop training.”
During his playing time with Lille, the then club’s manager Marcelo Bielsa decided to change his position to right-back. However, with no prevail, he changed his mind later and played him back as a box-to-box midfielder. Following the decision, Yves’ performance prevented his team from relegation and helped him bag a big-money move to Brighton.
5. Bissouma is an Arsenal fan and had shown interest to join the red side of North London in the past
Yves Bissouma has openly admitted that he is an Arsenal fan in the past and it would be a dream come true to play for the Gunners. He idolizes Arsenal players with African roots such as Patrick Vieira, Thiery Henry and Kanu.
It would a pinch of salt for the Tottenham fans to let an Arsenal fan don the Lily Whites kit but if his performance fires them towards glory, Everything is forgotten and they would be hoping for a little more success from their previous Arsenal fan-signed player i.e Matt Doherty.
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Sujeeth Shetty
(766 Articles Published)