Player Focus: French Starlets Conquering Spain

If France go on to dominate International football in a few years, they might have Spain’s La Liga to thank. Why? Because some of the best young French players around are currently earning their trade in Spain’s top flight, and importantly they’re playing regularly despite their tender years. The more physical, slow paced French game places limits upon the development and the Spanish league has emerged as an ideal training ground for these players.

Raphaël Varane (Real Madrid)

Raphael Varane has so far shown that he hasn’t a chink in his armour. The 19-year-old weighs in with a 7.08 overall rating with WhoScored, one of the best around in terms of young players operating in Europe’s top 5 leagues, and in turn made his way into WhoScored’s under-21 team of the season. Varane has been operating adeptly with Real Madrid for quite some time, but his performances against FC Barcelona truly brought him into the spotlight.

His combative nature makes him a fearsome opponent, and he’s won 3 aerial duels per game, made 6.7 clearances on average - the most in the squad - and only been dribbled past by opposing players twice in the league all season. Such is the immensity of his performances with Madrid, José Mourinho has found it almost impossible to drop him. Didier Deschamps was so enamoured with Varane too that he decided to call him up to the full France squad, and in March he won his first cap. The lack of risk taking, brutal efficiency and speed of thought and body are the main aspects to Varane’s game, of which is developing perhaps even better than expected.

An area Varane will need to work on will be his distribution out of defence, with Pepe and Sergio Ramos taking in the majority of work here. The teenager is improving however, and in the game against Mallorca recently he hit 4 accurate long balls out of a possible 5 – though Ramos made double that. He’s been extremely neat with his passing in general though, finding a teammate with 85.6% of his attempts, of which he has averaged 29.6 per game. When we’re looking at the top centre backs in the world in a few years, it’s a given that Varane will be there. The determination, confidence and desire he’s shown thus far in one of the most high pressure, prestigious environments possible suggests he might well just end up being the best.

Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao)

The youngest of the featured group and the one with most to learn; make no mistake that Aymeric Laporte’s rise has been rapid. Still only 18-years-old, Laporte has been thrust into the limelight this season as Fernando Amorebieta’s status decreased with the Basque outfit. Although improvements need to be made on his anticipation and concentration during games, Laporte is clearly a player with the focus to get to the top. He harnesses all the attributes of the modern central-defender in the Gerard Piqué/Mats Hummels mould; confidence moving out of the back-line, incisive passing and a composed nature about his defensive duties.

Marcelo Bielsa has shown huge confidence in the France U-20 captain, and has even deployed him at left-back due to lack of options there. Currently he’s making 2.9 tackles per game, more than any other defender in the squad and second most overall. This shows another key aspect of Laporte’s game, offering his physical presence and negating the notion he’s simply a lightweight defender unwilling to do the dirty side of the game – his Interceptions statistics back this up too, making 2.8 on average per game which is the most of players in the team with over 10 appearances.

The Frenchman has made 5.6 clearances too, reducing the pressure on his backline, while also only being dribbled past by opponents on 0.6 occasions per game.  At 6’2” he’s the tallest outfield player who has played regularly this season (over 10 starts), and is using his frame better and better as the campaign has gone on.

Geoffrey Kondogbia (Sevilla)

All of a sudden everyone wants to talk about Geoffrey Kondogbia – and for those who have been watching him, it won’t come as any surprise. In his first two games after signing for Sevilla, the Frenchman was deployed in an advanced midfield role. It simply didn’t work, or suit his skill-set. His shooting was wild, passing misjudged, and movement restricted. The decision to drop him deeper in midfield, working in tandem with Gary Medel in the Sevilla engine room, has proved to be a fine one.

Kondogbia, after those first two games, has gone on to become one of the most exciting prospects in European football. Strong, powerful, decisive, skilful and intelligent; there’s a lot about Kondogbia to enjoy.  His box-to-box ethics are a rare quantity in Spanish football, and this has only become more prominent as time has gone on. There is such wonderful presence about the 20-year-old’s running and the way he shrugs of challenges with fine body balance before laying off the ball into a key area. Despite only averaging 29 passes per game they are well judged, leading to an 86.5% pass accuracy.

The impressive way in which he roams forward is highlighted by an average of 1.1 successful dribbles per game too, which is remarkably second highest in the squad behind only winger Jesús Navas. Defensively, however, he protects the back four very effectively alongside Medel, perhaps offering a more composed presence than the electric Chilean. Kondogbia has made 2.7 tackles per game, slightly more than his partners 2.4, while also making an average of 1.5 interceptions a match. He’s not blessed with great pace, but such is the volume of his strides he covers a great deal of distance.

If all three of these youngsters – two of whom are still in their teens – remain in form and in Spain, they are threatening to outshine some of even the brightest Spanish stars.