The Start Behind Kessie's Early Billing as Next Yaya Toure
It’s early days. Too early to be putting two and two together - which, in this case equates to promising teenage Ivorian and powerful midfield player - and getting the next Yaya Toure. Reductive to a fault, the papers in Italy should really know better although the knee-jerk eagerness to hail a player like Atalanta’s Franck Kessié as the next big thing is understandable in a league that has established itself as and come to terms with a reputation for being a launchpad for young, gifted, and more often than not foreign players, to catch the eye of Juventus and Europe’s super-rich.
It’s within this context that, only a couple of games into the season, Kessié is already being spoken about as a revelation. We’ll have to wait a little while longer to make a definitive judgement on whether that status is justified or not. Other shooting stars have lit up the sky before only to fade just as fast as they first appeared. At the moment though Kessié shines bright. The 19-year-old ranks fifth in WhoScored’s [8.20] player ratings for this season in Serie A. The other players in the top 10, with the exception of Mehdi Benatia and Wesley Hoedt, are strikers and wingers. All of them, apart from the precocious Kessié, are in their 20s.
The sample size is small - based on only 180 minutes - and it would be frankly remarkable if he is still in this position in May. Three goals in two games go a long way to explaining Kessié’s lofty position in the WhoScored table. However, if you count his strike in the Coppa Italia against Cremonese, he has already matched the personal best he achieved last season on loan at Cesena. Kessié’s personal ambition was to add more goals to his game this term. “I’m going to get six,” he told L’Eco di Bergamo in pre-season. Well, he might already need to revise that number and aim a little higher.
Kessié’s exploits will come as little or no surprise to anyone who followed Serie B last season. The Ivorian and his then midfield parter at Cesena, Stefano Sensi, were included in the Cadetto’s Team of the Year after driving Cesena to the preliminary round of the play-offs. Both are now in the top-flight, although Sensi, lauded as the ‘new Verratti’ and optioned by Juventus, has yet to make quite the same impact at the Mapei Stadium as Kessié on his return to Atalanta.
The pair owe a debt to Massimo Drago, the Cesena coach, who is renowned in Italy for developing players of promise and preparing them for the step up to regular first team football in Serie A. In addition to Kessié and Sensi, the likes of Alessandro Florenzi and Federico Bernardeschi in particular believe they wouldn’t be where they are today at Roma and Fiorentina without the football education they got from Drago at Crotone. “He’s very good with young players,” Kessié told Il Resto di Carlino.
Drago saw something in Kessié that frankly nobody had seen before. He was a central defender upon his arrival at the Dino Manuzzi. Atalanta had signed him as one from Stella Adjamé 18 months ago, impressed by the manner in which he had captained the Ivory Coast in that role at the Under-17 World Cup in the UAE in 2013 and then the Africa Cup of Nations. Drago, however, thought Kessié’s skill-set would be better suited in midfield. After a couple of substitute appearances in place of veteran centre-back Stefano Lucchini, his first start for Cesena was beside Sensi against Livorno in the heart of the action. He has never looked back.
By recognising other possibilities in Kessié and repurposing him as a midfielder, Drago did Atalanta a big favour. This summer they sold fan favourite and captain-in-waiting Maarten de Roon to Middlesbrough. He led Serie A in tackles last season and was second in interceptions. Playmaker Luca Cigarini has also gone and Kessié is helping supporters forget them, although contributions from Alberto Grassi, back on loan from Napoli, and Leonardo Spinazzola, borrowed from Juventus after a positive spell at Perugia, wouldn’t go amiss.
Kessié has so far provided a silver-lining to the storm clouds that have gathered around Atalanta. Despite Kessié scoring in both games, the Orobici are still without a point after defeats to Lazio and Sampdoria. The prevailing sense, however, is that Gian Piero Gasperini is a good fit for them. Atalanta is Italy’s nursery. For decades, they have had the finest academy in all the land and Gasperini marries perfectly with them from this point of view. Like Drago, he is famous for making young players better. You only have to look at what he did for M’Baye Niang and Suso while they were on loan at Genoa. He enriched both and now, not only do they look like completely different players, they are starting for Milan.
The headmaster of Atalanta’s finishing school, part of Gasperini’s job will be to make the rough edges to Kessié’s game smooth. His ability to give his players greater tactical understanding is his biggest asset. Kessié claims this is the principal reason he came to Italy. “From a tactical point of view, this is the best place in the world. When I found out after the Under-17 World Cup that French, Spanish and English clubs were interested in me, I hoped Italian ones were too because a young player gets to learn the basics better here, above all in defence.”
Explosive, alert, full of energy - “It’s true [I have played two games in one day before] - Kessié already distinguished himself for his reading of the game with the timing of his tackles and his runs into the box. They now seem even more refined. The positivity and opportunism of his style of play - Kessié isn’t afraid take on a shot - have also been rewarded. Predominantly right-footed, his left incidentally has been responsible for four of his six goals in Italy and can’t really be called his weaker one; more like the least strongest.
Tied down intelligently by Atalanta for another five years, the interest he has already attracted from Roma, Monaco and Southampton looks set to increase over the course of this season. “It’s important to know the club believes in me,” Kessié told the Eco. “But right now I’ve got to repay their faith by giving Atalanta everything I've got.” The next Yaya or not, Kessié is one to watch.
Is Kessie your one to watch in Serie A this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
