Seko Fofana's move to Al Nassr needs to be analyzed
The Ivorian midfielder gave up Champions League action and the potential to become a legend in Europe for a spot in the Saudi Pro League. Why?
Deolu Akingbade writes about every big transfer from July 2 onwards. His third subject is Ivorian midfielder Seko Fofana, who just made the switch from RC Lens to Al-Nassr.
Read the first edition here and the second edition here.
The Facts
Seko Fofana was born in Paris in 1995 and joined Paris FC’s academy in 2004. When he turned 18, he joined Manchester City’s academy and quickly made his way to the first team in 2014. Fofana made a series of loan moves from City to Fulham and Bastia before eventually being sold to Udinese.
After a somewhat successful stint in Udine where he played 119 total games and had a G+A count of 25, Fofana landed in Lens for just $9.5 million in August 2020. Fofana quickly became a key player for Lens, making a total of 112 appearances while scoring 21 goals and adding 12 assists. Fofana ended up earning the armband for his 2022/23 season, where he wowed heads with his Zidane-esque playstyle and incredible long shots. Despite links to PSG, Arsenal, and Newcastle, he secured a mammoth deal with Saudi side Al-Nassr, netting Lens $28 million. His wages have not been specified.
Fofana earned 33 caps across all French youth levels, but never received a call-up. He chose to accept the Ivory Coast’s call-up, as he is eligible for the Ivorian national team through both of his parents. Fofana debuted for Les Elephants in 2017 but took a two-year absence to focus on club football. He returned in 2019 to play five games for the team but then took another absence until 2022. Predictably, Fofana played just twice for the team until, again, disappearing for the national team. It looks likely that he will play for the Ivorian team come January 2024 in AFCON.
The Rumors
The deal is all wrapped up for Al Nassr and Fofana, as he joined the Saudi club for a $28 million fee. Fofana joins Marcelo Brozovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Talisca at Riyadh. Fofana’s wages have not been announced yet. He joins Al-Nassr on a three-year deal stretching until 2026.
Lens is suffering from an exodus of star players. 21-goal forward Loïs Openda left Leipzig for $47.8 million, Jean Onana is set to join Besiktas for almost $6 million, and now Fofana has left for $28 million. They targeted Basel midfielder Andy Diouf, signing him for around $15.5 million, and Toulouse anchor Stijn Spierings for free. They look okay in the midfield, especially considering they still have Salis Abdul Samed and Przemyslaw Frankowski to work with.
Al-Nassr has been linked to Senegalese winger Sadio Mané and United full-back Alex Telles as they prepare for their incoming AFC Champions League campaign.
The Transfer Tree
The Transfer Tree traces the biggest transfers down to the lowest levels by looking at why a team makes a move and how the selling club replaces their player. It repeats until either the team becomes too unknown for any information to come through or the team doesn’t buy a player to replace their departure.
Seko Fofana leaves Lens, joining Al Nassr for $28 million. The Ivorian becomes Lens’ second-most expensive transfer after Openda’s deal to Leipzig.
Lens recruits Basel’s Andy Diouf to fill the 6’1-foot-sized hole in their midfield. The 20-year-old Frenchman has had stints at both PSG and Rennes’ academies.
Basel is reportedly targeting Switzerland U21 midfielder Ardon Jashari to replace Diouf. Luzern, Jashari’s team, is more than angry with his public comments. The team stripped Jashari of the captain’s armband and publicly reprimanded him. Jashari will have a tougher time finding his way out of Lucerne after his public spat with Luzern’s sporting director.
It doesn’t look like Luzern has any plans to let Jashari leave or replace him. The club already has an exciting young core of Nicky Beloko and Noah Rupp in the center. Having Jashari in time for their Swiss Super League game against Winterthur would be nice, but the club should be fine without him.
The Spin
Seko Fofana’s move to Al Nassr comes as a surprise. Lens earned promotion from Ligue 2 in 2020 and came one point of winning Ligue 1 in 2023. They’ve shown intelligence and sophistication in the transfer market, consistently buying underrated and undervalued talents and either keeping them or selling them to bigger clubs. And although 23-year-old Openda was at the head of the team’s attack, Fofana was the heart of the team. Sticking with Lens would not only mean a starring role in for a Champions League-bound team, but also the potential to inscribe his name in the list of Lens legends alongside players from the old times; Eric Sikora, Ahmed Oudjani, and even Anto Drobnjak.
But Fofana left Lens just when the Lens Project was getting exciting. PSG is faltering, Lens’ transfers are coming through, and the club has just received a bucketload of money from the Openda deal. With Fofana’s departure, it will get harder to avoid utter embarrassment in the Champions League, much less qualifying again with a top-three finish.
From a personal standpoint, the deal makes perfect sense for Fofana. He’s a practicing Muslim, so he could properly observe the religion without officials or the xenophobic attitude in France. He’d earn a hefty $324,000 per week at Al Nassr; much needed money considering the money is tax-free and will support many generations to come.
He also immediately joins a squad ready to go, unlike Lens, which still needs to be built and regrown for an indefinite amount of time. He also isn’t completely abandoning Lens; he’ll remain a minority shareholder of the team, making key decisions on the board and inputting capital as a testament of his love for the team. Although he may left Lens right at the height of his career, with multiple prestigious, title-contending teams jostling for his signature, he still has a lot of things going for him.
Tactically, Fofana will be right at home under Al Nassr manager Luis Castro, who had stints at Shakhtar and Porto. While coaching Botafogo in the 2022/23 season, Castro switched between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3, the key difference between the his two adapations to the formation primarily being the lack of a #10 in his 4-3-3. The team’s shape almost always looks like a 4-5-1 or a 4-1-4-1 in a low block.
In all of his formations, a double pivot will help the team build from the back, while a more advanced midfielder (either a #8 or a #10 depending on the system) serves as a makeshift #10; someone who hangs out around the striker and wingers, acts as the link between the midfield and attack, and makes a lot of key passes around the field.
Fofana doesn’t fit neatly into a 4-2-3-1, which is what Castro seems set on making his primary formation. He isn’t really a defensive midfielder, although he did have a lot of shifts at the #6 with Bastia. Neither is he an attacking midfielder, despite having a lot of time at the #10 spot. He’s mainly a central midfielder, someone who is involved in a lot of key moments on offense and defense as a box-to-box midfielder.
He can be creative, as shown by his flashy skill moves, his pin-point long balls, and his outside-the-box ideas that led to him making 94 SCAs( shot-creating actions). But, his height (6’1) and physicality, paired with a penchant for crunching tackles and lung-busting runs makes him a solid defensive midfielder.
It’s uncertain whether Castro or Fofana will break first. Will Castro move to a 4-3-3 to accommodate Fofana, or will Fofana tweak his playstyle to accommodate Al-Nassr and Castro? Only time (or either of the two) can tell.
As for Lens, French manager Franck Heise will take control of Les Sang et Or for his third season in charge. Lens boasts one of the best defenses in Europe, as their defense conceded the least goals in Ligue 1 and the third-least goals in Europe’s top-five leagues, behind Barcelona and Napoli.
With the athletic Brice Samba in goal and several key outfielders like the center-back grouping of Jonathan Gradit, Kevin Danso, and Facundo Medina, and key midfielders Frankowski and Abdul Samed, Heise seems set to frustrate Ligue 1 attackers going into the 2023/24 season, even without their key Ivorian cog.
Heise’s innovative 3-4-3 shapes have also helped Lens frustrate opponents with its never-relenting defense and fiery offense. Lens keep possession on the ball consistently and flawlessly. They use fierce wing-backs who often fly up the pitch in line with the wingers. The team’s midfield diamond consistently shift, with their tactically intelligence and never-ending fluidity consistently creating options in midfield. They create space through inventive third-man runs through the back line.
Although Fofana was a key player in Heise’s possession scheme, as the ball weaved its way to the Ivorian without fail almost every drive on offense, Heise will likely have a new tactic, giving their players a lot more involvement in the team’s scheme.