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Saël Kumbedi – Player Profile

When Lyon signed the seventeen year old prospect Saël Kumbedi from Le Havre for €1 million in the summer of 2022, he was very much seen as one for the future. At the time, he only had 219 minutes of first team action in Ligue 2 to his name. However, the young right-back made such rapid progress at Lyon that, when Chelsea made an offer for Malo Gusto in the January 2023 transfer window, Lyon had no qualms about accepting it and putting their faith in Kumbedi to step up in his place.

A fast, energetic and hard-working player, Kumbedi has the attributes to function either as a conventional right-back or as a wing-back. Diminutive in stature, he nevertheless has the lungs to work up and down the touchline and has an eye for a goal or an assist. There’s still a rawness to his play and he can be slightly naïve defensively at times, but that aspect of his game should improve as he matures and gains experience.

From Paris to Le Havre

Kumbedi hails from Stains in the northern suburbs of Paris, where he was born into a family of Congolese heritage. As a junior, he was briefly on the books of Paris Saint-Germain, amongst other local teams, before moving to Le Havre in 2019, aged fourteen. The Le Havre ‘centre de formation‘ has a reputation as one of the best and most productive youth academies in France and Kumbedi prospered under their tutelage during his first couple of years in Normandy.

By the Autumn of 2021, word of Saël Kumbedi’s burgeoning reputation had reached France Under-17 national team manager José Alcocer. Kumbedi was called into his squad for UEFA U17 Championship qualifiers against Moldova and Greece and even provided an assist for a goal against the Moldovans on his debut.

Under the wing of a Lyon legend

Former Lyon manager Paul Le Guen, who led ‘Les Gones‘ to a hat-trick of Ligue 1 titles between 2002 and 2005, was by now in charge of Le Havre. He decided to throw Kumbedi into a Coupe de France first round tie just a few days after his return from that international call-up. Still only sixteen years old, Saël Kumbedi played the full ninety minutes in a 2-0 win away at Vierzon.

It would be another four months before he made his second appearance for Le Havre and got his first taste of Ligue 2 action, a week before his seventeenth birthday in March 2022. In a hotly contested local derby against Caen, Le Guen brought Saël Kumbedi off the bench to replace Ismaël Boura in a tactical switch at half time. Playing against future Lyon team mate Johan Lepenant, Kumbedi picked up an unwanted distinction. He became the youngest ever player to be sent off in Ligue 2 when he received a red card in the 80th minute as Le Havre lost 4-2 at home. Despite that initial setback, Kumbedi was soon back in the squad following his suspension and he made his first Ligue 2 start in a 2-1 defeat at Ajaccio in April 2022.

Euro glory and a brace in the final

The UEFA U17 Championship took place in Israel the following month and Kumbedi was by now an integral part of Alcocer’s team, alongside future stars such as Warren Zaïre-Emery and Mathys Tel. He got a pair of assists in France’s opening 6-1 win over Poland and played again in the 4-0 victory against Bulgaria before being rested for the final group game against the Netherlands with France already qualified for the knockout stages.

Kumbedi was ever-present at right-back from there on as France got past Germany and Portugal on penalties in the quarter and semi-finals, providing another assist along the way. They faced the Netherlands again in the final at the Netanya Stadium and Kumbedi was the star of the show, scoring both goals as France came from behind in the second half to win 2-1 and lift the trophy.

Lyon come a-calling

During the summer break, Le Havre replaced manager Paul Le Guen with Luka Elsner and the new boss started Kumbedi in the first game of the season, a goalless draw against Grenoble. Three more substitute appearances followed before Lyon made their move to snap him up in the final days of the transfer window.

Saël Kumbedi made his Lyon debut on matchday nine of the 2022-23 Ligue 1 season as a 74th minute substitute for Nicolás Tagliafico in a 1-0 defeat at Lens. He didn’t feature again until the season resumed after the pause for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but he was a regular throughout the second half of the campaign, making twenty league appearances and providing three assists as Lyon finished seventh.

He has been a regular starter so far this season under Laurent Blanc and his replacement Fabio Grosso and has now earned caps for France at U18 and U19 levels. Having recently signed a contract extension until June 2027, Saël Kumbedi looks set to be a fixture in the Lyon line-up for years to come.

Skelly Alvero – Player Profile

Central midfielder Skelly Alvero joined Olympique Lyonnais from Sochaux for €4 million in the summer transfer window of 2023. Aged just twenty-one, and with only one full season of first team experience in Ligue 2 behind him, Alvero jumped at the chance to step up a division and sign a five year contract with Lyon.

Born in the northern suburbs of Paris, Alvero was on the books of venerable local club Red Star as a youngster before moving to the Franche-Comté region in the east of France in his mid-teens to join FC Sochaux-Montbéliard, another of the famous old names in French football. There, he worked his way through the youth ranks and reserves to eventually earn a first team debut in November 2021, aged nineteen.

Cup action with Sochaux

His breakthrough came in a Coupe de France first round tie away at Bresse Jura Foot. Alvero was introduced in the 79th minute to replace Hermann Tebily, with Sochaux having just taken a 3-0 lead in front of a motley crowd of 1,676 at the Parc des Sports du Bram. The match ended 3-1 to ‘Les Lionceaux‘ (the Lion Cubs), as Sochaux are known.

Alvero was handed a second taste of the action in the following round when he again replaced Tebily. On this occasion he entered the fray in the 32nd minute, with his team 3-0 to the good away at lowly AS Montchat Lyon. A paltry 1,185 souls witnessed his performance at the Stade Vuillermet as Sochaux coasted through the last hour of the game towards their 3-0 victory but, who knows, maybe some scouts from Olympique Lyonnais were among their number and liked what they saw.

There were to be no further first team appearances for Skelly Alvero during that 2021-22 season but, having by now signed his first professional contract, he began to feature regularly in the early part of the following campaign. His first league appearance was against Amiens on matchday three, when he came off the bench on the hour mark to replace Roli Pereira de Sa for his home debut at the Stade Auguste-Bonal in front of 10,263 supporters. Unfortunately the occasion was spoiled by a Mamadou Fofana goal eleven minutes later to consign the Sochaliens to a 1-0 defeat.

Establishing himself in the first team

Seven further substitute appearances in Ligue 2 followed (six wins and a draw) before he was handed his first start, in a 3-0 Coupe de France first round win against Hombourg-Haut. He played the full ninety minutes for the first time in his professional career and even provided the assist for the third goal. His first league start came just a week later in a 2-1 defeat away at Annecy.

Alvero was a regular starter during the second half of the season as Sochaux pushed for promotion to Ligue 1. His first goal for the club was a stoppage time equaliser against Pau in April 2023, but the visitors snatched a winner at the death, which triggered a run of eight successive defeats to end the season.

If Sochaux’ season ended on a collective low, with them slumping from third to ninth place during that disastrous eight game sequence, Skelly Alvero’s personal denouement was even worse. He picked up the first red card of his career an hour into in the penultimate match, a 1-0 defeat at home to Metz. That dismissal, for serious foul play, proved to be his final act in a Sochaux shirt. He was suspended for the last game of the campaign and his suspension carried over into the first two matches of his Lyon career after his summer transfer.

Frustrating start at Lyon

Alvero made his Lyon debut off the bench in the third game of the season, a 0-0 draw against Nice at the Allianz Riviera. He replaced Ainsley Maitland-Niles in central midfield in the 71st minute and picked up a yellow card late on. He came on for Rayan Cherki for the last fifteen minutes of the next match, a home defeat against PSG, which proved to be the last game in charge for the manager who brought him to Lyon, Laurent Blanc.

Unfortunately, Skelly Alvero got off on the wrong foot with Blanc’s replacement, Fabio Grosso, when he turned up late for the pre-match team meeting ahead of the first game under the newly installed Italian manager. As a punishment, Alvero was stuck off the team sheet and made to watch the 1-0 defeat at Brest from the stands.

He was finally handed his first start for Lyon a week later when Grosso selected him alongside Corentin Tolisso in central midfield for the visit of Reims. Alvero’s assured performance was one of the few bright points for Lyon in an otherwise disappointing 2-0 defeat that left them rock bottom of the Ligue 1 table.

The colossus of Rhône

At 6 ft 8 inches (2.02m) tall, Alvero stands head and shoulders above most of his team mates, adding some much needed height and physicality to the squad. When selected, his presence should add solidity to an otherwise fairly lightweight midfield and he’ll hopefully pose an aerial threat from set pieces.

However, his youth and lack of experience make him a very raw recruit and it’s a big ask to expect an immediate impact from him in Ligue 1. He was probably signed as one for the future, but the team’s poor start and a change of manager mean that he’s been given opportunities earlier than might have been anticipated. Fingers crossed that he can go on to achieve big things in la Ville des Lumières.

Clinton Mata – Player Profile

Olympique Lyonnais signed the thirty-year-old Angolan defender Clinton Mata from Club Brugge for €5 million in the summer of 2023. It was a first move abroad for the right-back, who had been born and raised in Belgium and had spent the entirety of his career thus far playing in the Belgian league system.

Mata will compete with the youngster Saël Kumbedi for playing time on the right side of Lyon’s defence and will provide the experienced option that the club has lacked in that role in recent times. He’s less attack minded than Kumbedi and will be useful when the team requires a more defensive set-up.

Serial Winner

Clinton Mata spent five very successful seasons with Club Brugge, following his transfer there from Charleroi for €1.5 million in 2018. They were First Division runners-up in his first season at the club, before winning the title three times in a row from 2020 to 2022. He also played in their Super Cup winning teams in 2021 and 2022 and the Belgian Cup final in 2020, which they lost 1-0 to Antwerp.

In total, Mata made almost 200 appearances for Club Brugge, including twenty-three in the UEFA Champions League, and scored six goals in all competitions. His most important strike came in the 2021 Super Cup, when he scored what turned out to be the winner in a 3-2 victory over Genk.

Early Years

Mata began his professional career at KAS Eupen, playing in the Challenger Pro League, the second tier of Belgian football. His three years there were relatively successful, finishing second twice in the regular season table and just missing out on promotion via the play-offs in his last hurrah with the club, before moving on to Charleroi on a free transfer in July 2014.

Three seasons in the Jupiler Pro League with Charleroi saw Mata establish his reputation as a solid top-flight performer. He made 87 appearances for The Zebras as they finished 6th, 8th and then 6th again before a loan move to Genk for the 2017-18 season.

The highlight of Mata’s brief stop at Genk was their run to the Belgian Cup final, the first major final of his career. He played the full ninety minutes plus extra time at the Stade Roi Baudouin but unfortunately Genk lost out 1-0 to Standard Liège. Genk finished fifth in the regular season table and Mata was able to help them qualify for the UEFA Europa League via the play-offs before moving on to Brugge.

Difficult start to Lyon career

Erstwhile Lyon manager Laurent Blanc placed his confidence in new signing Clinton Mata for the opening game of the 2023-24 Ligue 1 season away at Strasbourg, selecting him at right-back. However, Mata suffered a dead leg only twenty minutes into his debut and was forced off, to be replaced by Kumbedi in a disappointing 2-1 defeat.

He missed the next game through injury and was on the bench for the following match before regaining a starting place at right-back for the visit of Paris Saint-Germain in week four. The 4-1 defeat was a humiliation for Lyon and saw Blanc dismissed as manager soon after. Mata was moved to centre-back for the two subsequent fixtures due to an injury crisis and performed competently in the role but will likely revert to the full-back position when other players return to fitness.

Yes, he is named after Bill Clinton

Clinton Mata was born in Belgium to parents of Angolan and Congolese heritage. His birth date, the 7th of November 1992, was just three days after Bill Clinton was declared winner of the 1992 American presidential election to earn his first term as President of the USA. Mata Snr was passionate about politics and decided to bestow the name of the 42nd president upon his new-born son.

It proved to be an auspicious decision as young Clinton inherited his father’s interest in politics and, aged just nineteen, was listed as a candidate for the Parti Socialiste (PS) in the commune of Herve for the local elections in 2012. Ultimately he withdrew his candidature under pressure from his club, KAS Eupen, but maybe it’s something he will return to once he retires from football.

International caps

Clinton Mata also followed in his father’s footsteps when it came to choosing his international allegiance. Qualified to represent either his native Belgium or Angola, Mata Jnr opted for the latter. His father had reputedly been an accomplished goalkeeper who was involved in the Angola national team setup during his own playing days.

Mata received his first call-up for the Palancas Negras from coach Romeu Filemon in September 2014 and made his debut in a 0-3 home defeat against Burkina Faso in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, during which he was substituted at half time with the score at 0-1. He made seven further appearances for Angola over the following two years, but has not been called back into the squad since June 2016.

Mama Baldé – Player Profile

Mama Samba Baldé was born in Bissau, the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa, but he moved to Portugal aged six and played his junior football in the youth teams of Sintrense, from the historic town of Sintra, not far from Lisbon.

He was picked up by Sporting Clube in the summer of 2013, a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday, and soon began to make appearances for the B team in the Segunda Liga. Able to play as a centre-forward, or on either flank, he spent five years in the reserve team setup at Sporting, making over fifty appearances, but rarely getting his name on the scoresheet.

His time at Sporting was punctuated by loan spells at Benfica Castelo Branco, in the third tier, and twice at Desportivo Aves in the Primeira Liga, where he started to score on a regular basis and make a name for himself.

Move to France

In the summer of 2019, Baldé finally moved away from Sporting on a permanent basis, signing for French outfit Dijon for €665,000. That move came a month after he had earned his first international cap for Guinea-Bissau, coming on as a substitute in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Cameroon. He now has twenty caps and two goals to his name for the national team.

Playing in Ligue 1, primarily down the right or in the centre, Baldé scored thirteen times over the course of two seasons at Dijon as they finished 16th in 2019-20 but a rock-bottom 20th the following campaign and dropped back into Ligue 2.

However, Baldé didn’t stick around for a taste of the French second division. Instead, he negotiated a move to nearby Troyes, newly promoted to Ligue 1, for €3.5 million and remained a top flight player. He only managed a paltry three goals in his first season with them, as they finished a respectable 15th in the table, but was more prolific in 2022-23, bagging a dozen goals. Unfortunately his personal improvement wasn’t mirrored by the team and he ended that campaign with another relegation on his CV as Troyes finished a lowly 19th.

Olympique Lyonnais come calling

Once again, however, Mama Baldé managed to dodge the drop down a division. This time he was picked up by Lyon on loan just two days before the summer 2023 transfer window closed. The deal includes an obligation to make the move permanent for €8 million in a year’s time.

Now aged twenty-seven, he made his debut for Lyon in the recent 4-1 home defeat to PSG, coming on for Tino Kadewere at half time and again came off the bench in the following match against Le Havre. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to force his way into the Lyon first team or will be mainly used as an impact substitute. Strong, fast and direct, he has some of the attributes that have been distinctly lacking from the Lyon front line of late.

Sepp Kuss wins 2023 Vuelta

Sepp Kuss, the American Team Jumbo–Visma rider from Colorado, has won the 2023 edition of the Vuelta a España. He completed the 3133.2 km route around Spain in 76 hours 48 minutes and 21 seconds to finish seventeen seconds clear of his Danish team mate Jonas Vingegaard and one minute and eight seconds clear of his Slovenian team mate Primoz Roglic, who completed the podium.

The final stage into Madrid was won by the Australian Kaden Groves for the Alpecin–Deceuninck team, ahead of Ineos rider Filippo Ganna and Nico Denz of Bora-Hansgrohe. Groves also won the green jersey points competition whilst Belgian star Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quickstep took home the climbers’ polka dot jersey. The best young rider was Spaniard Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates.

Unsurprisingly, Team Jumbo–Visma won the teams’ classification and they have now completed a clean sweep of grand tour GC victories in 2023 following the triumphs of Roglic at the Giro d’Italia and Vingegaard in the Tour de France. It represents an unprecedented season of dominance by a single team in road cycling.

Kuss, a former mountain biker, becomes the first American grand tour winner since Chris Horner in 2013. He’s a popular champion, having worked tirelessly in the service of his more illustrious team mates for many seasons, and having ridden all three grand tours in 2023.

He won his first Vuelta a España stage at Santuario del Acebo back in 2019 when his exuberance and unbridled joy at achieving his first major win was a pleasure to behold. A tour de France stage win at Andorra la Vella followed in 2021 and he captured another Vuelta stage this time around when he was first up the climb to Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre on stage six. He donned the leader’s red jersey after stage eight and held it for the remainder of the three-week race.

Lyon 0-0 Le Havre

Lyon were held to a disappointing goalless draw by a spirited Le Havre team at the Groupama Stadium on Sunday evening.

It was their first match since the dismissal of manager Laurent Blanc during the international break, but the change in the dugout had no immediate effect. Lyon were still lacking in creativity and cohesion. New manager Fabio Grosso will have a lot to work on when he takes over on Monday morning.

The interim management team made a few changes to the starting lineup, pairing Mata with Diomande in central defence, and giving a début to midfielder Paul Akouokou. Nuamah and Cherki were either side of the returning Lacazette in the front line.

It was a fairly turgid and uneventful first half, with both teams enjoying periods in the ascendancy, but neither coming close to opening the scoring. Lyon raised the tempo and began to play with a bit more urgency after the interval, but became increasingly vulnerable to the counter attack.

It was one such move that produced the outstanding chance of the game, when Grandsir met a cross at the far post with an open goal at his mercy but ballooned his shot high and wide, much to the relief of the home fans.

Lyon did manage to apply some pressure and create a number of half chances as the game wore on, but nobody was ever in quite the right place to apply the finishing touch and the score sheet remained blank. At least the point gained lifts Lyon off the bottom of the Ligue 1 table.

United suffer again at the hands of Brighton

Manchester United produced yet another poor performance against a buoyant Brighton and Hove Albion side, who had no trouble in collecting another three points from their latest visit to Old Trafford.

Former United striker Danny Welbeck broke the deadlock in the 20th minute when he timed his run into the box perfectly to latch on to a Simon Adingra cut-back and side-foot the ball home past a helpless Onana.

United came close to levelling the scores a couple of times. Firstly when Rashford hit the post with a venomous shot and secondly when they had the ball in the net through Højlund but VAR ruled that Rashford had run it over the by-line in the build-up.

Brighton doubled their advantage in the 53rd minute when Pascal Gross wove his way through a static United defence to score his customary goal in this fixture and they made sure of the three points in the 71st minute when substitute Joao Pedro, on for Adam Lallana, side-footed home from the edge of the box.

United’s consolation came in the form of a long-range strike from young substitute Hannibal Mejbri a couple of minutes later, but it would prove to be too little too late at the end of another lacklustre showing from the Red Devils.

The result leaves Manchester United languishing down in thirteenth place in the Premier League table, with only six points from their first five matches and a goal difference of minus four.

Athletic Club 3-0 Cádiz

Ernesto Valverde’s Athletic picked up their third win of the season to move up to a provisional third place in the table with a crushing 3-0 victory over Cádiz in front of 42,881 fans at the San Mamés.

The home side had much the better of the first half and rattled the crossbar twice before the interval. They came close to opening the scoring on another couple of occasions before the breakthrough finally arrived mid-way through the second half. Oscar De Marcos surged forward from right-back and put in a fine cross towards the far post that Gorka Guruzeta met with a towering header past Ledesma in the Cádiz goal.

The lead was doubled only a couple of minutes later when Iñaki Williams bewitched the Cádiz defenders down the right flank and sent a ball into the box that was haplessly diverted towards their own goal by the out-stretched leg of a back-tracking opponent. It looped up kindly for Asier Villalibre, who calmly nodded it back across goal and into the far side of the net.

Williams himself added the third in the 90th minute by finishing off a classic route one move after a long punt up field from goalkeeper Unai Simón was flicked into his path by Villalibre. Simón was called upon to make a couple of fine saves at the death to protect his clean sheet as Athletic saw out a convincing victory.

Manchester United U18 2-1 Nottingham Forest U18

Manchester United maintained their one hundred per cent start to the Under 18 Premier League season with a comeback win against Nottingham Forest at Carrington.

They had to do it the hard way, having gone down to ten men in the 42nd minute after two yellow cards in quick succession saw Ashton Missin sent for an early bath. Things went from bad to worse on the stroke of half time when goalkeeper Tom Myles conceded a penalty by bringing down an opposing forward whilst trying to deal with a poor backpass. Forest number nine Conor Brown slotted home from the spot to give the visitors a half time lead.

Lady luck decided to smile upon United in the second period and then ten men drew level through a scuffed finish from Scottish defender Jack Kingdon at the far post. He connected poorly with a looping ball into the box but his effort somehow trickled over the goal line.

It looked as though the points were going to be shared as the match entered stoppage time, but United had other ideas and kept pressing down the right flank, eventually tempting a Forest defender into a rash challenge inside the penalty area. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Spanish striker Victor Musa stepped up to coolly slot home with his left foot and complete the turn around.

The win leaves United U18’s joint top of the Under 18 Premier League North table, level with Liverpool on nine points. United had begun the season with a 4-0 win away at Middlesbrough and a 4-1 win at Stoke City.