It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that Chelsea would like to consider themselves as a rung above Leicester City, especially consider the Foxes were relegated at the end of the 2022-2023 Premier League season, returning a year later. Yet there have been some big name players who have made the move from the East Midlands to West London, with some signings working out better than others. Many may question the wisdom of Danny Drinkwater’s decision to move to Stamford Bridge, for example, whilst others credit N’Golo Kanté as being the reason both teams won the Premier League title. The question is, which bracket will Wesley Fofana fit into?
Who is Wesley Fofana?
Born on the 17th of December 2000 in the French city of Marseille, Wesley Fofana’s father is Ivorian and mother is French. With five siblings, it is fair to say that he grew up in a busy household, being raised Muslim. This has resulted in numerous displays of his religion, such as when Leicester City won 3-0 against West Bromwich Albion in the April of 2022 and he was substituted on the hour mark in order to allow him to break his daytime fast for Ramadan, or when he and Crystal Palace’s Cheikhou Kouyaté took on fluids after half an hour of the game between the two teams in the same month, which was paused to allow it.
Early Years in Football
Wesley Fofana’s footballing life began when he was just six-years-old and he started playing for the French side of Repos Vitrolles. He remained there for two years before moving to Bassin Minier, spending another two years in their youth system before a move to Pennes Mirabeau took place. He was there for just a year prior to making the move to Bel Air, remaining in their youth system for four years. In 2015, the ten-time French champions Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire, better-known to most as simply AS Saint-Étienne, signing him for their Academy, believing that they player had an excellent future ahead of him.
After spending three years making his way through the Saint-Étienne youth system, Fofana was eventually promoted to the reserve team in 2018, having singed his first professional contract on the 15th of May that year. It wasn’t until the 2019-2020 season that the centre-back was promoted into the first team, gaining his debut on the 18th of May 2019 in a 3-0 win over Nice in a Ligue 1 match. Given the dearth of centre-backs with any degree of quality around Europe, it is perhaps not all that surprising that some of the biggest teams on the continent began keeping tabs on Fofana, including Leicester City.
Arriving in the Premier League
On the second of October 2020, Wesley Fofana signed a five-year contract with former Premier League champions Leicester City. It was reported that the Foxes had paid as much as £36.5 million for his signature, with the player entering the Leicester squad ahead of the delayed 2020-2021 season. At the end of the campaign, the Foxes made it to the final of the FA Cup where they would play Fofana’s future club, Chelsea. Played on the right of a back three by Brendan Rodgers, Fofana helped Leicester City keep a clean sheet as they defeated the Blues 1-0 courtesy of a goal by Youri Tielemans, giving him his first silverware in England.
At the end of the match, amidst all of the celebrations by Leicester players, he courtesy controversy when he and his teammate, Hamza Choudhury, celebrated whilst draped in a Palestinian flag during the Israel-Palestine crisis. Just six days after the FA Cup final and Fofana was named the Leicester City Young Player of the Season, which was voted on by the club’s supporters. A couple of months later and he broke a leg after a challenge from Fer Niño during a pre-season game against Villarreal, which left him absent for more than six months. He scored upon his return, netting Leicester only goal in 2-1 defeat in the Europa Conference League, which secured a 3-2 aggregate win.
Signing for Chelsea
Despite having missed the best part of the 2021-2022 season with a broken leg, Fofana’s overall displays since arriving in England were enough to persuade Chelsea that he was the right man to lead the club’s defence. On the 31st of August the club agreed a fee with the Foxes to take the Frenchman to Stamford Bridge, singing him for £70 million plus £5 million in add-ons as part of new owner Todd Boehley’s plan to avoid any sort of Financial Fair Play restrictions. Part of that involved signing players on to long contracts, allowing the Blues to amortise the fee over a longer period of time, so Fofana was signed for seven years.
He’s Chelsea now. 👊#FofanaIsChelsea pic.twitter.com/GadQSGdXFZ
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 31, 2022
After signing on the dotted line to become a Chelsea player, Fofana was critical of Leicester City for what he declared to be ‘false and misleading comments’ that had been made during what turned out to be a protracted transfer situation. He said, “I chose not to communicate during this transfer window despite all the criticism and all the often false and misleading comments, even when they were coming from the club, I understood and I learned. I didn’t want to damage the image of the institution and I chose to take it rather than answer”. He had been left out of Leicester’s squads to face Southampton and Chelsea once news of a potential move had emerged.
Debuts, Goals & Injuries
In spite of the clear enmity between Fofana and his former club, life moves on. He got his first appliance for the Blues under his belt when Chelsea hosted West Ham United for something of a London derby on the third of September 2022, with the home side needing to come from a goal down to win 3-1. Fofana started the game, which came on the back of the most expensive transfer window that any British side had enjoyed in the modern era, spending in the region of £255 million. A little mover a month later and he scored his first Chelsea goal, netting in a 3-0 win over AC Milan in the Champions League, but it wasn’t all good news.
In the 38th minute of that match Fofana suffered a knee injury, which forced him off the pitch and ruled him out until the February of the following year. He returned on the 18th of the month but couldn’t help Chelsea keep a clean sheet as they lose 1-0 to Southampton at Stamford Bridge. His first goal for the club came in the following month, finding the back of the net to score the only goal of a 1-0 win over Leeds United on the fourth of March. Sadly it was to be one of few highs for him, with the club confirming on the 18th of July that he had suffered and anterior cruciate ligament injury and would need to have surgery.
In the latter part of November 2023, Chelsea announced that Fofana had received the all-clear to go back to training, having fully recovered from the ACL injury that had stopped him from really getting going since his arrival at the club. In spite of this, he didn’t make any appearances during the 2023-2024 season, in spite of the fact that Chelsea had decided to sack Thomas Tuchel and bring in Mauricio Pochettino in his stead. The good news for him was that he received his first call-up to play for France in the UEFA European Championship 2024 qualifiers against the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.