It has been another season of relative hardship for Sevilla as they sit in mid-table in La Liga once again. They are a club who had been used to challenging the Champions League places in the previous years who were very hard to beat especially at the Estadio Ramos Sanchez Pizjuan but since financial problems hit the club they have struggled to keep pace with teams such as Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Malaga and this season even Real Sociedad and rivals Real Betis.
One player who has stood out this season has been French wonderkid Geoffrey Kondogbia, who has been a rock when sitting in front of their back four. He is in a long line of players who have been dubbed the ‘next Patrick Vieira’ and Kondogbia may well be worth the punt. He would definitely suit the Premier League as he stands at 6ft2 and is a strong man who is comfortable on both feet. He is very similar in stature to Juventus youngster Paul Pogba.
He has flourished since Unai Emery took over at the club this season when playing as a defensive midfielder. Chelsea and Arsenal have been rumoured to be interested and signing Kondogbia would make sense for both clubs. At Chelsea, John Obi Mikel has never really looked like being in the same class as Claude Makelele and they should look at Kondogbia who could be the perfect fit. As we know, Arsene Wenger loves signing young Frenchmen at Arsenal and he could be the holding midfielder that they have needed at times this season.
He started his career at Lens and was a teammate of Real Madrid star Raphael Varane. Whilst the whole of Europe stood in awe at Varane’s performances, Kondogbia still managed to stand out. He attracted plenty of interest from Serie A from Juventus and AC Milan amongst others but Sevilla managed to sign him at the start of the season.
With Sevilla in debt they will look to offload their highest profile players for big money so Kondogbia along with Jesus Navas (who may stay due to his anxiety problems) and Alvaro Negredo are likely to leave if a big club came calling. It would be a surprise if Sevilla held onto a player in the class of Kondogbia and Premier League clubs should definitely look at signing him up in the summer.