Tchouaméni: Madrid answer to Casemiro, France replacement for Kante

If there is an absence of panic in France with regard to the knowledge that, aged 31 and increasingly bedevilled by injury, N’Golo Kanté will not be around for ever, it may be because they know that in the shape of Aurélien Tchouaméni, the future of the national team’s midfield already looks secure.

The 22-year-old Monaco midfielder, who just signed for Real Madrid, made his France debut in September, and a month later he was anchoring the midfield alongside Paul Pogba as the world champions defeated Spain in the final of the Uefa Nations League in Milan.

Deputising for the absent Kanté, Tchouaméni, who also attracted interest from the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea, scored his first international goal in March by heading in a 93rd-minute winner in a friendly against Ivory Coast in Marseille. He won eight caps in eight months of senior international football, but already felt part of the furniture. “He was top class,” Didier Deschamps, the France head coach, said after Tchouaméni’s man-of-the-match display against Ivory Coast. “He has huge potential and [plays with] a lot of control.”

Pogba describes Tchouaméni as his “mini me” and there are clear similarities in their playing styles. Both are tall, rangy, right-footed central midfielders who excel at using their bodies to protect the ball. Both strike the ball cleanly and pass with purpose. But it is in their differences that Tchouaméni’s key attributes lie.

The Monaco man is a predominantly defensive midfielder, whose mobility, telescopic legs and finely tuned sense of anticipation make him an unparalleled disruptor of opposition attacks. Sylvain Ripoll, the France Under-21 head coach, describes him as a “monster of ball recovery”, while the former Monaco head coach Niko Kovac said that he was “the best ball-winner I’ve seen for a very long time”. In a television interview on TF1 last month, Deschamps described him as a “complete” footballer.

Tchouaméni typically plays in a midfield two for Monaco, alongside the similarly combative Youssouf Fofana. An €18 million acquisition from Bordeaux in January 2020, Tchouaméni was a central figure in Monaco’s third-place finish in the 2020-21 campaign, which earned him the title of Ligue 1’s best young player, and performed with similar consistency this term despite an uneven start to the campaign that cost Kovac his job in December.

Born in Rouen in northern France, Tchouaméni moved to Bordeaux as a child after his father, who works as a director in the pharmaceutical industry, relocated for work. He joined Bordeaux at the age of 11 and initially played as a forward or No 10 before dropping into central midfield at under-18 level. Barring a sticky first six months at Monaco, during which he made only three substitute appearances, his career has followed a smooth upward trajectory, winning caps for France at every level from under-16 to the senior side.

A passionate NBA fan (he supports the Philadelphia 76ers), Tchouaméni has a reputation as a changing-room joker, but when it comes to his football, he has impressed a succession of coaches and team-mates with his dedication and eye for detail. The midfielder employs a personal video analyst, avidly watches televised matches in his free time and confesses to having filled the notes app on his phone with advice and tactical instructions gleaned from his coaches.

 “The thing I like about him is his attitude,” his Monaco team-mate Cesc Fàbregas says. “He never stops asking questions. You can see that he wants to progress.” Tchouaméni has cited Fàbregas alongside Kanté, Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne as the players whose playing styles he has studied in his quest for improvement. He has also exchanged text messages about playing in central midfield with Patrick Vieira, having boldly asked Fàbregas for the Crystal Palace manager’s number.

After securing Champions League qualification with Monaco under the new coach Philippe Clément, this month’s Nations League group games will give Tchouaméni an opportunity to further nail down his place in France’s World Cup squad. A summer departure from Monaco, then, seems more than likely, and with a move to Real s, he may not have long to wait before he can start fulfilling some of the lofty ambitions he set out in an interview with L’Équipe magazine in November.

“I have objectives, dreams, the desire to play for the best clubs, to win titles, to impact my sport and my position,” Tchouaméni said. “I want people to remember me for positive things. I want to leave a mark.” He is already well on his way.