Jean-Clair Todibo: Barcelona’s newest star in the making

The January transfer window has barely cracked open and some extremely interesting buys have already happened. One of those was to Catalunya, specifically. Barcelona have acquired the services of a young French defender Jean-Clair Todibo, who comes without a transfer fee from Ligue 1’s Toulouse FC.

Todibo will officially don the Blaugrana jersey in summer when his transfer goes through For now, though, he will remain in France until 1 July. Although he was not really what the fans have maybe expected to see as reinforcement for the back line, Todibo has the potential to be a future star.

This tactical analysis will use statistics to conclude whether Barcelona have made a good decision by incorporating their third French defender and the 22^nd French player in total and whether the hype around the youngster is as real as they say.

Player overview

Jean-Clair Todibo is a 19-year-old centre-back from Toulouse who was born in Cayenne, the capital of French Guayana in South America. He played his youth football in FC Les Lilas before joining the Ligue 1 team in 2016. His official first-team debut arrived at the start of the ongoing campaign and he has, so far, made 10 appearances for the club, all of which were from the starting XI.

Some of his key strengths include, but are not limited to, physicality, pace, good ball control and passing ability. He is tall and great at aerial duels, and generally a rock in defence. As a rule of thumb, he will most often be found at right centre-back (86% of the time). He has also been known to be able to play higher up the pitch, as a defensive midfielder (9%).

In general, he is a young prospect who has all the traits a modern defender has to possess  to be able to play with the best. On paper, he looks like the future, but nowadays that is no guarantee at all.

Style of play

Todibo prides himself on being the most important piece of the Toulouse’s defense puzzle, even though he is only 19 years old. Even as a youngster, he is already mature enough to impose himself and be able to tackle without risking fouls or getting booked. As a result, he averages 0.28 yellow and 0.09 red cards per 90 minutes.

Although this is slightly higher than Gerard Pique’s or Clement Lenglet’s stats, for example, the inexperience might be playing a part in that. Still, being able to successfully prevent the opposition’s progression and win 1v1 duels is what he truly excels at.

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