„Nkunku… and it’s an excellent finish. From the man who’s been in the center of everything so far for Leipzig.“
He's the Bundesliga’s player of the 21-22 season. Better than all the Bayern stars.
Christopher Nkunku! So who is Nkunku? We met the people who know best: his youth coaches in France.
And of course, we spoke to Nkunku himself.
This is the story of Christopher Nkunku
Christopher Nkunku was born in November 1997 in the Paris suburb Lagny-sur-Marne.
Half a year later, France won their first ever World Cup title. The whole country went football mad.
Two years later, they secured the Euros title as well.
Christopher grew up, like so many other kids, wanting to be like Zinedine Zidane and co.
His love of football meant it quickly became a disciplinary tool…
His first club: AS Marolles, aged 6.
And Christo already wanted to join a bigger club. He had trials with Lens,
Le Havre,
and Monaco, but all three turned him down.
So Christopher Nkunku was a late developer. He was smaller, but he was very talented.
Creativity and technique are Nkunku’s strengths.
And despite his slight build, in 2009, aged 12, he earned a place at the French F-A’s Fontainebleau youth academy.
One year on, he joined Paris Saint Germain’s youth setup.
And things got even better in 2011, when he was accepted to the French F-A’s most prestigious academy –
the famous Clairefontaine.
He spent his weeks there, and played for PSG on the weekends.
He had a very good vision of the game.
His technique was above and that was very impactful.
At Clairefontaine he was part of an age group that also contained Amine Harit,
Allan Saint-Maximin, Felix Eboa Eboa and Marcus Thuram.
One year later, Kylian Mbappe joined.
After 2 successful years at Clairefontaine, in 2013 Nkunku joined the PSG academy. By now he was 15 years old.
Francois Rodrigues had already come across several of today’s superstars in his position as youth coach at PSG.
But he still remembers Christo well.
There’s huge competition at PSG. France’s best talents congregate here.
France’s national team profits hugely from that investment,
so do others, like Portugal with Raphael Guerreiro, and Morocco with Medhi Benatia.
So a lot of talented players come from the PSG Academy
because the player pool in Paris and its suburbs is incredible.
If you check the origin of the French national team players, most of them come from Paris.
Youth development in France is uniquely successful.
Australian researcher Darko Dukic collated the birthplaces of World Cup winners between 2002 and 2018.
The results show the extent to which France dominates world football.
And most of the talents come from the capital.
At the last World Cup, there were 52 players who were born in France.
Over the last 5 tournaments, an incredible 216 players came through the French system.
Brazil, Germany and Argentina are next on the list, but all way behind France.
And Paris is unquestionably the capital of world football, with 60 players.
In fact, at the 2018 World Cup, Paris could have fielded its own team.
That’s the level of competition Christopher Nkunku had to deal with.
And Nkunku got the support he needed to nurture his talents.
In 2015 he also made his debut for the senior side.
At just 18 years of age, he made a cameo appearance in the Champions League, and shortly after in Ligue 1.
But again, competition for places in midfield for world and European champion Laurent Blanc’s team was fierce.
Marco Verratti,
Angel di Maria,
Thiago Motta,
Adrien Rabiot,
Javier Pastore…
and Blaise Matuidi.
Emery was replaced by Thomas Tuchel, but Nkunku remained a peripheral figure under the German coach.
In summer 2019, Nkunku made the decision to leave France. He joined Bundesliga side RB Leipzig.
Leipzig paid 13 million euros for the 20 year old Nkunku, signing him to a 5 year deal.
It was a perfect fit from the start. In part because he found a kindred spirit in his new coach.
Julian Nagelsmann was Christo’s first coach at Leipzig,
and his attacking set up worked perfectly for the Frenchman.
Nkunku made 33 appearances in a successful first season.
His second season was also impressive.
And when Nagelsmann left, his replacement was another fan of Nkunku.
He's tried in every way to adapt to the things we're trying to teach him, to the way that we want him to play,
to the commitment we want him to have in the team. And you can see that his confidence is just beaming.
And so, I'm really happy for him because he's such a good young man.
A good young man, who was now working with his 5th coach in his 7th season as a pro.
Other players may have suffered for that, but Nkunku thrived, racking up goals and assists.
His 6th coach followed soon after, in the form of Domenico Tedesco.
That season he led Leipzig to their first ever major trophy – the German Cup.
In September 2022 Tedesco's departure brought him his 7th coach in his 8th season.
And his 4th in 4 years in Leipzig. But for Nkunku that's no reason to panic.
That confidence is well placed. In 2022 Nkunku made his France debut against the Ivory Coast.
France is among the favorites at the Qatar World Cup. So what does he expect from the team?
What do you think? Can France and Nkunku become the first team to defend the World Cup title in 60 years?