At a time when Arsenal’s finances are tight it says much about their belief in William Saliba that they are prepared to spend £27 million on a teenager with only 16 games and one season under his belt at Saint-Étienne in Ligue 1.
Saliba, 18, is seen as one of the most promising young centre backs in France. He is physically imposing at 6ft 4in but says his best quality is reading the game. He was quickly made captain of France at youth level and his stature and style have drawn comparisons with Raphaël Varane, the Real Madrid centre back.
“It’s not a stupid comparison, but William has closed [his mind] to this,” Jean-Luc Vannuchi, the France Under-18 coach, has said. “He has such strength and charisma that I immediately made him my captain. He is easy with the ball at his feet and is above his generation but sometimes he tends to take too many risks. There are situations where he gets in trouble and you have to find a happy medium.”
Vannuchi picked out as an example the 1-0 win over Scotland Under-18 in October last year. “He lost balls that put us in trouble, I told him about it at the break and in the second half he was much better,” Vannuchi said. “At the end he came to see me to apologise. It was a rare step.”
Weeks earlier Saliba had made his Saint-Étienne debut aged 17 against Toulouse and also scored in a 2-1 defeat by England in the Limoges Tournament. Six years earlier he was discovered while being coached by Wilfrid Mbappé, the father of Kylian, the Paris Saint-Germain and France forward.
Saliba and Mbappé grew up in Bondy, a suburb in the northeast of Paris, attended the same school and were coached by Wilfrid at an early age at AS Bondy. They share a Cameroonian heritage. Saliba is two years younger than Mbappé so they never played together when young but they rubbed shoulders at the Mbappé household. “Since his father was my coach [at under-11], I often went to his home,” Saliba told Le Populaire. “He was a real coach. He taught me everything and if I’m here today, it’s thanks to him.”
Saliba was seen as a little clumsy because of his height but it also helped him create havoc and dominate opposition players. Wilfrid Mbappé preached versatility and turned Saliba from a midfielder into a centre back — in a team that played in the colours of Aston Villa.
He and Mbappé started out at Bondy but the parallels ended there. The PSG striker was a prodigy and the defender emerged later. Mbappé joined Clairefontaine academy and Monaco, making his debut a month short of his 17th birthday. Saliba went on trial at PSG, Auxerre and Le Havre but nothing came of them.
It was not until Saliba followed Fabio Frasconi, his Bondy coach, to Montfermeil, an amateur club, that he started to flourish. Frasconi said that he needed to improve his co-ordination. “He began to show the calmness that you see today,” Abdelaziz Kaddour, the Montfermeil technical director, said. “He was a year younger than his team-mates, but dominated them with his size and authority. We also agreed with William to make an effort at school and stop falling asleep late.”
Saint-Étienne spotted him and Saliba impressed in their youth side, who enjoyed a good season in 2016-17 finishing top of their group and beating Lyons. He made his senior league debut in September last year, in place of captain Loïc Perrin, and ended the season making 16 appearances, 13 from the start. “I remember that in my first match, Yann M’Vila [the Saint-Étienne midfielder] told me not to hesitate to give the ball to him when I was in trouble, even if he was in a hurry,” Saliba said. “It made me comfortable.”
In his second match against Lille in October, he was asked to play right back. He telephoned Frasconi for advice. “It touched me that we spoke for more than half an hour about the tactical aspect of this position,” Frasconi said. “I felt I was speaking with a guy with ten years of a professional career behind him. It’s impressive that everything has gone so fast for William.”
He played twice in October and four more times in December and has thanked Jean-Louis Gasset, his Saint-Étienne coach, for the chances to play. “Even when I was bad, because of my youth and inexperience, he kept playing me,” Saliba has said. “It is thanks to him that I was able to have this progression. He taught me to be a man. He has trained so many great players that he has a lot of advice to give.”
In April, Saliba signed a contract until 2023 and was picked by France for the Under-20 World Cup a month later but withdrew because of injury.
Saint-Étienne will earn twice the amount received for Kurt Zouma, the centre back who moved to Chelsea for about £13 million in January 2014.
Perrin, the Saint-Étienne captain, said Saliba came out of his shell in the dressing room during the season. “When he arrived there he was reserved but now he has begun to open up,” Perrin said. “When we celebrated our under-19 side winning a cup competition William said in a serious tone, ‘Come on, we’re going to celebrate the achievements of the young ones.’ It was funny because he is still young.” Saliba already sees himself on another stage.
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