AFCON: What Issa Kabore’s Win Of Young Player Award Means For Manchester City

Burkina Faso’s Issa Kabore scooped up the award for the young player of the tournament at the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON 2021 bringing into question what his outing could mean in his parent club, Manchester City.

Sadio Mane’s Senegal had on Sunday edged out Mo Salah’s Egypt in a tense penalty shootout in the final of the competition, but it was Burkina Faso’s Kabore that caught the eye of the adjudicators of the awards as he helped his side to the semi-finals of the competition, despite cruelly losing the 3rd place playoff to hosts Cameroon.

The 20-year-old defender provided four assists in seven appearances, including two in the 3rd place playoff.

Currently at Ligue 1 side Troyes, the Burkinabe Stallion is on loan from Manchester City for the season. And while he has failed to set Ligue 1 alight, his performances in AFCON will certainly have begun turning some heads at other clubs.

Manchester City are in dire need of defensive reinforcements come the summer and Kabore’s outing at AFCON could set the club thinking on him as an option. Joao Cancelo continues to impress, but is playing as a left-back currently, while Kyle Walker will be 32 years old by the end of the season. Oleksandr Zinchenko has found it difficult to find a spot in City’s team in recent months which has forced him to play further up the pitch, getting increasingly less game time.

It is in this muddle, that Kabore could well enter the thinking of the club hierarchy. He could first come in to understudy Walker at first, given he will still be just 21 come the summer transfer window. With both flanks needing addressing, he could stand to benefit.

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