When Leicester City signed Boubakary Soumare from French champions Lille in 2021, internally it felt like a coup.
The recruitment team who had championed his cause to manager Brendan Rodgers felt that a £17million ($21.7m in today’s exchange) fee was a bargain for a player who had all the raw ingredients to become a key player in the Premier League. They believed Soumare could emulate his childhood hero Paul Pogba, and become a bankable asset in the future.
He had just won Ligue 1 with Lille to break a 10-year streak of dominance from his former club Paris Saint-Germain, and the Paris-born midfielder, who had played for France in every youth age group, was seen as a rising star in his home country.
His first season was a period of adaptation. Soumare started 12 games in the Premier League but they were mainly in the first half of the season and he was used sparingly in the second half, even left out of Leicester’s matchday squad on 12 occasions. In fact, he only made two appearances in the last 17 league games.
Initially, he struggled to settle, telling The Athletic in March 2022: “I run but I run less than what you (need to) run in the Premier League. I have to adapt to this style of running, the intensity and all that follows. I have to teach myself this football culture.”
He found life off the pitch difficult in a foreign country away from his close-knit family in the Parisian suburb of Noisy-le-sec. He is one of six siblings.
After just one season, he nearly left the club, with a move to Monaco falling through because of Leicester’s asking price. Clearly, Leicester were not ready to give up on their investment.
Rodgers called for patience in a press conference in October of the next season, stating Soumare had needed time to acclimatise to a new country, a new language and the pace of the Premier League. Soumare did start 20 league games in the disastrous relegation campaign of 2022-23 — although he started eight of the last nine after Rodgers’s departure — but he was still largely frustrating.
There were glimpses of what he was capable of, moments in games when it seemed the penny had dropped and Soumare understood what was required in the Premier League, but Rodgers had grown frustrated at the moments when he seemed to switch off, allowing runners to glide past him, and struggled to cover the ground adequately.
In September 2023, it again seemed that Soumare’s time at Leicester was up as Enzo Maresca allowed him to move to Sevilla on loan with an option for the deal to be made permanent. Although his new club struggled in La Liga, finishing 14th, Soumare started 26 league games and twice in the Champions League, including in a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal.
His performance drew praise from television pundit and former Arsenal striker Ian Wright. “I thought he was really good,” he said. “He looked like a different player (than at Leicester) in the way he was playing.”
Sevilla were unable to make the deal permanent for financial reasons, so Soumare returned to Leicester and Steve Cooper has become the latest coach to try to unlock his true potential.
Soumare seems determined to make it work this time. He is settled in Leicestershire and has started a young family, and he has impressed Cooper with his attitude in training.
“He’s really, really, popular,” Cooper says. “He is really well-liked in the dressing room. He is very much part of the culture from a social point of view and also from a focus point of view as well.
“I’ve had some really good in-depth conversations with him, and he knows exactly what he wants and who he is.”
His display in the 5-2 Carabao Cup defeat at Manchester United and his impact as a substitute at Ipswich Town on November 2, where he played a key role in Jordan Ayew’s added-time equaliser, convinced Cooper to give him his first league start of the season at Old Trafford on Sunday.
“He needs an opportunity,” Cooper said in his pre-match press conference. “We know he’s got some brilliant attributes with his athleticism and the way he can drive with the ball, and technically, he is good.
“You probably saw a lot of it in that build-up to the equaliser (at Ipswich) the other day of what he can offer with the ball.
“But he’s got some equally good attributes without the ball as well, so let’s hope we can harness that and shape it into having a positive effect for the team.”
Soumare, like all of his team-mates, didn’t show the best of his capabilities as Leicester were beaten again by Manchester United on Sunday. He did some neat work, having 82 touches and completing 61 of his 69 passes, and there was one burst from midfield in a first half-attack.
But with Soumare, there is always the sense that there should be even more output from him. He made two interceptions and two tackles, completed just one of two attempted dribbles, and made one key pass and won half of his six ground duels.
As we can see from his player dashboard below, Soumare mainly kept things short and safe in his own half, linking up with his two centre-backs and Harry Winks. He was the deepest of Leicester’s midfield three and didn’t manage a single touch in the final third.
Soumare has never been noted for his attacking prowess. He has scored just once and provided five assists in his career.
The challenge for Cooper is how to get the best out of Soumare, who is now 25 and coming towards the prime of his career. He is maturing and no longer a shy rookie.
Cooper believes he is more than a deep playmaking midfielder — like he was at Lille — more than a destroyer, and has the attributes to contribute all across the pitch.
“He’s a central midfield player and while some players like to sit deeper and others play further forward, I think he is a bit of an all-rounder,” Cooper says.
“I know at times through his career, he has been asked to do one or two of those things that I’ve just mentioned but I believe he can be a box-to-box midfield player. It is an old-fashioned term but it should never be lost. He can play anywhere in the midfield area and understand the role, and have a good impact in games.”
Cooper seems to believe in Soumare and he will get more opportunities after the international break. The question seems to be how much does Soumare believe in himself?
He has had opportunities in the past but has been unable to take them with consistent performances, and with just one more season left on his contract from next summer onwards, time is running out. Leicester will have to make a decision about his future this summer.
This could be the last chance for Soumare to show everyone what he is truly capable of.
(Top photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
