Kurt Zouma

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kurt Zouma
Chelsea 1 Everton 0 (15888380654) .jpg
Kurt Zouma (2015)
Personnel
Surname Kurt Happy Zouma
birthday October 27, 1994
place of birth Lyon ,  France
size 187 cm
position Central defense
Juniors
Years station
2003-2009 Vaulx-en-Velin
2009-2011 AS Saint-Etienne
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
2010-2013 AS Saint-Étienne II 10 (2)
2011-2014 AS Saint-Etienne 63 (4)
2014– Chelsea FC 73 (1)
2016 Chelsea FC U23 3 (0)
2017-2018 →  Stoke City  (loan) 34 (1)
2018-2019 →  Everton FC  (loan) 32 (2)
National team
Years selection Games (goals) 2
2009-2010 France U16 6 (0)
2010-2011 France U17 17 (1)
2012 France U19 1 (0)
2013 France U20 9 (1)
2013– France U21 7 (1)
2015– France 5 (1)
1 Only league games are given.
As of March 14, 2020

2 As of December 11, 2019

Zouma as a player for AS Saint-Étienne (2011)

Kurt Happy Zouma (born October 27, 1994 in Lyon ) is a French football player . The defender is under contract with Chelsea and plays for the French national team .

Career

societies

Kurt Zouma began his youth career in 2003 in Vaulx-en-Velin , where he remained active until 2009 when he was brought to AS Saint-Étienne at the age of 15. He made his professional debut in August 2011 at the age of only 16 in a cup game against Girondins Bordeaux . As a result, the young talent was also used more often in Ligue 1 , both as a right-back and as a central defender . During the 2011/12 season he played a total of 22 times and scored two goals. At the same time he also played for the fourth-rate second team of his club, for which he had already been active in the 2010/11 season.

In February 2013, the club extended his contract until the end of the 2016/17 season. In the 2012/13 season, the team won the French League Cup . Zouma completed a total of 22 competitive games for his club during the season, in which he scored two goals.

In the summer transfer phase, some large European clubs, including VfL Wolfsburg, were interested in the defensive talent. The club management did not let him go to Borussia Dortmund after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's departure . The 2013/14 season began with the elimination in the Europa League qualification against Esbjerg fB . Thus, Zouma's first appearance on an international level ended before moving into the main field.

On November 2, 2013, his opponent Thomas Guerbert from FC Sochaux was seriously injured after a foul by Zoumas. The Ligue 1 disciplinary committee then banned him for ten games.

On January 31, after long-running rumors, Zouma signed a contract until June 30, 2019 with the English top club Chelsea . The transfer fee is said to have been eleven million pounds. Until the end of the 2013/14 season, however, he continued to play for Saint-Étienne, who loaned him for half a year.

In the summer, Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho decided against a renewed loan and added Zouma to the squad for the 2014/15 season. While he did not get past regular players Gary Cahill and John Terry in the league , he made his debut in the League Cup against Bolton Wanderers on September 24, 2014 , when he also scored his first goal for the Londoners. In the Champions League he was used for the first time on October 21 against NK Maribor , before his first brief appearance in the league a few days later.

In the 2015/16 season Zouma earned a regular place at Chelsea. On February 7, 2016, the central defender tore a cruciate ligament in the league game against Manchester United without any outside influence and was out for the rest of the season.

At the beginning of the 2017/18 season, Zouma was loaned to Stoke City and at the same time extended his contract term with Chelsea FC until 2023. On August 10, 2018, he switched to Everton on loan for the 2018/19 Premier League season . There he established himself as a regular player and completed 32 Premier League games (29 of them from the start).

For the season 2019/20 returned Zouma to Chelsea back.

National team

Zouma played in various youth national teams in France, from 2009 to 2010 he played for the U-16s, from 2010 to 2011 for the U-17s and in 2012 he played for the U-19s . The defender took part in both the U-17 European Championship and the U-17 World Cup in 2011 .

In the summer of 2013 he was part of the French squad at the U-20 World Cup in Turkey, which his country won. Since qualifying for the 2015 European Championship , he has been a member of the U-21 team. On October 11, 2013, he sat on the bench for the first time in a game of the French national team. Coach Didier Deschamps' team won the game against Australia 6-0 without Zouma being used. He made his debut on March 29, 2015 in a 2-0 friendly win against Denmark. Zouma could not be nominated for the 2016 European Championships in his own country because he suffered from a cruciate ligament rupture for nine months in February 2016.

After he was not nominated for the 2018 World Cup in Russia because he had too much competition alongside the central defenders Raphäel Varane , Samuel Umtiti , Presnel Kimpembe and Adil Rami , he then celebrated after three and a half years on October 11, 2018 at 2: 2 draw against Iceland, his comeback as a substitute. Zouma scored his first international goal on June 11, 2019 against Andorra, in the qualifier for the Euro 2020.

Player type

Even if Zouma can play as a right-back, he is best known as a center-back. He benefits enormously from his physical strength, which results from a height of 1.87 m and a weight of 85 kg. He was also considered one of the fastest central defenders in France during his time in Ligue 1. Furthermore, he is a good development player and has a high accuracy of fit. With standards he also radiates goal danger thanks to his headball strength.

On the other hand, he is repeatedly said to have mental weaknesses. He tends to make slight mistakes that he makes due to poor concentration. In addition, his positional play could be expanded.

Private life

Zouma's parents immigrated to France from the Central African Republic . His brother Lionel , who is about a year older, is also a professional and plays for FC Bourg-Péronnas . Kurt Zouma is named after the fictional character Kurt Sloane, Jean-Claude Van Damme's role in the 1989 film Kickboxer , while his middle name Happy reflects an African tradition of using positive words as a middle name . He is married to Sandra and has two children. Zouma is also a practicing Muslim and made a pilgrimage to Mecca .

successes

Web links

Commons : Kurt Zouma  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Saint-Etienne: Zouma extended. In: transfermarkt.de . February 5, 2013, accessed July 23, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Hiete: Rejection to Allofs: Zouma is not a wolf. In: Kicker online . October 21, 2013, accessed October 21, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Alice Jo Tietje: After a broken shin with the opponent: Etiennes Kurt Zouma blocked for ten games. In: Goal.com . November 8, 2013, accessed July 23, 2014 .
  4. ↑ a b Kurt ZOUMA. (PDF) In: French Football Weekly “Le50: 2014”. P. 55 , accessed on July 23, 2014 (English).
  5. ↑ Zouma Signs. In: chelseafc.com. January 31, 2014, archived from the original on February 27, 2014 ; accessed on July 23, 2014 (English).
  6. ↑ telegraph.co.uk: Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma operated on in Barcelona - by the man who fixed Thibaut Courtois (Feb. 10, 2016)
  7. ↑ New six-year contract and loan to Stoke for Zouma . ( transfermarkt.de [accessed on July 21, 2017]).
  8. ↑ Zouma Lianed to Everton on the Chelsea FC website, accessed August 11, 2018
  9. ↑ Kurt Zouma - Injury History. Retrieved April 12, 2019 .
  10. ↑ World Cup 2018: 5 Premier League stars dropped by France. May 18, 2018, accessed April 12, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Sami Faizullah: Kurt Zouma: Scout Report. In: OutsideoftheBoot.com. May 2, 2013, accessed February 18, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Tim Simon: Everything you need to know about ... Kurt Zouma. In: FourFourTwo.com . November 13, 2013, accessed February 18, 2014 .
  13. ↑ David Pasztor: Zouma talks faith, family, Chelsea. December 4, 2015, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Paul Pogba in Mecca! Accessed June 11, 2019 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Zouma, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zouma, Kurt Happy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1994
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon , France