Throughout his career Kalidou Koulibaly has had to learn to be patient. Rejected by Metz at 15 for being “too introverted”, in the words of the club’s academy head Denis Schaeffer, the towering defender who grew up in northeastern France to Senegalese parents spent two years playing amateur football for Saint-Dié before finally being invited back to Metz.
More than a decade on and having arrived at Chelsea last month for £33.8m after eight years with Napoli where he established himself as one of the world’s best defenders, Koulibaly certainly couldn’t be accused of being an introvert these days.
