Leeds’s goalkeeper was once regarded as so outrageously good that France fans joked about Hugo Lloris supposedly seeking inspiration by sleeping in Illan Meslier pyjamas. Rewind the clock to the summer of 2020 and the 20-year-old Meslier had not only just helped Leeds win promotion to the Premier League but was about to play a pivotal part in securing a ninth-placed finish.
For quite a while the 6ft 6in Breton seemed a shoo-in to succeed Lloris as his country’s first-choice keeper. Decent judges likened him to Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois and Italy’s Gianluigi Donnarumma. “It was a very good and important time in my life,” Meslier says as he prepares to start against Southampton in Sunday’s Championship playoff final.
