🥭Mango Talent Thread
Name: Khéphren Thuram
Club: OGC Nice
Khéphren Thuram-Ulien was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Thuram is of Guadeloupean descent through his father. Thuram is the son of the former France international footballer Lilian Thuram, and the younger brother of the professional footballer Marcus Thuram. Being born inside a football cultured family, Khéphren began his footballing journey at the age of 6 where he joined local club Olympique de Neuilly before moving to Boulogne-Billancourt in 2013. After standing out in local leagues, Khéphren was signed by French giants, AS Monaco in 2016. After playing for AS Monaco B, Thuram made his professional debut in 2018, at the age of 17. After only one season with Monaco, Khéphren joined their local Derby de la Côte d'Azur rivals OGC Nice, heading straight to their first team, Thurham came on to score the winner in a 2-1 victory for his new club, instantly putting himself in the limelight. Khéphren represented France from U16 onwards but is yet to play for their senior side, making him eligible for both France and Italy.
Style of Play:
At a staggering 6'4ft, Khéphren's presence can't go unnoticed as he stands out above most players on the field. Khéphren excels in his defensive duties, ball-carrying & retention. Khéphren is big, strong, physical, athletic and brilliant in possession, a true diamond, right?
Khéphren is operating as a deep-lying playmarker at OGC Nice and one thing that strikes out the most is his ability to progress the ball up-field. You'll often see Khéphren drop deep to receive possession and drive between the lines, elegantly. His size, Khéphren has remarkable balance and agile. Capable of shifting left or right, exploding through the lines, Khéphren glides around the field and using his long strides he's capable of eating the ground up effortlessly. Rather than using sets of skills, Khéphren will power through the lines using his physicality and long reach to progress up field. This is incredible trait to hold as it transforms simple possession into a dangerous threat for the opposition. What I find most intriguing, Khéphren will not look to over indulge in his runs, he understands his limits and releases the ball in the right areas at the right time. He'll often be the player to assist the assister, once he reaches the final third he'll pop the ball off without over complicating things and allow other more delicate players to work their magic.
Stunningly Khéphren ranks inside the Top10 for successful ball carriers per game with an average of 3.5, that's outstanding for a young footballer. He's brave, confident and shows a true level of maturity. Aesthetically pleasant on the eye, Khéphren is wonderful when full flight. He dribbles at speed, taking less touches but more bigger rangy touches to enable him to hit full flow with his longer strides. Khéphren is equally impressive in his passing abilities, often looking to drop deep to receive possession Khéphren bring a sense of calmness to his team. He remains incredibly composed and confident, often slowing the game down and dictating the tempo. Khéphren is exquisite as recycling possession, little give and goes with teammates to find themselves beyond the pressing lines but additionally, he capable of keeping possession, transiting the ball from left to right in attempt to dismantle the opponents shape. He's intelligent and capable of understanding when to move the ball forwards or when to play safely, when Khéphren receives a pass he likes to allow the ball roll across his body rather than taking a touch out his feet. This is vastly useful to him as it allows him to open up his vision to see the whole picture of play which brings out his outstanding natural balance and agility. He’ll keep the ball moving for the team, allowing the team to set traps expose the opposition.
Has a very high work volume and positionally astute, but it’s his ability on the ball that stands out, he’s breathtakingly solid in possession very rarely allowing turnovers whilst he’s a Opponents nightmare, having the intelligence and ability to turnover the ball & gain possession for his team. Averaging an implausible 50 passes per game with a success rate of over 90%, Khéphren is extremely difficult to disposes or overcome. He's very good at keeping his body maintained between the ball and challenge, almost making it impossible to tackle without giving away a foul. Khéphren ability to linkup with teammates is one of his many outstanding attributes, constantly moving and creating angels for teammates, he is always an option. Khéphren is very acute at finding space, despite being one of the tallest on the field, he can ghost into areas expectedly to gain possession of the football. What's excessively impressive is most his passes have come in the opposition half, despite being a deep-lying playmaker. Which highlights his ability to superiority drive his team up field which eliminating opponents, before making a smart decisive decision. Making over 20 passes in the opposition half with a success rate of 85%, below 20 in his own half with a success rate of 96%. Although the latter has a better success rate, it because he's able to play safer passes.
For all his on-ball prowess, Khéphren is a defensive midfielder too. He's extremely athletic with remarkable physicality, he has long limbs and uses this to his advantage. For what he lacks in pace and acceleration he definitely makes up for in his reach and being aggressive and tenacious in tackle. Averaging 2.8 duels per game with a success rate of over 50% he's extremely difficult to manoeuvre around. Positioning his body lowered when in 1v1 duels preparing himself to adjust if necessary, he's very good at stepping himself between the ball and runner, standing his ground and easing the opponent away. His long reach also allows him to poke the ball away and possibly to a teammate is someone is open. Although I do feel his positional play could improve, due to his long strides Khéphren is very good at closing down the runner or half spaces. His timing is impeccable and is robust when engaging. Although, I would love to see him improve his heading side of the game I do feel he holds everything to do so and it will arrive within time.
There's no surprise to see many clubs keeping track on Khéphren Thuram because he holds everything you want in a midfielder.
Wonderful talent!