Coming out of your safe haven to find the next big talent in football could sometimes be very trickish. The history of the game is scattered with brutal superstars who were destined to be generational talents, only to carelessly fizzle out.
Sometimes it all pans out to indiscipline, however, sometimes a relatively unknown player explodes out of the blues, in a dramatic way no-one could have foretell.
The infallible example of this is Sporting CP's Abdul Fatawu Issahaku, who was practically an entirely unknown African prospect - bar to a meager member of the scouting fraternity.
Of course one thing that can elevate players like Issahaku in rapid time is a World Cup, whereas nobody thought he could rise so fast to break into Ghana's 26-man squad for the mundial.
ABDUL FATAWU ISSAHAKU - FW (SPORTING CP / GHANA)
At the age of 18-years-old, Issahaku has been described as the greatest African prospect of his generation, as a 17-year-old, he played every game in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for Ghana earlier this year in Cameroon.
Issahaku is not a guaranteed starter, but whether he starts or climbs off the bench for Ghana at the World Cup, he will be a key player for Otto Addo.
The standout trait of the promising wing-back is his willingness to track-back. It is admirable how often you see him helping his wing-back or wide centre-back.
At club level, his side Sporting play a 3-4-3 - system and he's the main man who does most of the dirty work. Simply read again, that is something that you just don’t see from every young attacking player - as he expertly plays the right-wing, where he can cut inside onto his left foot and constantly be a nightmare to stubborn slashing defenders.
Issahaku is very skillful, but still very raw. In fact, he is one of the two rawest players on Otto Addo's 26-man pick. Although the main areas he needs to work on is in front of goal, in all his delivery is pretty good and second-to-none, considering his age and the years ahead of him to be the next big thing in world football.
Issahaku, who is currently under five-year contract at Sporting, with a release clause of €60 million (GH₵900,588,384.60) was snapped up from Tamale-based Steadfast FC in April this year. He still has a long way to go but Sporting, obviously, have a great track record with development of untapped talents, so it heralds well.
ISMAEL KONE - MID (MONTREAL / CAN)
For those football fans familiar with MLS, this will not be a relatively new name. But, well, a lot of people have never heard about CF Montreal's poster boy - Ismael Kone.
The son of immigrant parents in Canada, Kone was born in Cote d’Ivoire and came to Canada with his mother when he was 7-years-old, while his father remained in Cote d’Ivoire. For Kone’s entire time in Canada, he has lived alone with his mother.
“My mom is my best friend,” said Kone. “She is all I have. We have been through a lot of situations together. She left everything to come here to give me a better chance at life.”
Kone, 20, had to convince his mother to allow him go professional and that decision has more than paid off for the lad. This year (February) he made his debut for CF Montreal’s first team, scored his first MLS goal, netted a crucial playoff goal to become the fourth-youngest player to score a game-winning goal in the playoffs as Montreal saw off Orlando City and went ahead to make his debut for the Canadian men’s national team.
Kone is discipline, smart, far quicker, has good pace, good positioning awareness, good long-range shooting, has all the attributes of a modern box-to-box midfielder always on the move and discharges his duties expertly in his central midfield position and can even play as a winger when needed - at such a young age, his ability to weave in and out of defenders makes him the natural heir to Canada’s midfield - which has teams in multiple European countries inquiring almost daily about his services.
In John Herdman’s 4-4-2, Kone will be fighting for one of those two central midfield spots, but, undoubtedly, it seems skipper Atiba Hutchinson and Samuel Piette are hooked in. But Kone will be first reserve for those midfield spots and will be confident of making an impact steadily when he comes on.
A game-breaking World Cup performance for Kone can remind scouts of how he's able to adapt to heightened expectations of him as he was very close to joining EFL Championship side - Sheffield United on deadline day and the Blades are expected to go back with an improved deal for him as the MLS window re-opens in the next couple of months. Yours truly - Pascal Amoah of your number-one factual portal Kickgh.com has picked up hints that Kone is garnering a lot of interest from Bundesliga clubs and are looking to sign him.
By: Pascal Nii Gogo Amoah
Follow me on Twitter: @NiiAmoah
