Zaydou Youssouf is a 24-year-old central midfielder who plays for FC Famalicão in the Liga Portugal. The French midfielder with Comoran roots enjoyed his youth academy at Girondins de Bordeaux and played plenty of first-team football there before joining Saint-Étienne for €2m. He joined FC Famalicão in the summer of 2022 after Saint-Étienne got relegated to Ligue 2.
Standing at 1.82m with strong legs and an average upper body build, Zaydou Youssouf has a very interesting frame for a player of his role. The French midfielder generates a lot of power from his legs in both ground and aerial duels, being very dominant in defensive duels. Zaydou Youssouf also uses this strength to protect the ball. The midfielder is quite quick on the first meters and is quick over long distances. He is very mobile and is always in full control of his body, displaying good footwork in tight spaces. Zaydou Youssouf has relatively quick directional changes and is quite agile. He has outstanding stamina and a good work-rate.
The left-footed midfielder has good technique and is very comfortable on the ball. Zaydou Youssouf never blindly clears the ball and always tries to find the footballing solution under pressure. He has good close control in tight spaces and dares to take on opponents in first-phase possession, especially in an open game against the top sides in Portugal. The midfielder’s mix of speed, close control and physical strength makes it hard to push him off the ball when he is carrying the ball into the midfield. Playing against opponents who deploy a low-block, Zaydou Youssouf could be a bit more aggressive and demanding on the ball.
Often playing as one of the three central defenders in first-phase possession, Zaydou Youssouf likes to play long, diagonal passes towards the wingers. He has mixed results from these passes and seems to be more consistent with his long passing in transition rather than from sustained possession. His passing technique over short and long distances is quite clean, though. The Frenchman has a decent first touch and is capable of playing one-touch football under pressure. He makes good supporting runs to link the midfield to the attack. Zaydou Youssouf has very nice ball-striking from distance and can create danger with in-swinging crosses from deep in the right half-space.
Defensively, he likes to overwhelm opponents with his aggressive pressing, using his physical ability to dominate opponents in defensive duels and recover possession in midfield. He recovers possession very often, timing his interceptions quite well and gaining a lot of meters with his great ball-carrying after intercepting a pass. Zaydou Youssouf covers runs in behind well and uses his hands smartly to block opponents. He can sometimes get caught out of position after pressing his opponent but generally displays good defensive positioning.
Zaydou Youssouf is one of the most exciting players to watch in Portugal. His mix of great ball-carrying and dribbling, good timing in defence and stamina makes him a very good box-to-box midfielder who can play at a higher level. I think he should go to a Europa League side in Ligue 1, but he could also be of great use for the likes of FC Porto, Sporting CP, Benfica, Feyenoord, PSV and Ajax. I think he could become a mid-table Premier League player in the future.
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