BARCELONA, July 28. (EUROPEAN PRESS) –
FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC have reached an agreement in principle for the transfer of the French central defender Jules Koundé to the Barça team, pending the signing of the contracts and the player passing the medical check-up, the ‘culé’ club confirmed this Thursday .
Koundé arrived in Nervión in the summer of 2019 from Girondins de Bordeaux for 25 million euros, the most expensive signing in the history of the andazul club up to that time. At 20 years old, in the Seville team he quickly justified the price of his transfer and made a hole for himself in Julen Lopetegui’s eleven.
The French central defender has played a total of 133 games with the Sevilla shirt, divided into 95 in LaLiga Santander, 13 in the Europa League, 12 in the Champions League, 12 in the Copa del Rey and one in the European Super Cup , managing to lift the Europa League.
His good performance led him to be called up with France for the European Championship that was played last summer. He made his debut with the ‘bleus’ in the friendly matches in preparation for the continental tournament. In October, he was also part of the team that lifted the UEFA Nations League after beating Spain in the final. This was the first international win for the French centre-back.
FC Barcelona highlighted the player’s strengths. “The French central defender, who can also play as a winger, is very difficult to beat one-on-one and is comfortable defending far from his goal, since he relies a lot on his speed to run backwards,” he pointed out. .
“In addition, and despite his 178 centimeters, Koundé is a true aerial specialist. His impressive jumping ability means that height is not a problem when playing aerial balls,” he said.