Dan-Axel Zagadou is the best defender you've never seen
If you tuned into the Bundesliga or the Champions League in early December 2020, you may have caught a rare glimpse of a phenomenal young talent.
Dan-Axel Zagadou is a left-sided defender for Borussia Dortmund. He's a 21-year-old smarterscout young prospect. He's a former Paris Saint-Germain prospect and France U21 international who towers over attackers at 1.96m. Though he has recently played LCB in a back three, he made his debut for Dortmund more than three years ago as their starting LB at the beginning of the 2017-18 season. And he's already torn two knee ligaments and two muscles in his brief senior career.
Zagadou has played only about 3,000' in four seasons at Dortmund. But if he can finally stay healthy – and there are no guarantees he will – then he still has a long and illustrious career ahead of him. And why not? Look at how well he started at LB, aged just 18:
It's a small sample, but those are numbers that a peak-age Champions League LB would be proud of. In the summer of 2018, Dortmund brought in Abdou Diallo from Mainz and Achraf Hakimi on loan from Real Madrid – two more players capable of operating on the left. So in 2018-19 Zagadou ended up sharing minutes with Diallo at LCB, when his knee and foot problems didn't keep him off the pitch.
Zagadou was good enough at LCB in 2018-19 to be flagged as a smarterscout young prospect. In the following season, he improved in every area except his attacking:
At age 20, Zagadou already had admirable skill in duels – he was excellent in the air and outstanding as a tackler – plus the overall game of a much more experienced player. In fact, very few players under age 25 have had a similar style at LCB in Europe's top five leagues across the five seasons in our database. One who did was Alessio Romagnoli, the Milan captain and Italy international, who started the 2018-19 season at age 23. Here's a comparison of Zagadou's performance last season with Romagnoli's in 2018-19 and 2019-20:
Both players had the most emphasis on link-up passing and ball recoveries, with great skill in the air and high ball retention. In 2019-20, Romagnoli's game became more rounded, and we might expect to see the same from Zagadou. The Frenchman may have scope to add more dribbling to his touches, since he has sometimes shown an ability to drive forward from behind midfield. The brown markers on his smartermap denote dribbles mixed in with passes:
Given Zagadou's talent and potential, it's no surprise to hear his name linked with the world's wealthiest clubs. This season could be a breakout for him if he can stay on the pitch. As it happens, Dortmund have experience with oft-injured defenders. Neven Subotic was with them for almost a decade and had several seasons cut short by various orthopedic problems. Now is their chance to show that they can use their staff and facilities to protect a precocious talent, as well as helping him to learn how to protect himself.
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[Photo: Reto Stauffer]
