Malo Arthur Gusto (born 19 May 2003) is a French professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and the France national team.

Early life

Malo Arthur Gusto was born on 19 May 2003 in

Décines-Charpieu Décines-Charpieu (; frp, Dessines) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. The name of the city is often shortened and simply called Décines. Geography Décines is located near Grand Large res ...

, a commune in the

Metropolis of Lyon The Metropolis of Lyon (french: Métropole de Lyon), also known as ("Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity located in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly elected metropolitan authority encompassing t ...

. Growing up in

Villefontaine Villefontaine () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Geography The Bourbre flows northwest through the northeastern part of the commune. Population Twin towns – sister cities Villefontaine is twinned with: * Kahl ...

, Isère, his father first made him play

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

, but the young Gusto soon chose to play association football, pursuing his dream to become a professional footballer while studying for a

baccalauréat technologique Within France, there are three main types of '' baccalauréat'' degrees: *the '' baccalauréat général'' (general baccalaureate); *the '' baccalauréat professionnel'' (professional baccalaureate); *the ''baccalauréat technologique'' (technologi ...

Club career

Lyon

Malo Gusto started playing at the ASVF, later joining

Bourgoin-Jallieu Bourgoin-Jallieu (; frp, Brégon) is a commune in the Isère department in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France. The city had 28,834 inhabitants in 2019 and lies 35 kilometres east-southeast of Lyon. It was formed by the merger of the ...

on a one-year spell, before entering the

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

as an under-14, in a move resembling the one of his elder academy fellow

Amine Gouiri Amine Ferid Gouiri (born 16 February 2000) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ligue 1 club Rennes. Club career Lyon A player of Lyon starting in 2013, Gouiri signed his first professional contract with the club on 3 J ...

. Gusto so happened to arrive in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

the same year that the club moved to the Stade des Lumières, in his home town. There he was part of the same generation as

Florent da Silva Florent Sanchez Da Silva (born 2 April 2003) is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Belgian Pro League club RWD Molenbeek, on loan from club Lyon. Club career Sanchez Da Silva arrived in the Lyon academy in 2010 fr ...

Yaya Soumaré Yahya Soumaré (born 23 June 2000) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Orléans. Early life Born in Vénissieux, a town in the Lyon Metropolis, Soumaré first played with ASM Vénissieux before joining Lyon i ...

and

Rayan Cherki Mathis Rayan Cherki (; ar, رايان شرقي; born 17 August 2003) is a French professional footballer who plays as attacking midfielder for Ligue 1 club Lyon. Early life Cherki was born on 17 August 2003 in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyo ...

, eventually signing his first professional contract with the French club in December 2021. At that point he had already made a few appearance on the team sheet for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

games under

Rudi Garcia Rudi José Garcia (; ; born 20 February 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Saudi Professional League club Al Nassr. Early life Rudi Garcia's father, José, was a Spanish expatriate who played ...

's management, whilst already having shown his talent in the Youth League and

National 2 National 2 might refer to: * Curriculum for Excellence, Scottish education * Championnat National 2 The Championnat National 2, commonly known as National 2 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur (CFA), is a football league competi ...

, with the

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

. Malo Gusto made his professional debut for

on the 24 January 2021, replacing Bruno Guimarães on the 90th minute of a 5–0

away win against their Derby du Rhône rivals of

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

. Having made another short Ligue 1 appearance at the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, the young defender signed a new contract with Lyon in June, tying him to the club until 2024. During the summer 2021 pre-

, as

Peter Bosz Peter Sylvester Bosz (, born 21 November 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. Playing career Club A midfielder, Bosz started his professional career played with Vitesse in 1981; after a loan season with then amate ...

had been named head coach by Juninho, Gusto soon appeared as one of Lyon most promising new prospects, along with the likes of

Castello Lukeba Castello Junior Lukeba (born 17 December 2002) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the France national team. Club career Lyon Having joined the Olympique Lyonnais Academy in 2011 ...

. Starting the 2021–22 season as the official replacement of France international

Léo Dubois Léo Michel Joseph Claude Dubois (; born 14 September 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir. Early life Dubois' father Jean-Pierre was born in Lebanon, and was adopted ...

– as several fullbacks were departing the club, including

Mattia De Sciglio Mattia De Sciglio (; born 20 October 1992) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Juventus and the Italy national team. He made his professional debut for Milan in 2011, after several seasons in the club's yo ...

, Melvin Bard and

Maxwel Cornet Gnaly Albert Maxwel Cornet (born 27 September 1996) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a winger and full-back for Premier League club West Ham United and the Ivory Coast national team. He has previously played in France for Me ...

– Gusto started his first game during Lyon's opening match against

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

on 7 August. By doing so he became the youngest defender to start a

game for OL since Samuel Umtiti. While still appearing to be behind Dubois in the right back hierarchy, Gusto still took the spotlight on several occasions under Bosz's direction, as he started games such as the 2–0

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

away win against Rangers or the 2–1

away loss against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Chelsea

On 29 January 2023, Chelsea confirmed the signing of Malo Gusto on a deal until 2030 for a fee reported to be £26.3m plus £4.45m in bonuses. He was loaned back to Lyon until the end of the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season. On 13 August, he made his debut for the club in a 1–1 draw against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in the Premier League.

International career

Born in France, Gusto is of Portuguese descent through his father, and Martiniquais descent through his mother. He is a youth international for France: he first played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for the under-16, but was later selected as a

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

with the U17 and U18. However, he did not play any official game with the later, as the

covid pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifi ...

did not allow most youth international encounters or competitions to go on as planned in 2020–2021. In September 2021, as the pandemic was slowing down, the young defender eventually gained his next French cap, this time playing with the under-19. He was called for a friendly tournament in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

, against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and the

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places *Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman *Michel Host ( ...

, along with his teammate

. There he started and played every minutes of all three games, even ending up wearing the captain's armband. However only a month later both he and Cherki were directly promoted to the under-21 team, by

Sylvain Ripoll Sylvain Ripoll (born 15 August 1971) is a French former football player and current manager who manages the French under-21 football team. Career As a player, Ripoll played with Stade Rennais, Le Mans and FC Lorient. On 25 May 2014, he was ...

. The two of them made their debut coming of the bench with the ''espoirs'' on the 8 October 2021, helping their team to an important 5–0 win against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in the

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

qualifying Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

. On 9 October 2023, Gusto received his first call-up to the France national team for matches against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, replacing the injured

Jules Koundé Jules Olivier Koundé (born 12 November 1998) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back or right-back for La Liga club FC Barcelona, Barcelona and the France national football team, France national team ...

Style of play

Gusto is seen as an agile and offensively minded player, ever since playing eight-a-side football at Villefontaine, and he first played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

or a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. While he was at the Lyon academy he played in several different positions, including

wide midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

advanced playmaker A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, and

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He eventually settled as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, where he took full advantage of his speed and athleticism.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

Profile
at the Chelsea F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gusto, Malo 2003 births Living people People from Décines-Charpieu Footballers from Lyon Metropolis French men's footballers French people of Martiniquais descent French sportspeople of Portuguese descent Black French sportspeople Men's association football fullbacks FC Bourgoin-Jallieu players Olympique Lyonnais players Chelsea F.C. players Championnat National 2 players Ligue 1 players Premier League players France men's youth international footballers France men's under-21 international footballers France men's international footballers French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England French expatriate sportspeople in England