Wesley Tidjan Fofana (born 17 December 2000) 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 ...

who played as a centre-back 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 Fo ...

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 and personal life

Fofana was born in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. His father is Ivorian, whereas his mother is French. One of six children, he started playing football at the age of six playing for Repos Vitrolles. Fofana is Muslim. On 22 April 2021, he was substituted on the hour mark during Leicester's 3–0 win against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

, while Fofana was daytime fasting for the month-long Islamic Ramadan. In the next match against

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, the game was paused after the half-hour mark to allow Fofana and Cheikhou Kouyaté to have some fluids to break their Ramadan fast. Fofana showed his support for Palestine after winning the 2021 English FA Cup Final by waving a large Palestinian flag, along with fellow

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

teammate

Hamza Choudhury Hamza Dewan Choudhury (born 1 October 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for EFL Championship side Watford, on loan from Leicester City. He has made over 80 appearances for Leicester since 2017, and ...

, during their team celebrations that took place amidst the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian clashes in May 2021.

Club career

Saint-Étienne

Having been in the youth system since 2015, Fofana signed his first professional contract with Saint-Étienne on 15 May 2018. He made his debut for the club in a 3–0 league win over

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

on 18 May 2019.

Leicester City

Fofana joined English

club

on 2 October 2020, signing a five-year contract. The transfer fee paid to Saint-Étienne was reported as up to £36.5 million. On 15 May 2021, he played in the

2021 FA Cup Final The 2021 FA Cup Final was an association football match played between Chelsea and Leicester City at Wembley Stadium, London, England on 15 May 2021. Organised by the Football Association (FA), it was the 140th final of the Football Associa ...

, which Leicester won 1–0 for his first career honour in England. He and teammate

both celebrated draped in the flag of Palestine, during the

2021 Israel–Palestine crisis A major outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot ...

. On 21 May 2021, Fofana won Leicester City's Young Player of the Season award after being voted by the club's supporters. On 4 August 2021, during a pre-season friendly against

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

, Fofana suffered a broken leg following a challenge by Fer Niño. On 17 March 2022, Fofana played his first match since his injury, scoring in a 2–1 defeat to Stade Rennais in the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on thei ...

which secured Leicester's progress to the next round on a 3–2

aggregate score There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

Chelsea

On 31 August 2022, Fofana joined Premier League club

on a seven-year contract for a reported initial fee of £70 million, plus £5 million in add-ons. After signing for Chelsea, Fofana criticised his former club Leicester, accusing them of issuing "false and misleading comments" during his protracted transfer. On 3 September, he made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win at home against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

in the Premier League. He scored his first goal for Chelsea on 5 October in a Champions League 3–0 victory against

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

at Stamford Bridge, but suffered a major

knee injury In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the h ...

after 38 minutes, forcing him to be substituted off, and was ruled out until February. Fofana returned from injury on 18 February 2023, in a 0–1 home defeat against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. He scored his first ever Premier League goal against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

on 4 March, in a 1–0 home victory. On 18 July 2023, Chelsea revealed that Fofana had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury and had undergone a surgery.

International career

In March 2023, Fofana received his first call-up to the France senior national team for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament is an upcoming football competition that will be played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that will join the automatically qualified host team Germany in ...

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 the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

. However, he was forced to withdraw from the squad due to injury.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Saint-Étienne *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

runner-up: 2019–20 Leicester City *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

: 2020–21 Individual * IFFHS Men's World Youth (U20) Team: 2020

References

External links

Profile
at the Chelsea F.C. website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fofana, Wesley 2000 births Living people Footballers from Marseille French men's footballers Men's association football defenders AS Saint-Étienne players Leicester City F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Championnat National 3 players Championnat National 2 players Ligue 1 players Premier League players 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 French Muslims French sportspeople of Ivorian descent