SCOUTED50 is our collection of the fifty young talents we believe are best positioned to break into the mainstream during 2023/24. Throughout the season, we’ll be detailing all fifty in definitive profiles.
The full list can be read here. This profile is on Leny Yoro, who came 17th.
This profile was produced as part of a commercial collaboration with SkillCorner, SCOUTED’s official data partner. SkillCorner’s tracking and performance data is used by more than 150 of the world’s biggest clubs, leagues and confederations. Learn more.
All stats correct as of 05/03/2024 unless otherwise noted.
France and centre-backs – name a better combination. It’s probably quite easy to, actually, but still, you get the point. When it comes to central defenders, it’s difficult to think of a nation that has a greater depth of quality and potential in that position than France.
I could rattle off a long list of names that backs up the point, but you know who William Saliba, Ibrahima Konaté and Dayot Upamecano are. Every year, season on season, another batch of impressive French centre-backs pops up – they could be in Ligue 1, maybe Ligue 2, or increasingly other leagues like the Bundesliga and Serie A. They’re all the rage.
You know who else is all the rage? Leny Yoro. He seems like everyone’s favourite player at the moment, and for good reason. His first full season of senior football at LOSC Lille is cementing his status as the next big centre-back talent.
Born in a southwestern suburb of Paris — are you reeeeeally a top French talent if you weren’t born and bred in a Parisian banlieue? — Yoro has been at LOSC since the age of 11, joining their academy system in 2017. From there, everything has moved upward and onward in a steady fashion.
If this season is his breakout, last season was his breakthrough. A 12-minute appearance in the penultimate game of the 2021/22 season blossomed into 901 minutes across 15 appearances the following campaign, with Yoro being the stand-in for old-timer José Fonte. His first start came in September, then a three-game starting stint in January made up the bulk of his minutes before that gave way to more sporadic starts in the final stint of the campaign.
That relatively gentle integration was the launchpad from which Yoro exploded this season. Inexplicably starting the first two games on the bench, an Alexsandro Ribeiro red card in the second game provided the then-17-year-old Yoro with the opportunity to snatch a starting spot – and he’s plucked it with both hands, stuffed it down his shirt, and run away with it.
His nine minutes off the bench in that game has turned into 90 minutes in all but one since, starting every game possible across Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and early-season UEFA Conference League qualifiers.
Seasons like this don’t go unnoticed. William Saliba went to Arsenal after his equivalent, Wesley Fofana was hot property before landing in Leicester, and now Yoro’s name will be at the very top of clubs’ shortlists.
Real Madrid have been credited with interest — very credible given their sign-all-the-wonderkids-because-who-will-stop-us strategy — as have Manchester United, who will be far more prominent in the ‘race’ to acquire the best emerging talents under new INEOS ownership.
Read on to find out why Yoro is such a coveted young centre-back…
In this profile…
The telescopic athleticism that defines his game
Yoro as a defender: the best bits and how he can improve
Analysing his composed qualities as a ball-player
A profile that is perfect for the ‘elite of the elite’
Where should go when he leaves Lille?
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