The Shortlist: Malick Junior Yalcouyé
A dribbly, tackly, box-to-box energiser for your shortlists.
This is The Shortlist — the quick, digestible way to get to know football’s hottest property, as told by the scouts who’ve watched them.
Llew Davies is the Scouting Editor at SCOUTED. He is the author of a database of player notes that has a word count roughly equivalent to the contents of London Library.
Hey, Llew. Throw a name at me for The Shortlist.
Malick Junior Yalcouyé, there’s one. He’s a Malian box-to-box midfielder who plays for IFK Göteborg in Sweden.
Quick links: Malick Yalcouyé
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Introduce me to him. Why should people be excited?
People should be excited because he’s the latest in a fairly long line of African talent emerging through Scandinavian football. He’s broken into Swedish football in a pretty big way since he moved there at the start of this year; he moved in late February, early March from ASEC Mimosas, an esteemed academy in Côte d’Ivoire. He joined Göteborg in the Allsvenkan and he’s starting games already, he’s impacting games already and he’s catching the eye of the general viewer and bigger clubs alike. He’s the next big thing coming out of Africa via Sweden.
What’s it like to watch him play?
Quite a lot of fun. He’s high energy, very active, he moves around a lot in midfield on both sides of the ball. He’s a very prolific ball-winner, he’s a very prolific dribbler, and when you combine those two things you’ve got an interesting profile straight away: it’s the kind of profile clubs are looking for, the kind they’ll get attracted to very quickly.
He hustles around the pitch; he’s not exceptionally fast but he’s nimble, sharp and does a lot of work on both sides of the ball.
In essence, he is a support midfielder — he can do pretty much whatever the situation needs. That could be making an angle in deeper phases, breaking into space beyond the ball, hitting the box with a late run, scurrying around to break up a developing attack. He does it all.
I like the details of his defending. His footwork is neat, he uses his body well despite weighing the same as a carrier bag, he reads play and in particular second ball situations well. He bloody loves to win a foul as well.
But yeah, fun. He has upside as a dribbler and carrier even if he does too much at the moment and there’s promising signs of him being a quick line-breaking passer, the type that connects things quickly. It’s the potential.
+ all-round mobility
+ active and smart defender
+ upsides as a progressor
- weak in contact
- no presence in the air
Can you make a contemporary comparison?
I can think of one but it’s a bit obscure. So.
Go on.
He’s similar to Alhassan Yusuf.
For god’s sake.
I know. But I profiled him in the Handbook before, and he came through the same kind of pathway, from Nigeria to Göteborg, and now he’s at Royal Antwerp. Similar kind of skillset.
Come on, make a basic comparison to someone people will know. It’s not that hard. Just say Moisés Caicedo.
Not Moisés Caicedo. Honestly, it’s hard to pick one because his physique is so small and slight. Maybe Mohamed Camara, another Mali midfield. But I want to stick with Alhassan Yusuf, a more talented version of Yusuf.
What’s his career been like so far?
He came through the ASEC Mimosas academy, which as I said before is an esteemed academy in West Africa. A lot of players have graduated from there - a recent notable example being Karim Konaté at Red Bull Salzburg. Yalcouyé was born to an Ivorian mother and a Malian father, and he’s chosen to represent Mali at international level as far as the internet knows.
He’s come up really quickly - it’s only in the past year that he’s been introduced to senior football. He played a couple of times for ASEC Mimosas and moved to Sweden at the start of this year. Ever since then - I think he was listed, or expected to have a youth team role this season, but he broke through during their pre-season and kicked on. He’s starting every game now, impacting games and is a standout prospect in the Allsvenkan already.
You touched on it a bit there, but what’s his career like right now?
He’s starting every game, he’s scoring a couple of goals, he’s doing a lot of eye-catching stuff on the pitch. He’s already been linked to clubs in Belgium, which isn’t surprising, and Liverpool, which is. How substantial those links are I don’t know, but he is the kind of player clubs like that are looking for.
What’s the immediate future like for him?
He probably moves on from Sweden this summer, if not then definitely by next January. As I said, he’s the type of profile that clubs will wanna get in early on — if he hits his straps then he’ll be a high-level, coveted player and the fee will be much larger.
Clubs in Belgium, the Netherlands, possibly Italy will want to make sure they receive that fee. I expect he probably gets flipped this summer for a club-record fee at least, and it will probably be to a Belgian club. But I’m guessing.
Often, I think, people turn their noses up at the idea of a player raised in Scandi football jumping to the biggest competitions - I remember some snobbery about Ibrahim Osman when he was linked with West Ham United (but then it made perfect sense when he went to Brighton - funny, that).
What are clubs seeing in these players that makes them think, yeah, he could make a huge step up?
The giant signpost with Yalcouyé and others like him that come from Africa to Scandinavia is his ability to come in from African football and immediately make an impact in European football. I think that, especially at such a young age - he’s only eighteen - to make that jump, to stick the landing and make a running start, is really impressive. It’s the type of thing that makes you think ‘wow, if he can do that then he can make the next jump, and the next.’
In terms of skillset, it’s the high-activity, all-action, lots of energy, all over the pitch thing.
So it’s physical?
Partly. He’s not the biggest, he’s very slight - but he has that burst of energy, those rangy legs which can cover space really quickly. He also has loads of room to fill into his frame, which clubs will look at when projecting how far he can go. There’s a lot of potential for him to become stronger, much more sturdy. He’s doing really good stuff now, without having that extra layer of physicality which will come with time. That’s why he’s so exciting.
Imagine Yalcouyé reaches his final form. If I locked you in a glass box and wouldn’t let you out until you’d recommended him to a top club, which club would it be?
Urrrhhm. I could definitely see him at a club like Monaco. That sort of, ‘not quite perennial Champions League’ level, but among those that are competing for the Europa League or Champions League group stages. In terms of ceiling, I can see him being a Champions League regular, although an elite club might be beyond him.
Sensible move: a good club in Belgium, obviously
Top transfer: a semi-consistent CL/EL club like Monaco
So not Liverpool.
Maybe not as a starter, certainly not within a year. Perhaps as someone who can come in for a season or two after a bit of development and be flipped on, maybe.
Earlier I asked ChatGPT to recommend me a left-back for Arsenal as a joke, and it somehow came up with Ryan Gravenberch. So you’re saying Yalcouyé could reach the heights of esteemed left-back Ryan Gravenberch?
I guess. That sort of level, probably. Why not.
THE SHORTLIST 2024
Two names are now on The Shortlist! An entire two names. They are:
MIDFIELDERS
…and this guy, Malick Yalcouyé. Now that’s what I call a Short List.
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