UEFA Champions League: Geoffrey Kondogbia finds the light in Valencia

Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow

Back in top form after a few weeks disrupted by injuries, Geoffrey Kondogbia should be a major asset for FC Valencia against Atalanta Bergamo in the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League, Wednesday 19 February. With the club ché and in the Spanish Liga, the championship where it was revealed eight years ago, the Central African once again expresses its full potential.

Publicity

We would tend to forget him, because he was still only a teenager when he started with professionals, at RC Lens. And also because his career, made of ups and downs, has sent him to three championships and two different national selections. There is something to lose the thread a little. But Geoffrey Kondogbia, if he is no longer a young hope, is far from being a veteran since he is just 27 years old. He blew out his candles on February 15.

A few hours before his birthday, the midfielder gave himself a "gift" by scoring his first goal of the 2019-2020 season in La Liga with FC Valencia against Atlético de Madrid, allowing the Valencia club to obtain the point zero (2-2). The style was not very academic, but the ball ended up in the back of the net, and that is what is essential. A goal that reasons as a symbol of the revival of the Central African international.

"The Octopus" sinks the Barça ship and reigns in the middle

At the beginning of autumn, and especially at the beginning of winter, physical glitches came to parasitize the season of Geoffrey Kondogbia. In the space of two months, from the end of November to the end of January, the former French international (5 selections between 2013 and 2015, before he definitively opted for the selection of the Central African Republic) thus only played two bouts of La Liga matches and a King's Cup match, the time to settle his muscular problems.

See this post on Instagram

Bring it on KONDO 🔥. #Mestalla EN PIE K 👑 NGDOGBIA. #ValenciaAtleti 🖤 ♦ ️ #ValenciaCF #AmuntValencia

A publication shared by Valencia CF 🦇💯 (@valenciacf) on Feb. 14. 2020 at 1:22 PST

For his return to the starting lineup of FC Valence in the league on January 25, the midfielder was strong. He played the entire match won by the Murcielagos against FC Barcelona (2-0). It had been 13 years since Valencia had not beaten the Blaugranas in their la Liga lair of Mestalla. For 90 minutes, Geoffrey Kondogbia muzzled the Catalan attack, Lionel Messi at the head.

It's simple: he recovered 11 balls against Barça, the match record, and he managed 32 assists. His trainer, Albert Celades, praised this great performance: “ Kondogbia is a very high level player. His predecessor as coach, Marcelino, was even more complimentary two years ago when he said that the native of Nemours in the Paris region was " better than Paul Pogba ".

And the socios of Valence? Since the ex-Monegasque arrived in the summer of 2017, they have nicknamed him "El Pulpo", which means "La Pieuvre", for its slaughter and its ability to recover balloons. The recent Central African outings plead in his favor; against Atlético, Geoffrey Kondogbia was even stronger than against Barça with 12 recoveries and 65 assists.

Relaunched, ambitious and simply happy

The excellent performance of the midfielder and his recovery are timely for FC Valencia, who have a meeting with Atalanta Bergamo in Italy Wednesday, February 19. Valencia fans have had an upset history with the Champions League in recent years. Their club has not passed the knockout stages since 2007. In Valencia, we count on Geoffrey Kondogbia to help eliminate this surprising Atalanta team. Little more for the ex-Blue: the match will take place in a stadium he knows well.

The Atalanta stadium, the Atleti Azzurri d'Italia stadium, not being approved for the Champions League, the Bergamasques must play their European matches "at home" at the Giuseppe-Meazza stadium, shared by AC Milan and the previous Kondogbia club, Inter Milan. After Lens, Seville and Monaco, the midfielder tried the nerazzurri experience from 2015 to 2017. It was not a great success. It was even at this time that Geoffrey Kondogbia left the radars somewhat and saw the train of the French team continue its route without him. His salvation went through a loan start and a return to La Liga, at FC Valence, which took the gamble to revive it.

🎂 Happy birthday 🦇 Geoffrey Kondogbia 🦇! 🎈

🧡 @ valenciacf_en 🧡 # LaLigaSantander pic.twitter.com/G9hQvHS8hh

In Spain, in the championship where he had revealed himself a few years earlier with Sevilla FC (2012-2013), "El Pulpo" got back on track and became a strong link in his team, where he is playing his third season. It was a record-breaking stability for him, who had never played more than two consecutive seasons in the same club. In 2018, Valence executives transformed its loan into a final purchase, accompanied by a release clause of 80 million euros.

Last October, Geoffrey Kondogbia confided on the FC Valence site: “ I feel really good here, on and off the field. The city is great, the people even more. When I am on the street, they transmit affection to me, it is priceless . (...) I am 26 years old (recently 27 years old, note) and I have played in several teams. If this is my third season here, it means it counts. It's because I feel really good here. Happy in Valencia, delighted to represent the Central African Republic, Geoffrey Kondogbia enjoys his "dulce vida" (sweet life).

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Download the app

• Sports
• Soccer
• UEFA Champions League