Barça and Sevilla have reached an agreement in principle for the transfer of the French centre-back Jules Kounde to the Blaugrana team, pending the signing of contracts and that the player passed the Medical checkas confirmed by the ‘culé’ club this Thursday.
Koundé arrived in Seville in the summer of 2019 from Girondins de Bordeaux for 25 million euros, the most expensive addition to the Andalusian club up to that point. At the age of 20, he quickly justified his transfer fee and made a permanent place in Julen Lopetegui’s eleven.
The French centre-back has played a total of 133 games with the Sevilla shirt, divided into 95 in the League, 13 in the Europa League, 12 in the Champions League, 12 in the Copa del Rey and 1 in the European Super Cup, managing to lift the Europa League in the 2019/2020 season.
His good performance led him to be summoned with the french selection for the European Championship that took place last summer. He made his debut with the ‘blues’ in the friendly games in preparation for the continental tournament. In October he was also part of the team that raised the UEFA Nations League after beating Spain in the final. This was the center’s first international triumph.
Barça highlighted the player’s strengths. “The French centre-back, who can also play as a full-back, is very difficult to overcome in one-on-one situations and is comfortable defending away from his goal, as he relies a lot on his speed to run back,” he pointed out.
“In addition, and despite his 178 centimeters, Koundé is a real one aerial game specialist. His impressive ability to jump means that height is not a problem for contesting aerial balls” he said.
Koundé becomes the sixth signing of the Catalan team this season, which adds to those of Paul Tower, Christensen, Kessie, Raphinha i Lewandowski.
