Had Koscielny started in the Barcelona academy his performances
would have been impressive enough. But for a man whose first clubs
were Guingamp and Tours; who was playing in the French third tier
four years ago; whose career has since then been an inexorable
march to the European elite; it is as remarkable a story as that of
any recent Arsenal star.
To watch Koscielny, now 26, this season has been to watch a
player with complete mastery of his game. His prescience without
the ball, his anticipation of opponents, his authority in the
tackle, his grace in possession, his precision in passing, all tell
of a defender with few superiors in England or even in Europe.
And this is a defender who spent 2007-08 in the Championnat
National, the third tier of France. He joined Tours from Ligue 2
side Guingamp in 2007, impressing then-manager Daniel Sanchez, now
in charge of Valenciennes. "He reads the game well," Sanchez told The Independent. "He has tactical quality, the quality of
reading the game, but also great physical quality."
It was the following season, back in Ligue 2 with Tours, that
the groundwork was laid for Koscielny's eventual move to Arsenal.
Not just from the excellence of his performances, but thanks to a
phone call from his manager to an old friend.
"In the second year, when I had seen that he had great
potential, I called Arsène Wenger, I told him about the player,"
recalled Sanchez. Arsenal scouts soon went to watch Koscielny, but
a move from Tours to Arsenal would not have been smooth. "It was
difficult for Koscielny to go from Ligue 2 in France to the Premier
League in England," continued Sanchez. "So he needed an
intermediary level."
Enter Ligue 1 side Lorient. "Guingamp is not far from Lorient,
so we had been following him for a while," Lorient club president
Loïc Féry revealed to The Independent. In June 2009, after two good
seasons at Tours, Koscielny moved. For some it might have been too
much of a vault, but when asked how quickly it became clear that
Koscielny would excel, Féry was brisk: "From his first game!"
"As soon as the first game of the season, he does a great game,
an amazing game, and we win away at Lille," Féry said. "Second game
of the season, we play Montpellier at home, I think we are 2-0
down, come back 1-2, and then 94th minute, who scores? Our central
defender Laurent Koscielny for 2-2. And he had such rage: I mean,
you can feel that he is someone very calm, but you can feel that
beyond, he had this winning mentality, behind someone who is
extremely calm."
This quiet defender made a big difference even in the top
flight, showcasing the gifts which have made him a success at
Arsenal. "He was physically impressive, his speed was impressive,
his quality of passing, immediately brings the game forward: he was
amazing in many games that season," recalled Féry, painting an
image immediately familiar to Emirates regulars. "That season, we
got the best result of the club [in history], ending up
seventh."
Such success in France could never evade the attentions of
Arsenal, particularly given Wenger was already aware of Koscielny.
With William Gallas, Mikaël Silvestre and Sol Campbell on their way
out of Arsenal, Wenger made his move. In July 2010, Koscielny
signed for Arsenal.
It was a remarkable journey: from Tours' Stade de la Vallée du
Cher, which holds 13,500, to the Emirates, more than four times the
size, in just over 12 months. For perhaps the first time, he was
slow to adjust, and his early months in England were difficult.
But his first season, and his time at Arsenal, turned on one
brilliant performance against Barcelona. In probably Arsenal's
greatest night at the Emirates, they beat the eventual Champions
League winners 2-1, Koscielny producing a performance of assurance
and high quality, shrugging off Lionel Messi as if he were a
youth-team tyro in a training match, and starting the move that
ended with Andrei Arshavin's winning goal.
From that evening exactly a year ago, Koscielny has grown to
become one of the division's best. Nigel Winterburn, who knows what
it means to play in defence for Arsenal, believes early hopes have
been vindicated. "My place is pretty much the same since he joined
the club," he said.
"I think he's got huge, huge potential. I always think we're
very quick to judge people, and not give them at least a year to
settle into a football club. But I think he's developing into a
useful defender: he's got pace and he's aggressive."
Koscielny's performances have certainly been of international
class. France coach Laurent Blanc, who was interested in signing
Koscielny when he was Bordeaux manager, first called up the
defender in February 2011, and gave him his only cap to date last
November. With a European Championship four months away, Féry
believes his former player should start for Les Bleus: "When you
look at who's playing as a central defender [for France], they
don't play the same type of competitive game that he plays."
France, of course, open against England in Donetsk on 11 June.
With one of the Premier League's finest centre-backs to call upon,
how could Blanc possibly prefer anyone else?
More on Arsenal from The Independent:
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Milan
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Aaron
Ramsey scores – and the music stops
AC
Milan v England: How English teams have fared at the San Siro
Zenit hope to freeze out Cardozo
Tonight's other Champions League tie sees Benfica travel to
Zenit St Petersburg where they face playing on a frozen pitch at
Petrovsky Stadium.
The Lisbon club won their group, which included Manchester
United, to reach the last 16 with three victories and as many
draws. Benfica are also the only unbeaten team in the Portuguese
league and lead by five points. Their Paraguayan striker Oscar
Cardozo is the top league scorer with 14 goals in 18 games.
Meanwhile, the Russian champions, who beat Porto in the group
stage to finish second behind Apoel Nicosia, are missing seven key
players. The main loss is their striker Miguel Danny, who is out
for at least six months after injuring his right knee at a training
camp in Florence.
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