Tiemoue Bakayoko

Who is Tiemoue Bakayoko?

Tiemoue Bakayoko is a French midfielder who plays for the Premier League club Chelsea.

He was born in Paris and played at Paris 15seme O at the age of five. Aged nine, Tiemoue played for CA Paris Charenton before transferring to Montrouge FC 92.

Back in 2008, at the age of 13, Bakayoko joined the academy at Rennes. He made his debut for the Ligue 1 club on 24 August 2013.

Bakayoko joined Monaco in the summer of 2014 for £7 million and made his debut for Les Monegasques on 10 August 2014 in a Ligue 1 match versus Lorient.

Attacker Valere Germain replaced him after 32 minutes in a 2–1 home loss. After Bakayoko’s debut and early substitution, he didn’t start another game for over two months.

Difficulties between Leonardo Jardim continued, with the player feeling unfairly treated by his coach, who had become frustrated at Tiemoue’s progress, questioned his attitude during training and was critical of the star for sometimes being late for meetings.

Following his first two campaigns at Monaco, in which he made 31 Ligue 1 showings, Bakayoko decided to change his life to fulfil his potential. He improved his strength, began boxing and changed his diet.

As a result, and with Mario Pasalic and Jeremy Toulalan having both left the club in 2016, Tiemoue became a regular starter for the club, helping them to the Ligue 1 title in the 2016–17 term and named in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League team of the season.

On 15 July 2017, Bakayoko joined Premier League club, Chelsea, on a five-year deal for a fee around the margin of £40m, making him the club’s second most expensive acquisition at the time, after Fernando Torres.

He failed to impress in his maiden season and continued his poor form into the 2018–19 term. On 14 August 2018, Bakayoko joined Serie A club Milan on a season-long loan. His career in Serie A did not get off to a fine start.

The next year, Bakayoko agreed to rejoin Les Monegasques on loan until the end of the 2019–20 campaign. 6 October 2020, Tiemoue returned to Italy with Napoli on a one-year loan deal.

What is Tiemoue Bakayoko’s international career like?

In 2014, Bakayoko became the finalist of the 2014 Toulon Tournament. The midfielder was approached by the Ivory Coast national team before Tiemoue chose France in 2017.

He was called up to the senior France team for the first time to face Spain and Luxembourg in March 2017 after Paul Pogba withdrew through injury. Blues man made his debut on 28 March 2017 against the former.