Since joining Cardiff City on loan in the summer transfer window, Niels Nkounkou has seemed to take some time to adapt to life in the championship, but it seems he is finally finding his feet in south Wales.
After his contract expired, the Frenchman joined Everton in 2020 from French side, Marseille. However, due to him being younger than 21 when he signed for the club, Everton paid just under £3 million in compensation to Marseille.
Despite many thinking he was signed by Marcel Brands to become a more developed player in the youth setup, which was the case to an extent, Nkounkou would take a role in the first team almost straight away, playing back-up to first-choice left-back Lucas Digne, who was out with an injury.
Niels would make his debut for the blues in the Carabao Cup 2nd round, putting in a solid performance in a 3-0 win against Salford City at Goodison Park.
Due to his lack of game time with the first team and his obvious quality that exceeded the level of any of Everton’s youth teams, he would be loaned out by Rafa Benitez at the start of his tenure, to Belgian side, Standard Liege. Although the move was not a complete success, the Frenchman did solidify his place in the starting line-up during his time in Belgium.
There were hopes that new manager, Frank Lampard would keep Nkounkou amongst the squad in order to provide competition for new left-back Vitalii Mykolenko with Lucas Digne leaving for Aston Villa, but this was not the case. He made a few appearances during pre-season for the toffees but Lampard was obviously not fully content with what he saw, choosing to instead loan him out to Cardiff City.
Despite struggling to solidify a starting spot when first moving to Wales, eventually he has adapted to life in the championship and is now beginning to shine.
He was awarded Man of the Match in his most recent fixture against Wigan Athletic, providing a splendid assist for Callum Robinson to put the bluebirds 1-0 up within 7 minutes. His side would go on to win the match 3-1, with Niels the obvious stand-out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPHtbHkQr-k
He is obviously still very raw, being very good going forward but could be seen as a defensive liability much like his french counterpart, Lucas Digne was for the blue, but the signs are there that he will have a successful career.
Will Nkounkou be a success at Everton?
Yes, give him time
No, not PL standard
