Tottenham Hotspur fans may have forgotten all about Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, but he has been impressing with Cameroon at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Whilst Euro 2024 still feels way off in the distance, we currently have two international tournaments going on right now.
The Asian Cup and the Africa Nations Cup are both taking place in the middle of the Premier League season – something which is probably a source of frustration to impacted managers.
Tottenham have been hit particularly hard with captain Son Heung-min heading off with South Korea whilst midfielders Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr are away with Mali and Senegal respectively.
Fans will be keeping tabs on their progress, and those watching the Africa Cup of Nations may have seen a familiar yet forgotten face in action…
Former Tottenham winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou making an impact for Cameroon
One part of Cameroon’s front three is the former Spurs misfit Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.
Spurs fans will remember the summer 2016 window as a mixed bag; Victor Wanyama, Moussa Sissoko and Vincent Janssen all arrived to mixed success.
Then there was winger Nkoudou, who joined Spurs in a £9.4million move from Marseille – 40 days after passing a medical with the club.
A crazy transfer saga saw Nkoudou finally arrive but he wasn’t really worth the wait, managing just 11 Premier League appearances in a Spurs shirt.
Nkoudou was sent on loan to Burnley and Monaco with limited joy before being sold to Besiktas for £4.6million in the summer of 2019, bringing an end to three forgettable years as a Spurs player.
Nkoudou was a French Under-21 international at the time of his Spurs arrival, so what was he doing featuring at AFCON?
Well, the now-28-year-old decided to switch international allegiance in 2022, committing his future to Cameroon – and he has made an impact at AFCON.
Nkoudou racked up seven key passes – a pass directly leading to a shot – in Cameroon’s opener against Guinea, which frustratingly ended in a 1-1 draw.
Nkoudou did all he could and produced real creativity for Cameroon, with his even key passes the highest by a Cameroon player since Opta started tracking their stats in 2010.
Cameron lost 3-1 to Senegal on Friday too, with Nkoudou registering one more key pass to leave him as the most creative player in the entire tournament so far with eight key passes.
That’s three more than Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and more than Achraf Hakimi and Alex Iwobi combined, so Nkoudou is emerging as a real threat for Cameroon.
Some Spurs fans may wonder where Nkoudou is playing his club football now; the answer to that is Saudi Arabia.
Nkoudou joined Damac in August and has been in red-hot form, smashing 14 goals and four assists in 17 appearances for Damac.
It may not have worked out at Tottenham but Nkoudou appears to be enjoying his football for club and country right now, putting those difficult years in North London behind him.
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