Ismaël Koné to sign with English Championship’s Watford

Open this photo in gallery:

Now at a quarter-final stage dominated by the usual suspects, the 2022 men’s World Cup will carry on – just as the tournament has done for much of the past 36 years – with Canada filling the role of afterthought.

But for Ismaël Koné, who played in all three round-robin games for Canada, thoughts of the World Cup are still very much front and centre. None moreso than the preparations for the 2026 tournament, when Canada will act as a co-host alongside the United States and Mexico.

With that in mind, the 20-year-old midfielder took one of what he hopes will be many steps forward this week, signing for Watford Football Club in the English Championship.

The transfer fee, reported to be in the range of US$8-million to US$10-million, is a franchise record for CF Montreal of Major League Soccer, eclipsing the US$6-million it received earlier this off-season for forward Djordje Mihailovic from AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands.

But while Montreal is heading into an uncertain 2023, after also losing head coach Wilfried Nancy and Koné’s international teammate Alistair Johnston, who joined Scottish champions Celtic, the future for Koné – and Canada – looks bright.

“I think we started moving forward as soon as we dedicated our mind to be World Cup players and [to be] a World Cup country,” Koné said on a Zoom call Thursday from Montreal, just days after returning from Qatar.

“But the fact that me and Ally and obviously all the players [who have already moved] to Europe, it helps us a lot. We’re playing at a higher pace, we’re playing with different players, more quality. And it’s those type of things that help us win those types of competition, those type of games.”

Koné was as disappointed as anyone that he couldn’t help the Canadian men secure a first World Cup win – or even a draw – in their three matches against Belgium, Croatia, and Morocco. The end results produced three agonizing losses, particularly the first game, when Canada dominated the match, missing a penalty and generating more than 20 chances, before falling to a single Belgian goal.

But the good news is there is plenty of room for improvement, and getting players over to Europe, to play at a higher level, including in the continental Europa and Champions Leagues competitions, can only help, he added.

“It was just those details where we needed to be more aware and you could see that we needed more experience in those types of games,” Koné said.

“From me, to Ally, to [whichever] player is going to move in the coming months, it’s a development. It’s a movement to where we want to be as a country.”

Having been born in Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast, before moving to Canada at age 7, Koné got a late start in organized soccer, joining the AS Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Panthers at 9. The pandemic put paid to his earlier hopes of moving to Europe, having cut short trials with Genk and Mouscron in Belgium, and he landed with a semi-pro team in Montreal, St-Laurent Soccer Club.

Though he may have taken his time to find his way into the soccer spotlight, the past 12 months have seen him undergo a meteoric rise. He signed with CF Montreal last year, but an injury delayed his pro debut to last February, when he scored in a 3-0 CONCACAF Champions League victory over Santos Laguna.

After impressing in what was statistically CF Montreal’s best MLS campaign, Koné played his way onto the radar of Team Canada head coach John Herdman, factoring into the tail end of Canada’s World Cup qualifying campaign, before scoring his first international goal in the team’s penultimate warmup game before the World Cup.

“I think it’s all about wanting it more than everybody and just going out there and working,” Koné said while reflecting on his journey.

“For me, St-Laurent was the turning point because I had coaches that had that mind, that wanted to help me reach a higher level. I was good, but I needed to be great to reach this level.”

Having secured his dream of a move to a European club, Koné will officially join the Hornets on Jan. 1, and will try to help the club return to the Premier League. After getting relegated back in May following a 19th-place finish in the EPL, Watford is fourth in the Championship, five points behind second-placed Sheffield United, which currently holds the second automatic promotion place. The Hornets are still in position to make the playoffs, however, to chase the third and final Premier League place available.

Whether the team achieves its promotion aim, however, Koné doesn’t plan to stick around Vicarage Road for too long. All things being well, the midfielder is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Brazil’s first-choice World Cup striker Richarlison, who played a season with Watford before securing bigger moves to first Everton, and now, Tottenham Hotspur.

Koné also referenced Portugal talisman Bruno Fernandes, who played three seasons with Italy’s Udinese before ultimately ending up at Manchester United. Both Watford and Udinese are owned by members of Italy’s Pozzo family, which operates an umbrella philosophy of acquiring soccer talent cheaply before selling it on for a profit.

While it sounds anything but romantic, this project ticked many of the right boxes for Koné, however.

“It’s encouraging for me to go there because they have the right platform,” he said. “And as I spoke to them, the project was really for me to come in, develop my potential as much and become the top talent I can be and just hopefully move to a higher team.”