Manchester United were interested last summer and may visit again. Tottenham Hotspur made their inquiries in January and there is no doubt that Jean-Clair Todibo will be in demand when the transfer window opens next month.
And yet one of the best defenders in Ligue 1, where he excelled at Nice, was once told he would never play football again. At the age of nine, on his way to judo training with his older sister, he was hit by a car. “There were a lot of injuries – several fractures to my legs, there was fear that I would lose my leg. I was in a coma for three days,” says Todibo.
When he finally came to, there was only one thing on his mind.
“The first question I had for the doctor was: ‘Do you think I can play football again?’ and he said ‘no’. He said it would be too complicated,” Todibo explains. “It was hard to bear, but I said to myself, ‘Oh, he’s lying to me. I’m going to prove him wrong.” I was determined to play again and two years later I was able to do so.”
It’s an extraordinary story, even if Todibo, as he tells it in perfect English, learned largely from watching the “addictive” TV show Game of Thrones, is that he was so young.
“When you’re young, you don’t really understand it,” Todibo says. “I was like, ‘I’m going to play, it’s my dream and I just want to play with my friends.’ In reality, it wasn’t until I was 15 or 16 that I started to become more aware of what had happened.”
By then, Todibo, who grew up in the Seine-Saint-Denis banlieue in Paris – born in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana – was starting to get noticed. “It wasn’t like the Paris dream, you know! But it was good for me and I really appreciated it. There are a lot of footballers from that area,” he says.
Among them are Moussa Diaby – now at Aston Villa – and Youssouf Fofana from Monaco. “There are many memories. The first time we met with the French national team, we talked about it. It was cool,” Todibo adds.
At that age – and despite having no background in football – he had a week’s trial at Manchester United, and before that a trial at Nottingham Forest. “It was a good experience,” he says. “I discovered a little bit what the professional world was like.” His main memory is playing for United in February 2016, when Marcus Rashford made his Europa League debut and burst onto the scene.
Instead, Todibo joined Toulouse. At the age of 18 he made his debut in the first team. Within a year he was signed by Barcelona – after playing just 876 minutes of first-team football. “I was very young, but it was like a dream come true,” he says. As for his football, he was ready to play. But it was a big step. “Outside of football, I wasn’t prepared for what it’s like to be at this type of club; these kinds of big clubs. I think I was a little too young. I came into the professional world a little late. At sixteen I was still in my ‘hood’. It was a big gap for me and it happened very quickly,” says Todibo.
Unsurprisingly, he struggled for playing time – ahead of more experienced defenders such as Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet – but he was brave enough to be loaned out to Schalke 04 in Germany, and then to Benfica in Portugal, ahead of Nice. It meant that by the age of 24 he had played in four major European competitions.
“It’s been good for me because I’ve gotten to know different cultures and work with different coaches. So now I think I have more weapons. I am better prepared for big things. “I think my mind is more ready to work at a big club and it has definitely made me a better player,” he said.
‘Todibo is a real defender’
Certainly Julien Sable, Nice’s assistant manager and a kind of mentor for Todibo, has no doubts about his abilities. “His first quality is that he is a top athlete who combines strength and speed. He moves so gracefully that it seems like he is flying at high speed,” says the former St-Etienne midfielder.
“He also has very good technique, especially under pressure. He has made great strides in terms of ball distribution. JC is a real defender: he hates being passed, loves one-on-one and duels. He likes to face the best attackers, that’s what motivates him.”
Todibo’s mention of a “big club” once again focuses attention on his future. He is of course reluctant to discuss this publicly, but his reasoning for joining Nice, initially on loan and then permanently, was clearly to “get a few minutes and play football” and get his promising career back on track whatever he has done.
“To be honest, I don’t want to talk about it [my future] because of my respect for the fans here and also for the club. But we definitely had a little discussion,” he says when asked about United and Tottenham.
Does what happened to him in the past mean he should be more careful about making another big move? “I don’t think that’s the reason. The reason was that I was 18 when I went to Barcelona. Now I am 24, married and have two children,” he argues. “My mind is different. I am a national team player. I still have to think a bit. The life I want to live means I’m much more thoughtful about what I do.”
Nevertheless, he has closely followed the impact made by his friend and former teammate at Nice, where he was on loan, William Saliba, since settling at Arsenal.
“I played against him when we were young. He played for St-Etienne, I played for Toulouse. Then we played together for six months in Nice and now we play together in the French national team,” Todibo said, adding that he had tried to convince Saliba to stay longer at Nice.
“I definitely wanted him to stay another year. But he is playing very well at Arsenal. Last season was fantastic for him,” he says.
Ultimately, it has been a disappointing season for Nice – who had finished second but finished fifth – but they did have the strongest defence, with Todibo at the heart of it, conceding four fewer goals than champions Paris St-Germain.
Whether Todibo stays in Nice remains to be seen. Sable has no doubts about what he can achieve. “His potential is unlimited in my opinion,” he says. “He has the potential of a Champions League player and an international class player. He has the qualities to go all the way to the top. I have no doubt that he can reach great heights. This season he has proven that he can can perform in major competitions and has gained consistency. He is on the right track.”
And Todibo itself? “My ambition is to play in the best leagues in the world and try to be the best version of me,” he explains. “Definitely try to be the best defender I can be.”