Leandro Trossard’s Premier League experience was a major part of his appeal to Arsenal. With 25 goals and 116 appearances for Brighton, they knew they were acquiring someone who can make an immediate impact.
The 28-year-old emerged as one of the best attacking players outside the ‘big six’ during his three-and-a-half years at Brighton, this season being his most prolific yet with seven goals and two assists in 16 appearances reflecting his progress on the south coast.
But it was at Genk, the Belgian side he joined at the age of 15, that the foundations for what has followed were built, and Arsenal know that well. Albert Stuivenberg, Mikel Arteta’s assistant, was Trossard’s manager for a year there in 2017.
It was an important period in Trossard’s career. Under Stuivenberg, he went from bit-part player to regular starter. “I get more confidence from this coach than the last one,” he said at the time.
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Take a look at Leandro Trossard’s best goals for Brighton
But his potential was clear to everyone at the club long before that. Genk, after all, are specialists in identifying and nurturing young talent. Kevin de Bruyne is another graduate of their academy, as are Thibaut Courtois, Yannick Carrasco and Divock Origi.
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Michel Ribeiro, a long-serving member of Genk’s coaching set-up now working as their first-team technical and individual coach, speaks of them all with pride but none more so than Trossard.
“Of course, you can say all the young players have special qualities, but Leandro had something other kids didn’t have,” he tells Sky Sports. “He picked things up very fast, particularly technical things. That meant he started getting very good, very quickly.”
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It helped, of course, that Trossard had plenty of raw talent to work with, particularly in front of goal.
“Leandro always had the quality to score goals,” says Ribeiro. “He loved to score goals and it is what he always did. The thing we worked on was to get a little smarter, to move a little bit out of pressure, between the lines, to check his shoulders.
“When he turned with the ball to face his opponent he was always very good, very fast and very dangerous. The work we had to put in was just to choose the moments, and to look up more.
Image: Leandro Trossard scored 38 goals in 120 games for boyhood club Genk
“Now he knows where to run and when to receive the ball to score goals, and that’s something we worked hard on with him for a long time here in the academy.”
Trossard would go on to score 39 goals in 120 senior games for Genk, with the youngster becoming steadily more effective before his £15m move to Brighton following a 22-goal campaign in 2018/19, and the intelligence of his movement and decision-making in the final third has stood out in the Premier League.
It is a result, in part, of Genk’s concerted efforts to develop him in different roles.
“The philosophy we have at Genk is to try to produce our own academy players, to work on their technical skills and to develop them in two or three positions,” says Ribeiro, “because we always want to provide them with a plan A, B and C.”
Trossard’s versatility, evident throughout his time at Brighton, was another part of his appeal to Arsenal.
He is primarily a left winger but this season alone he has featured at No 10, as a false nine and even at left wing-back. Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi’s predecessor, also used him on the right.
Image: Leandro Trossard has been used in a variety of different positions by Brighton
Back at Genk, efforts to develop adaptability in young players are underpinned by a focus on building two-footedness, another quality which Trossard posesses.
In Brighton’s 3-3 draw with Liverpool in October, he became only the third opposition player to score at hat-trick at Anfield in Premier League history after Andrey Arshavin and Peter Ndlovu, but his was unique in the sense that, remarkably, all three of his goals were dispatched with his supposedly weaker left foot.
In total, more than a third of Trossard’s Premier League goals have come on his weaker foot. He is ambidextrous to the extent that Ribeiro now sees him as equally strong on both sides.
“I think he is right-footed and left-footed,” he says. “That’s a big key for us, working on both feet. You see it with Leandro but it’s the same with Carrasco, De Bruyne, Origi. They are all perfectly two-footed.”
Trossard’s talent was not lost on De Zerbi but the Italian raised questions of his character earlier this month, criticising his attitude in training ahead of the transfer window and leaving him out of the Brighton squad for last week’s meeting with Liverpool.
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Leandro Trossard scored a left-footed hat-trick against Liverpool
At Genk, though, he is seen very differently.
“He is not a lazy player, he will always work hard,” says Ribeiro. “What was very important was that he really wanted to get better. He wanted to succeed.”
That determination to succeed was evident in how he embraced the challenge of four separate loan spells, three of them in Belgium’s second tier, before his eventual breakthrough at Genk. Trossard, described as a “late developer” by Ribeiro, needed building up.
“He was a little too good to play in our second team, but not quite ready for the first team, so he needed a different challenge to get him to the next level,” explains Ribeiro. “He is a smart player but also a smart person. He accepted it.”
The loans spanned a period of four years but Trossard remained involved at Genk – “he came back once a week to train with us on specific details,” says Ribeiro – and eventually he was deemed ready.
Image: Leandro Trossard has scored seven goals for Brighton this season
“When he returned, he had changed,” adds Ribeiro. “He worked even harder and he was stronger, faster, smarter.”
Genk eventually made him captain, encouraged by a steely mindset which can be seen in his record in big games. This season he has scored against Manchester City and Chelsea as well as Liverpool.
“He can handle any situation,” say Ribeiro. “The goals he scores, they are not just against small teams. He always scores against big teams and really world-class defenders.
“He was open to learning, even if a lot of the skill work is very repetitive, and another important point is that he also had the balls to use the skills we taught him in the games.
“So, no matter who we were playing against, he was always like, ‘give me the ball and I will take him on’. I think that’s key for any player to make it at the highest level.”
Ribeiro still speaks to Trossard, “we are always in touch,” he says with a smile – and has no doubts that he will succeed at Arsenal – just as he did in Genk’s first-team and subsequently Brighton.
Image: Leandro Trossard celebrates after scoring against West Ham
“We knew he still needed to put on some pounds, some muscles, when he left us, but that’s what he has done and I was never afraid when he signed for Brighton that he wouldn’t make it. No way. No way, no way, no way. I know Leandro and he is a guy who fights.”
He is a huge source of pride for Ribeiro and his colleagues at Genk, a club which, although not as celebrated as many others in terms of youth development, boasts a record few can rival.
“This is a special place,” says Ribeiro. “It’s not just talking, it’s doing. A lot of clubs, they have bigger names and they talk a lot. But we are humble. We show what we do without too much talking.
“Leandro, he is the same. Coming out of Genk and doing the things he is doing now in the Premier League, we are very proud of him. He’s a Genk kid and we will always support him in everything he does.”
Ribeiro followed his progress closely at Brighton and looks forward to doing the same at Arsenal.
“This move comes at a good time for him. I think he has done it perfectly through his career. Now he is in his prime. For me, he can fit into any team. We just tried to give him all the tools he needed.”
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