Player Tracker: Sekou Koita
Thomas Wardle (@MezzalaFtbl) tracks Forward Sekou Koita of Red Bull Salzburg over a 4-week period — providing a detailed scout report at the end of the 4-weeks.
Age: 21
Date of Birth: 28/11/1999
Nationality: Mali
Club: Red Bull Salzburg
Contract Until: 30/06/2024
Previous Clubs: FC Liefering, Wolfsberger AC (Loan)
Youth Career: AS Bakaridjan, USC Kita
Position: Forward
Height: 1.73m
Preferred foot: Left
Who is Sekou Koita?
Koita first became known to European scouts in 2015, when he was part of the Mali Under-17 squad who reached the U17 World Cup final, scoring two goals in the competitions when playing as an attacking midfielder.
Although it was the 2017 Under-20 World Cup where he attracted more interest from Europe. He was part of the Mali squad that was knocked out in the Quarter-finals against a talented Italy side, scoring three and assisting three in the process.
On January 1, 2018–6 months after the U20 World Cup — Koita joined FC Liefering, Red Bull Salzburg’s development team. However he missed the majority of the first six months in Austria after suffering a ligament tear, scoring one goal during the 2017/18 season.
Despite scoring just the one goal in the Austrian Bundesliga during the opening half of the 2018/19 season, he was sent out on loan in January to first division side Wolfsberger AC, where he found form, scoring five and assisting four times, meaning he was a direct contributor to 28% of their goals, which is some going as a 19-year-old in half a season.
After an impressive start to the 2019/20 season, scoring six goals in Salzburg’s opening eleven games Koita missed a month of action due to injury and struggled to get back into the goal scoring form from the start of the season — suffering another injury which meant he missed a total of nine games last season.
So far this season the 21-year-old is enjoying his most consistent period in the Salzburg team, scoring 12 times in just 15 league games already this campaign, with five assists to go alongside that — he seems to be back on track with his progression.
v Austria Wien — 06/02/2021 (Austrian Cup)
65 Minutes played (25 minutes watched)
Moments after tuning into the game Sekou Koita received the ball on the right-hand-side before using good technical ability with both feet to find room centrally on the edge of the area. His driven effort from the edge of the area ended up in the back of the net after a deflection.
In the 25-minute period I was watching, Koita was the one dropping into wider areas trying to get on the ball when Salzburg were looking to progress up the pitch, and at times when on the ball he looked a bit raw — he was still able to show good close control and a direct nature when going forward.
His movement off the ball was clever, and liked how despite not always playing through the middle, when the ball was either to the right or left of the box, the 21-year-old would always be in the penalty area looking to get into a pocket of space rather than coming out to help with the build-up.
Over the next 4-weeks I’ll be watching Sekou Koita and updating this piece weekly to provide a detailed scout report.
