Birthday Boys- Cenk Tosun and Tanguy Kouassi

In today’s edition of the Birthday Boys we explore the careers of Everton striker Cenk Tosun and PSG starlet Tanguy Kouassi.

Cenk Tosun

The Turkish striker turns 29 today.

The striker started his youth career in Frankfurt where he moved to in 2006 and progressed through their youth ranks reaching the senior team in 2009.

With only one appearance in the Bundesliga for Frankfurt and many appearances for the youth teams in January 2011, the striker decided to move to Turkey where he would gain his citizenship to later on play for the national team. Gaziantepsor signed the striker from Frankfurt for £500,000.

His half a season at the Turkish club was fruitful in 18 appearances he would score 12 goals and assist six times giving him one goal contribution per game on average.

His first full season wasn’t the best in striker terms for him. Only seven goals in 37 appearances in all competitions. It would be a better season the season after with the striker able to score 11 goals and assist on nine ocassions in 35 matches.

The 13/14 was his best goal scoring campaign for Gazinatepsor as he scored 14 goals for the Turkish club in 32 appearances.

In the summer of 2014, Besiktas would snap up the striker on a free transfer and his first season saw him score nine goals in all competitions.

The season after saw Tosun produce his best scoring campaign so far as he scored 17 goals in over 40 games for Besiktas that season.

He bettered that goal scoring tally in the 16/17 campaign scoring 24 goals in all competitions as many teams looked at signing the player.

In the first half of the 17/18 campaign, he appeared 24 times for Besiktas scoring an impressive 14 goals in that half a season before Everton signed the striker for £20 million in January 2018. He managed to appear 14 times for the Merseyside club scoring five goals.

Tosun has struggled to adapt to the high standard of the Premier League compared to the Turkish Superlig as he appeared 29 times for Everton in his first full season only being able to score four goals.

He was loaned out to Crystal Palace in January 2020 where he made five appearances scoring one goal and is currently out with an cruciate ligament injury and will likely return next season.

Internationally, he could have played for the German national team but only featured for them at youth level before being granted his Turkish citizenship and playing over 40 times for the national team scoring 16 goals.

The only trophy in his trophy cabinet is Turkish Superlig winners medals with Besiktas on two ocassions in the 2015/16 season and the 2016/17 season.

Tanguy Kouassi

The French player turns 18 today and has had his breakthrough for PSG this season.

After impressing for many youth teams in his younger years, PSG landed the defender in 2016 and signed him up to their youth academy.

In the summer of 2018 he would make it into the Under-19’s team making the step-up from Under-17 football.

Six appearances for PSG’s Under-19 team in the UEFA Youth League saw the French club win four out of the six games before eventually exiting the competition via a 2-1 loss to Hertha Berlin.

He would sign his professional cntract for PSG in the summer of 2019 and has featured for the Ligue 1 champions 13 times for so far, scoring three goals.

He has featured at Under-16, Under 17’s and Under 18 level for France making his debut in August 2019 and already has 12 appearances under his belt.

Koussai has only won one trophy in his short career so far which the Ligue 1 crown with PSG this season.