Djibril Coulibaly, a “first adult match” at 16 and some promise in a decimated Nice midfield

A match sheet that was a real blow. Nice's best player in the 3rd preliminary round first leg of the Champions League against Benfica (0-2, August 6), Hicham Boudaoui suffered a high fever on Tuesday afternoon and was not even on the Aiglons' bench at the Estadio da Luz for the return match (0-2) . In his absence, the entire OGCN midfield was depopulated, and that was not even a figure of speech: Morgan Sanson had fallen in the first leg (thigh), Tanguy Ndombele (pubalgia) will not return for a long time and Pablo Rosario had not wanted to play while waiting for his transfer.

All that remained was Swiss Army knife Tom Louchet and a 16-year-old boy who we should soon hear about again . Born in November 2008, Djibril Coulibaly played his "first adult match," as his coach Franck Haise described it, in a Champions League preliminary round and in a fiery atmosphere. There will therefore be some good memories to be had, beyond an elimination that was hardly in doubt.

"We were able to see some positive things, even if it was a bit difficult for him at times. But, at 16, that's normal."

"I didn't really have a choice, so I had to launch him, especially since Djibril did some really good things during the preparation ," the technician explained about this box-to-box midfielder from the Paris region who arrived on the Côte in 2023. "So of course, the step is high. But we were still able to see some positive things, even if it was a bit difficult for him at times. But at 16, that's normal."

There were notably these few projections with the ball at his feet and a nice tackle (35th). In detail, how did Haise find him? "He started off pretty well, as did the team, by the way ," he replied. And then afterwards, I think that physically, in terms of concentration, in reading situations, it goes so quickly, there is so much accuracy in front of him that you can't make a mistake. And then, we also saw that in the sequence of runs... He is not yet full. He still needs to develop on many levels and also on the athletic level. I think he got off to a pretty good start in the second half. But today, sixty minutes for a first in the Champions League against Benfica, that was already very good."

Especially since just two months ago, he was playing in the U17 Euro. A different world. Coulibaly, who trained with the pros in September and October last year, could still have opportunities to show himself in the short term, while the potential arrival of Mahdi Camara is far from complete and Boudaoui is not guaranteed to be fit for Saturday's match against Toulouse. For someone who is considered a very high potential player in his age group, things could accelerate.