Special talent Assan Ouedraogo joins RB Leipzig!

admin 13 June 2024, 16:15 yayınlandı

Assan Ouédraogo becomes a Red Bull!

The midfielder will move to RB Leipzig for the 2024/25 season. The 18-year-old will receive a five-year contract until 2029.

“By signing Assan Ouédraogo, we were able to bring an absolutely exceptional talent to RB Leipzig. Assan has chosen us and our path – despite several offers from other top clubs in the Bundesliga and Europe. This shows once again that RB Leipzig is a top club for young players with special qualities. We have been in contact with Assan for a long time, have made a lot of efforts to get him and are very happy that he will be wearing the RBL jersey from now on.
His skills are a perfect fit for our style of play and he can play in any position in midfield. Assan is intelligent, athletic and has excellent technical training. In addition, his dynamism means he has a lot of forward momentum, meaning he can often create dangerous goal-scoring situations or even score a goal himself.

Of course, he is still very young, but he has already gained experience in the 2nd Bundesliga and in over 20 youth national matches at international level. We will give him the time he needs to find his feet and mature, but we can already look forward to a great young player with a lot of potential.”

Assan Ouédraogo is the son of Alassane Ouédraogo, who comes from Burkina Faso and was himself a professional football player (including three Bundesliga and 70 second division matches as well as 62 international matches for Burkina Faso).
As a child, Assan first played for TuS Union 09 Mülheim before moving to FC Schalke 04’s “Knappenschmiede” youth division at the age of eight. He won the German championship with the Royal Blues’ B-Juniors in 2022.

Assan Ouédraogo was part of Schalke’s professional squad for the 2023/24 season. He made his professional debut as a 17-year-old on July 28, 2023 in an away game against Hamburger SV. The right-footer was in the starting line-up, scored the 1-1 goal (final score: 5-3 for HSV) and set up Schalke’s interim 2-1.
From November to March he was out for several months due to injury – nevertheless, Assan played 17 games (nine starts) in the second division in his debut season, scoring three goals and providing two assists.

Due to his consistently strong performances, the 1.91 meter tall midfielder was called up to the DFB U16 national team and made his debut for Germany in September 2021. With the U17 national team, Assan Ouédraogo finally celebrated his greatest successes to date in 2023.
In the summer, he first became European champion and scored the decisive penalty in the 5-4 victory in the final against France. In November 2023, he was part of the U17 World Cup squad, played in the first two group matches, but then missed the rest of the tournament due to a torn syndesmosis ligament.

In 2023, Assan was awarded the prestigious Fritz Walter Medal in bronze, one of the most important young talent awards for outstanding achievements on and off the pitch.