NORDI MUKIELE: WHO ARE YOU?

Sunderland have become the highest spending newly promoted team in Premier League history with the acquisition of France international centre back Nordi Mukiele for a fee of £9.5 million plus £2.5 million in add-ons. Mukiele is our 12th signing since promotion back to the top flight and our second signing in the middle of the defence, after Omar Alberete. Here’s how his career has gone so far:

Born in Montreuil, France, in 1997, he joined the academy of Paris FC in 2004 and spent the next nine years with the club before moving to Laval. His debut for their senior team came in November 2014, when he played 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw with AJ Auxerre in Ligue 2. Mukiele’s first goal occurred in November of the following year in a 4-1 defeat to Clermont Foot. His real breakout season was 2016/17, as he regularly featured for Laval prior to the January transfer window, moving to Ligue 1 Montpellier for €1.35 million after this.

The defender pretty much immediately began making starts every week for his new club. In 17/18 he helped his side keep clean sheets against the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon and Marseille and this caught the eye of RB Leipzig. Leipzig bought him for a fee of €16 million.

Minutes in the league came at more of a premium in his first spell in Germany than it did in France but he still managed to make 31 appearances in all competitions in his debut campaign, including in the Europa League. He played a role in getting Die Roten Bullen to the final of the DFB Pokal, which they lost to Bayern Munich, but he didn’t get onto the pitch during the game. Other highlights of the season included, keeping clean sheets at home to Die Bayern, VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt and scoring his first goal for Leipzig on the final day of the season. Leipzig finished 3rd in the Bundesliga and therefore qualified for the Champions League. He made 10 appearances in the Champions League the following season, with his club reaching the semi final stage. He found the back of the net three times as well in the league.

In 2020/21, Mukiele scored in the CL. This goal came in a 4-3 win versus Basaksehir. His only cap for France to date also came during this season, he came off of the bench in a World Cup Qualification victory against Finland. Unfortunately, there was more heartbreak in the cup, as they lost to Borussia Dortmund in the final. His final season for Leipzig saw another goal in Europe’s top competition, this time around against PSG and he finally got his hands on the DFB Pokal, with them beating SC Freiburg on penalties in the final. Overall, he played 146 games for Leipzig, scoring 10 and assisting 11.

PSG acquired his services in the summer of 2022 for €10 million plus €6 million in add-ons. There were only 25 appearances in his first season due to a hamstring injury that recurred. He still managed to win the league and Trophée des Champions though. His best game of the season was when he assisted both goals in a 2-0 win over Angers SCO. Another 20 appearances came in his second season in Paris, earning him another league winners' medal. Although he only played in one round, his team won the Coupe de France too and he was in the matchday squad when they got their hands on another Trophée des Champions.

In a bid for more game time, he was loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen last season. Torn muscle fibres caused him to miss quite a few games still however, including at the Club World Cup by the time he’d returned to PSG. His first goal for his adoptive side was a notable one, he scored the only goal of the game at home to Inter Milan in the league stage of the Champions League. Nordi got on the pitch on 24 occasions last term.

With hundreds of games played at a top level in his career, this is a brilliant signing for how much we’ve managed to get him in for. His injuries are a bit of a concern but you can’t argue with the impact he manages to make when he does play. It’s not like he’s only playing a handful of games either. 20-30 games for us this season would do us nicely I feel. He’s played alongside Granit Xhaka recently too, so that can only be helpful for team cohesion, and Jenson Seelt coming off injured in our last game means we definitely needed to bring another centre back in.