The Ivorian centre half was born on this day in 1989. He will be remembered as a talented defender, who scored the brace against Everton on the penultimate day of the season to keep us up, sending Newcastle down in the process. But at the same time he remains a sobering reminder of what was wrong with the attitude of certain players towards the end of our Premier League tenure.
Before he joined Sunderland, Kone was a regular for Lorient. He was signed as the replacement for Laurent Koscielny, who had left Ligue 1 to move to Arsenal. Kone signed for 1 million Euros and made 139 appearances, scoring seven goals over six seasons at Lorient.
He moved to us when Big Sam was manager and he was immense at centre half, putting in some great performances from February onward as we escaped relegation. Kone directed a header towards goal against Manchester United and the ball went in off David De Gea and he scored the aforesaid brace against Everton – crucial goals in important games and he played extremely well defensively too. He proved perfectly capable when things were going well and when there was an obviously great team spirit, fostered by Allardyce. As we know, Allardyce left and David Moyes came in and that good feeling quickly evaporated...
Basically on Moyes' arrival, Kone submitted a transfer request – there was serious interest from Everton, who were prepared to pay up to 20 million, according to some sources. Though this issue appeared to be resolved with Kone signing a new deal, he was never the same player for us after his head had been turned. He still made over 70 appearances for the club and was part of the shambolic Championship side that suffered relegation to League One. That season, Kone and others illustrated perfectly the poor recruitment which had plagued the club for years and though he demonstrated more ability than the likes of Rodwell, Djilobodji and our record signing Ndong, his attitude was still indicative of a category of player whose sole motive was money. Kone moved to Strasbourg and the club were glad to be rid of him, his huge wages, long term deal and disruptive attitude meant that it was just untenable for him to go on playing for us at League One level.
The moment when Strasbourg came in and took Kone on loan with an option to buy should be remembered as a pivotal moment in the clubs recent history – it ought to be the symbolic end to the old recruitment model of the Premier League era and a reminder that the club should never be ran in the same, unsustainable way, ever again if we are to ever get back there. This notwithstanding, Kone went on to make 68 appearances for the Ligue 1 side and we recouped a nominal figure, most likely a fraction of the undisclosed fee that we paid. At the expiry of his contract, he joined Lausanne-Sport. His final club (so far) was Le Mans FC, he has been a free agent since July 2023.
