Former Sunderland and Spurs defender Younes Kaboul was born on this day in France in 1986.
Kaboul grew up close to the Swiss border and he had three sisters, with him being the only boy and the youngest in the family. He said: "My dad used to push me to play football. He played and I was into tennis. It was a choice between the two and tennis was too expensive, so I stopped."
In 2007, after impressing at his first club Auxerre, Kaboul moved into the English Premier League, joining Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of around £8 million.He was renowned for his tackling skills, good judgement and strength. All the assets of a good centre half.
He made his Premier League debut starting in a 1–0 loss against Sunderland on the first day of the 2007–08 season – (just Sunderland’s luck). During his time at Tottenham, Kaboul was involved in campaigning against racism in English football – something so important in the society we live in today.
In a following match against Everton, Kaboul suffered a hamstring injury and was substituted in the 18th minute, as Tottenham lost 3–1, and, after missing two matches, he returned to the starting line-up against Fulham on the 1st of September – going on to score his first goal for the club, in a 3–3 draw. After a few more goals, and numerous positive appearances, things started to go downhill for the defender.
Prior to the appointment of Juande Ramos, Kaboul rotated in the CB position with little competition from other defenders, but began making numerous errors – seeing him out of the team on many occasions. Ahead of the 2008–09 season, Kaboul said that he wanted to stay at Tottenham and fight for his place in the first team. This came after Ramos was keen on selling him.
Kaboul was linked with a move to Juventus, Portsmouth, Hamburg, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Newcastle. And in June, he announced his intention to leave the club for the sake of his career.
On the 11th of August 2008, Kaboul signed a 4-year contract at Portsmouth, for a fee believed to be around £6 million. Hr made his debut in the opening game of the season versus Chelsea, but sadly lot 4-0. Since joining the club, Kaboul was found to be fighting for his position at CB and was in and out of the starting 11.
Kaboul was inconsistent at Pompey, and continued to pick up daft bookings and needless suspensions. It was at this point in January, he began to be left out of the team, and amid the rumours, played his final game on the 26th of January. In total, Kaboul made 50 appearances for the club, scoring 5 goals.
On the 30th of January 2010, Tottenham Hotspur announced that Kaboul would be re-joining the club for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £9.5 million. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp stated that Kaboul was "much improved" from his first spell at the club, and that he was a "late developer". Kaboul remained a solid part of the team, and despite injuries was a pivotal player – one with a renowned temper.
Ahead of the 2014-15 season, Kaboul was, once again, linked with a move away from Tottenham, and clubs such as Besiktas, West Ham, and rivals Arsenal were keen to sign him. At the beginning of the season, he helped the club gain 3 out of 4 clean sheets and went on to become club captain.
However, by mid-November, Kaboul had been dropped from the first-team squad by Pochettino and the captaincy was given to Hugo Lloris and Harry Kane. It was in the summer of 2015 Kaboul signed for Sunderland.
In July he signed for Dick Advocaat's Lads on a four-year contract (for an undisclosed fee). He was previously linked with a move to Roma, Beşiktaş and West Ham, who had rekindled their interest in signing the player before he made his move to Sunderland.
Kaboul made his Sunderland debut on 8 August, playing the entirety of a 4–2 defeat away to Leicester City in the opening game of the season. On 19 September, Kaboul was sent off for two bookable offences in his first match as the club's captain - a 2–0 defeat away to AFC Bournemouth). After the match, the Daily Mirror called him "the most ill-disciplined Premier League player ever".
At the start of the season, Kaboul struggled for form and fitness under Dick Advocaat and was further side-lined when he suffered injuries that in total kept him out for three months.
It was not until March 2016 that Kaboul returned to the first team, coming on as a 28th-minute substitute for John O'Shea in a 2–2 draw against Crystal Palace. Following this, new manager Sam Allardyce paired Kaboul with new defensive signing Lamine Koné in the latter stages of the season, where they kept two clean sheets. The pair formed an effective partnership as Sunderland improved defensively, culminating in a man of the match performance from Kaboul in a 3–0 victory over Everton on the 11th of May. A game that secured the club's Premier League survival and left Kaboul in tears during post-match celebrations...
He made 23 appearances in all competitions that season and was a mainstay at the back. But next year as David Moyes took over from Big Sam, Kaboul made only one appearance in a 2–1 defeat to Manchester City. It became public knowledge that he wanted to return to the London area for family reasons, and the club went on to accept a bit from Watford - the club where he remained playing till 2018, when manager Javi Gracia froze him out of the squad.
In Kaboul's absence, Lamine Kone regressed massively and Sunderland fans realised just how important Younes had been to that season under Big Sam. Kaboul said he was ‘taking a break from professional football’ and was aiming to ‘get his badges and go into coaching’. He later retired from professional football. after a long-winded career across France, and a somewhat decorated set of appearances up and down England.
