How Eli Junior Kroupi became Bournemouth’s next jewel … and a World Cup bolter

Perhaps it is innate. Kroupi’s Ivorian father, Eli, was a striker for Lorient and Nancy. Bournemouth were alerted to Kroupi when their owner, Bill Foley, now the majority shareholder at Lorient, acquired a minority stake in the French club three years ago. The clubs share resources and although Bournemouth do not have a France-based scout, use of Lorient’s scouting database is akin to boots on the ground. Bournemouth staff were also able to watch Lorient train and gathered references from, among others, Laurent Koscielny, the sporting director who coached Kroupi in the academy, and Florian Delestrain, the head of recruitment.

Lorient raved about Kroupi, a Next Generation pick in 2023 after making his debut aged 16, and Bournemouth kept a close eye. There was other interest, most seriously from France, but Bournemouth were ahead of the curve and acted in January last year, though all parties felt it best he completed the season at Lorient. After the move was confirmed, he scored 13 goals in 13 games. “He could’ve been like: ‘I’ve got my transfer to the biggest league,’” says Mvogo. “But instead he said: ‘Guys, I’ve started something with you, I want to finish it.’”

Iraola was unsure whether Kroupi would be suited to being a No 10 in the Premier League because of the off-ball demands in one of the most important and high-intensity roles in his 4-2-3-1. It tends to mean kickstarting the press with Evanilson, Bournemouth’s No 9, and dropping on to the opposition No 6. The position was embraced by Justin Kluivert, and Kroupi was also open-minded, quickly adapting and showcasing his ability to carry the ball between the lines and link play. He had to improve his out-of-possession work and fitness.

Eli Junior Kroupi (right) shows the energy that Andoni Iraola has helped integrate into his game. Photograph: CameraSport/David Horton

Kroupi’s parents moved to Dorset with him, helping their son settle, and the player also acknowledged the value of the English lessons provided by the club. He is close with Bournemouth’s French-speaking contingent – Amine Adli, Bafodé Diakité and Adrien Truffert – and in the early days Truffert, who speaks excellent English and recently described Kroupi as a “fox in the box”, would sometimes sit in on individual meetings with Iraola or his assistants, Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, to translate if required. Now, however, there is no such need.

Kroupi has poacher instincts but in pre-season Iraola spied his ball-striking ability, discernible in goals from outside the box against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest. His intelligence and skill have shone, never more so than at home to Palace in victory last weekend, when he read James Hill’s pass, nicked the ball around Chadi Riad, eliminating the defender, twirled and charged on to his own touch. “I saved a couple of his shots at training but,” Mvogo says, puffing his cheeks and smiling, “most of the time they went in. His finishing is scary. He knows exactly where the ball is and exactly where to place his shots – he doesn’t even need to look at the goal. The guy is a killer, an elite finisher.”

Bournemouth, who visit Fulham on Saturday hoping to extend their unbeaten Premier League run to a club-record 16 matches, have absorbed the departures of key players and are on course to achieve their highest finish and eclipse their record points tally of 56, set last season. Since then they have sold Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi, Milos Kerkez and Antoine Semenyo to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool and Manchester City respectively, raising more than £200m. Dango Ouattara was also sold to Brentford in a deal worth £42.5m.

Kroupi, who has four goals in his past five games, is not the only youngster excelling at Bournemouth, whose recruitment has long centred on signing the best up-and-coming talents. In January they paid £25m to sign Rayan from Vasco da Gama, in Rio de Janeiro, and the 19-year-old winger has flourished, making his Brazil debut in March; there is a reason Bournemouth inserted a €100m (£86m) release clause. Last weekend Kroupi, yet to complete a full 90 minutes, and Rayan became the first teenagers to score in back-to-back Premier League games.

This season Alex Scott, a £25m buy from Bristol City three years ago, was rewarded for his evolution into one of the league’s leading midfielders with an England call-up. Hill, 24 and a key defensive pillar, was a £1m buy from Fleetwood in 2022. Last summer Bournemouth signed Veljko Milosavljevic from Red Star Belgrade after he impressed in the Champions League, aged 17. It was a similar story with Huijsen and Kerkez, both of whom joined at 19.

Kroupi’s form could alter Didier Deschamps’s World Cup plans. The France manager is thought to be reluctant to call up uncapped players for the tournament but there is a place up for grabs after Hugo Ekitiké ruptured an achilles, and Kylian Mbappé, Michael Olise and Marcus Thuram are the only Frenchmen to have scored more league goals than Kroupi this season. Kroupi has represented France across all age groups and Thierry Henry recently said that while in charge of the under-21s he considered calling up a 16-year-old Kroupi, who went on to score nine goals in nine games for the under-17s.

For Mvogo, one Kroupi strike sticks in the memory. Lorient were chasing promotion, a handful of games remaining when, a minute after being subbed on at Troyes, the score 0-0, Kroupi pirouetted clear of three defenders and sent an unstoppable, curling shot into the top corner from 25 yards. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Mvogo. “Everybody was like: ‘What the hell has just happened?’ It was perfect and thanks to Junior we won 1-0. After that moment, it was like: ‘Wow, this guy is going to have a great career.’ Every time Junior is on your team, you feel like you have a gamechanger on your hands.”