NOT many footballers can say they’re able to do a job in both boxes and mean it.
But Brentford’s Yoane Wissa can boast the title of man who has bagged plenty of goals at a professional level as well as having a spell in-between the sticks in his youth.
The 27-year-old is best known for his threat going forward, netting 18 Premier League goals since joining the Bees.
And the versatile star, who is deployed anywhere across the front three by Thomas Frank, has a natural eye for goal that he only discovered after years as a goalkeeper.
Speaking to the official Brentford website, he explained: “I actually started as a goalkeeper because the day before a game I played with my friend and, when I was in goal, he didn’t score.
“The keeper wasn’t there and my friend told the coach I did well.
“I played there for maybe four years from when I was seven until 11.”
Wissa later chose to ditch the gloves and move up the pitch, but not because he fancied himself outfield.
Instead, it was down to his mum thinking that the role of a shot-stopper was too boring and nudging him to give life outside of the 18-yard box a try.
He explained: “After that, I moved into midfield because my mother said that she didn’t want me to play there anymore because the keeper doesn’t do much during the game.
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“So, I told that to my head coach and I moved to play as a No6 in midfield for maybe two years, then the next two years I played as a No10 and a winger.
“And then I started scoring a lot of goals and then, when I went to Chateauroux, I started as a striker.”
Wissa may have struggled to continue his career in net with the former Lorient man standing at just 5ft 9inches tall.
Alongside his strange gateway into football was another sliding doors moment that could have seen Wissa play a different sport entirely.
He has previously revealed that he spent much of his youth playing rugby as he was raised in France where the sport is widely loved.
Speaking to TNT Sports, he said: “I played rugby a lot. I played for four years.
“I really like rugby. It’s huge in France. I played rugby at school with a teacher named Mr Botone.
“He was one of the best teachers I have ever had in my life and he helped me to stay focused.
“I played rugby with him for four years, until we reached the French Championships, which was unimaginable for our school.”
And if it wasn’t for his other parent then he could have been lining up in the Six Nations rather than the Premier League.
He added: “I had to choose between rugby and football at some point.
“My father said I should choose football because it was something he knew I had been playing since I was very young – It was an easy choice.”
Wissa will be glad he made that decision now as a 23-time international for DR Congo and a Premier League regular for Brentford.
