Anyone who has watched the Premier League this season will know that Adama Traoré is having an excellent season with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The winger has often promised to hit the big time but has never really lived up to the expectation that followed him from an early age.
This year, though, has been entirely different with four goals and seven assists, meaning he is only four-goal contributions from matching his best-ever campaign in England.
It’s been a real year of development for the forward, who at 24-years-old, looks set to become the player many envisioned he would be.
This week sees him travel back to where it all began, as his Wolves side take on Espanyol in the second leg of their Europa League last 32 clash.
That’s led AS to look back on his history and talk to those who knew him in his early days at the beginning of his career.
The story starts with Traoré’s parents arriving in Can Serra neighbourhood of L’Hospitalet in the 1980s, with Adama born 16 years later in 1996.
By 2001 he had signed for the neighbourhood team La Florida, where, according to the club’s vice president Luiz González, it was obvious he was a talent straight away.
“He was pre-benjamin (Under 8s), but from the first moment he showed that the category was too small for him. They all remember him very fast and as a scorer,” he told the newspaper.
Traoré did not stay with La Florida long, first joining L’Hospitalet and then moving to Barcelona.
His time at the Camp Nou did not prove to be a successful one, with him instead heading to England, specifically Aston Villa, in search of first-team football.
Villa Park would not be where he rose as expected either, with him instead finding his feet at Middlesbrough before becoming a bonafide Premier League star with Wolves.
That, though, has not stopped him forgetting where he came from, with his uncle, Setou, explaining “when he comes to Barcelona, he usually walks through the neighbourhood, with his friends.”
Indeed, it seems he’s now something of a role model, with his 11-year-old cousin, Sama, admitting as much; “I want to be like him. What I like most is that he is very fast.”
