Watford make request to sign Fulham flop – Contract situation could favour Hornets
The left-back spent the 2023/24 season on loan at Fulham, where he was restricted to only 65 minutes of action from six league games, and made two more appearances in the EFL Cup.
This hasn’t put off Watford from making an approach for the 27-year-old. According to Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, the Hornets are interested in signing Ballo-Touré this summer.
The Senegal international will now return to the Serie A side after a disappointing loan spell at Fulham.
Di Marzio claims Watford have contacted the Rossoneri to ask about the player. That’s all he has to say, without explaining whether the want to sign the fullback on loan or in a permanent transfer.
Ballo-Touré has a year left on his contract, meaning this window will be Milan’s last chance to sell him for a decent fee. Watford could take advantage of this to sign the Fulham flop permanently, as long as he’s open to joining them.
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Fulham’s best 21st century academy graduates: where are they now?
Our academy graduates have been in the news a bit recently. Ryan Sessegnon has been released from Tottenham, Matt O’Riley has won awards in Scotland, Harvey Elliott has been on the brink of the England squad, Marek Rodak has been let go after over a decade at the club and Jay Stansfield is on the verge of being a potentially key cog in Marco Silva’s side. So that got me thinking, who are our most successful academy graduates from this century and where are they now?
Zat Knight
The year is 1999. Young Rushall Olympic defender Zat Knight has signed for Fulham’s academy. Being semi-professional, Rushall Olympic are due no obligatory fee for the six-foot-six centre-half, but being a generous man, Mohamed Al-Fayed sends the club 30 tracksuits as a kind form of compensation. Knight went on to make his debut in the league cup in 2000/01 against Northampton Town. He would play 150 times in the Premier League for the club, before leaving for Aston Villa in 2007. In that time, Knight made two caps for England, playing twice in the summer of 2005 against the United States and Colombia. The defender retired in 2015, last playing for Reading. Now, in the summer of 2024, Knight has been participating in the popular TST tournament out in the States, playing for The CONCAFA SC.
Zesh Rehman
After making his debut for the club in 2003 against Wigan in the League Cup, Rehman went on to be the first British Asian player to play in the top division of English football. Joining the academy in the mid-90s, Rehman would eventually move on to join rivals QPR in 2006 after playing a bit-part role in Fulham’s first team for three seasons. The centre-back only retired two years ago, having played more than 100 times for Southern District FC in the Hong Kong Premier League. Up until 2019, he was playing international football too, amassing 25 caps across 14 years for Pakistan, scoring once. Having spent the last two years of his time as a player-coach, the route into a coaching career had begun. Rehman now finds himself as a development coach at Portsmouth on the south coast.
