PROFILE | Having found a place in Ligue 2, Jean-Philippe Krasso is now ready for Ligue 1 | OneFootball

This profile is taken from the 2022 GFFN 100, Get Football’s leading publication to be released at the end of the month, counting down French football’s 100 best players in 2022.

German-born Jean-Philippe Krasso has been an unsung presence this calendar year. After spending time at Lorient, Chateauroux and Épinal earlier in his career, he joined Saint-Étienne in 2020, having spurred the last of these sides to an unlikely spot in the Coupe de France quarter-finals, scoring five goals along the way, including against Les Verts.

His early spell at the club was far from a fruitful one, but after a productive loan spell at Le Mans in 2021, where he netted five times as the club pushed for promotion, he failed to break into the eleven last season, as the form of Wahbi Khazri and the arrival, on loan, of the similarly imposing Enzo Crivelli blocked his path to the first eleven.

In January, though he joined Ajaccio, and became instrumental in securing an unlikely promotion for the Corsicans, starting every match for which he was available and scoring four times in those fifteen matches. He’s continued his hot streak since returning to his parent club, and while another promotion is decidedly not in the cards, he’s currently the league’s top scorer with eight goals.

His form even earned him a first call-up for Côte d’Ivoire in September, where he started two of the three matches in which he played, scoring against Burundi in a 4-0 win.

A classic target man, Krasso is superb in the air, but without sacrificing much in the way of movement or energy. While Sainté have struggled this season, it’s not for anything Krasso has done wrong. Displaying a talent which belies his physical gifts, his dynamism is elemental to the team’s pressing while his passing can be almost audacious at times.

Clever with the ball at his feet and possessed of a fine first touch, Krasso’s catalogue of feints, touches, and layoffs is impressive indeed, and one has to wonder whether one of the many sides scrapping for survival in Ligue 1 (Angers? Ajaccio?) couldn’t do with a player of his gifts. For the moment, though, he will have to make do with keeping Sainté afloat in Ligue 2, but his talent has consistently made their matches worth watching.