Eight years after leaving Arsenal, a former player who was once referred to as “the next Thierry Henry” is leaving behind a life that is very different from what he had before leaving the club.
There have been a number of forwards at Arsenal who have attempted to fill the void left by the legendary Frenchman since he left the club in 2007. These forwards have had varying degrees of success in their attempts.
Robin van Persie took over as Arsenal’s primary center forward after Henry’s departure, and his goals earned him a transfer to Manchester United. However, since then, the fortunes of his successors have been extremely inconsistent.
It is possible that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the most successful player, while Alexandre Lacazette was acquired from Lyon for a significant sum of money but ultimately did not generate as much success as Arsenal supporters had hoped for him to.
Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are the club’s potential strikers at the moment; however, both players are currently sidelined with injuries and may be unable to play for the remainder of the season. Gabriel Jesus’s anterior cruciate ligament injury has already been confirmed.
Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal, believed that he had found a player who could fill Henry’s shoes in time, but the player never ended up being able to come through.
A striker named Yaya Sanogo was signed to a long-term contract by Arsenal in August of 2013. Sanogo had previously played for Auxerre, where he had scored 10 goals in 13 games during the previous season in Ligue 2.
The young Frenchman was even considered for the Golden Boy award in 2013, and Wenger referred to him as a player who has the potential to become a superstar in the future.
Following the confirmation of his signing, the manager of the Gunners stated, “He has demonstrated that he possesses potential with his recent performances for Auxerre and also for the France Under-20 side.”
It is with great anticipation that we anticipate Yaya’s arrival and the continuation of his promising development. Obviously, he has a bright future ahead of him here.
Sanogo made his debut with Arsenal in August of 2013, and he participated in a number of important matches for the Gunners after that. However, he did not score a goal in any of his 14 appearances during his first season with the club.
It was not until November 2014 that the Frenchman scored what turned out to be his only goal against Borussia Dortmund in the group stage of the Champions League. The match ended with a 2-0 victory for the French team.
In January of the following year, Sanogo had played his final game for Arsenal. At that time, he was loaned out to Crystal Palace, which is also a Premier League club. However, despite scoring one goal in the FA Cup, he was unable to open his league account, as he had not scored in any of the ten games he played.
After spending time on loan with Ajax and Charlton, a club in the Championship, Sanogo was released from his contract with Arsenal in the summer of 2017.
After that, he went back to his home country and signed with Toulouse, a team that competes in Ligue 1. In his first season with Toulouse, he scored nine goals across all competitions, which was a successful start to his career.
However, he was unable to achieve those same levels of success in his subsequent two seasons, and then he had a brief stint at Huddersfield Town that was not particularly impressive during the 2020/21 season.
Because of this, Sanogo has had an extraordinary career path since then.
After being without a club for a period of eighteen months, the French striker finally signed with Urartu of the Armenian Premier League in the year 2023.
When he made his first appearance for the club, he scored two goals. However, during his second appearance, he sustained an injury that forced him to miss two months of action.
Even though Sanogo did not participate in a sufficient number of matches to earn a medal, he was still able to win the Armenian Premier League while playing for the club.
After that, he was substituted in for Urartu’s Armenian Super Cup match against Shirak, but the team ultimately ended up playing against Shirak and losing.
Before leaving Urartu to join Qingdao Red Lions, a Chinese club that competes in the second tier of the Chinese football league, Sanogo would score four goals for the club during the 2023–2024 season.
Urartu issued a statement following Yaya Sanogo’s departure, which read as follows: “We thank Yaya Sanogo for his dedicated work and wish him success in his future career.”
In spite of the fact that Qingdao has been fighting relegation this season, Sanogo has managed to score six goals for the club in his 19 appearances.
Back in the beginning of this year, the Chinese news organization CGTN published a brief video that documented the striker’s time spent at the club that competes in the second division.
In the course of his conversation about his relocation to Qingdao, Sanogo disclosed that he had never been to China prior to his relocation: “In my head, I didn’t know what to expect.”
‘Okay’ was the response I gave when I received this offer. During the year 2009, I participated in a tournament in Asia, and it was an overall wonderful experience. Regarding Asia, I recall that it was, in fact, a pleasant experience. I then reasoned that why not travel to China? It was a decision that was simple to make.
Yaya is the first player from outside the country to join the Qingdao club, according to Sun Xinbo, the manager of the club. He has a great deal of dedication and is a tremendous asset to a young team like ours.
“We have some high expectations for him, and we rely on him to convert scoring opportunities,” the coach commented. We have a lot of conversations, and he is quite pleased with the environment that exists within the team as well as the strategies that we employ.
