Soungoutou Magassa arrives in a people carrier outside Rush Green. He sits down in his chair, takes a deep breath, filling his lungs with air and puffing his chest out, and smiles as he prepares for his first interview as a West Ham United player.
This is a big moment for the Stains-born defensive midfielder. For the first time in his successful professional career so far, Magassa has a new home.
Having been on the books at French Ligue 1 club AS Monaco since 2018, he has just completed a transfer to east London and fulfilled his lifelong dream of reaching the Premier League.
It is the latest step in a promising career to date for Magassa, having played 57 times for boyhood side AS Monaco, whom he helped finish third in Ligue 1 last campaign.
Having turned out locally for Sucy FC, RC Joinville, US Lusitanos Saint-Maur and FC Gobelins as a child, he was swiftly snapped up by Monaco’s famed La Diagonale academy, where he had the likes of Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappé to look up to.
The midfielder, who is also comfortable at centre-back and is known for his strength, versatility, ability to break up play and progressive passing, featured regularly in Monaco’s B team in the Championnat National 2 (French fourth tier) in 2021/22 and made his debut with the first-team in January 2022 during the Coupe de France match against US Quevilly-Rouen Métropole, then his Ligue 1 debut against Stade Rennais in August of the same year.
What appeared to be natural was the incredible gift our new player displayed so soon in his career, and it was clear that French football, and specifically Monaco, had unleashed the next star off their conveyor belt of talent.
Since then, Magassa has been a near ever-present in defence and midfield for Adi Hütter’s side and contributed to Les Rouge et Blanc’s second-place finish in Ligue 1 in 2023/24, earning them qualification for the UEFA Champions League, while he also earned a nomination for the Pépite du Mois award in November 2023, which honours the best Ligue 1 player born after 1 January, 2003.
After being part of Henry’s France squad that won a Silver Medal at the Paris Olympic Games in the summer of 2024, Magassa made 31 appearances in all competitions last season, including seven in the Champions League and the Trophée des Champions tie with Paris Saint-Germain, then featured four times as France reached the semi-finals of the UEFA European U21 Championship finals in Slovakia.
It has been a well-documented, busy last few days for Soungoutou, and after finalising the formalities of his switch on Friday, the 21-year-old sat down for his first interview with West Ham TV and detailed why he sees London Stadium as the perfect destination for the next chapter in his career…