French winger Kilan Lebon became the eighth legionnaire in Astana. The career path of the 25-year-old football player is very ambiguous. Therefore, at first glance, it is not clear why "Astana" needed it. The correspondent of bbabo.net tried to understand this.

Lebon is a graduate of the French club Amiens. He never played for the youth teams of his country. At the age of 19, he moved to the capital club "Paris". For four years he belonged to this club, but more often went on loan.

At home, he temporarily defended the colors of such clubs as Chambly, Gazelek Ajaccio and Creteil-Lusitanos, and also spent six months in the youth team of the Dutch Utrecht. But nowhere did he show himself properly.

For all these years, Lebon played only 28 matches in the third French league, in which he scored one goal and scored three assists. In the second division of the Dutch championship, Keelan scored 2 + 2 in 17 meetings held. This is not an impressive result even at the level of the lower divisions. For the last two years, Lebon played for Beroe in the Bulgarian Premier League. During these seasons, he made 46 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring three goals and handing out five assists. And if in the first season in Bulgaria, Kilan was a rotation player, then in the recently completed 2021/22 campaign, the Frenchman played more often at the start. He helped the team take seventh place in the championship.

So why is this player "Astana"? Good question. Especially when you consider that the capital has already left the European competition, and now it remains to play only in domestic tournaments - to fight for the "golden double". Lebon played almost all his matches as a left winger, and there, Astana has one of the most productive players in the championship, Pedro Eugenio. He has 11+2 in all tournaments this season.

On the right flank, the undisputed favorite is Marin Tomasov (9+3 this season). Either Abat Aimbetov (2+1), who is now injured, or Rai Vlut (7+3) operates in the center. Srdjan Blagojevich also has young pupils in his team - Stanislav Basmanov (3+1) and Vladislav Prokopenko. It's hard to imagine Lebon in other positions. In the last season of the Bulgarian championship, he played two meetings as a central striker, but in 180 minutes he was marked only by a yellow card. It is also hard to believe that one of the Eugenio-Tomasov pair will be on the bench. But it’s a little strange to sign Lebon exclusively for the bench, because the same position has 21-year-old Basmanov, who has saved his native club several times this season after substitutions.

It is possible that Eugenio will act in the center of the attack. Last season he played several times on the cutting edge. This year, he took the position of striker three times, but had only one good game, scoring 2+1 against Maktaaral. Where would Vlut go then? Of course, one can imagine that the Dutchman will move to midfield, but then Astana will have too many exclusively attacking players, moreover, foreign players.

But, on the other hand, the status of a legionnaire should not guarantee anything to Lebon. Yes, he is from France, yes, he played in Europe. But at what level? In addition, Keelan does not have a single game even in the second division of France, not to mention the qualification of European cups, the statistics are also not impressive. On paper, this signing looks very dubious. Keelan became the second Frenchman in the current squad of Astana after Jeremy Manzorro. They are known to have a common agent. But whether Lebon will become an important player in the team - only time will tell. It remains to be hoped that the level of players will be assessed objectively, and young Kazakhstanis will not have to sit on the bench just because Lebon is a legionnaire.

Note that Keelan's transfer fee is 350,000 euros. According to this indicator, it takes 13-17th place in the composition of the capital.

bbabo.Net