Jules Kounde, the No.1 ranked France Centre-back

• SciSports ranked Chelsea and Barcelona target Jules Kounde, as the No.1 French center-back.
• France boasts center-backs at many leading clubs around Europe, with Varane, a multiple Champions League winner
• France boss Didier Deschamps has a wide array of high-quality center-backs at his disposal and it is testimony to Kounde’s quality that he is judged to be the best.

Chelsea and Barcelona are presently doing battle over Jules Kounde, who is the No.1 French center-back, eclipsing the likes of Raphael Varane of Manchester United and Ibrahima Konate of Liverpool.

Chelsea is leading the race to sign the Sevilla defender but Barcelona is intent on making a late play for the 23-year-old.

Both clubs have earmarked the player capable of excelling long into the future, but his present value is highlighted by data analytics experts SciSports, who rate Kounde as the outstanding French central defender of the moment.

Raphael Varane has been ranked second in the latest report by Scisport; Photo/Sky sports

France boss Didier Deschamps has a wide array of high-quality center-backs at his disposal and it is testimony to Kounde’s quality that he is judged to be the best, based on hundreds of in-game data points and the latest analysis techniques, which produce a SciSkill score. The higher the SciSkill score, the better the player is judged to be.

Little wonder, then, that Chelsea is ready to pay a fee of €60 million to snap up the former Bordeaux man, who can also play at right-back.

France’s top 10 center-backs

France boasts center-backs at many leading clubs around Europe, with Varane, a multiple Champions League winner and a key member of Les Bleus as they lifted the World Cup at Russia 2018, coming second in the analysis, which updates on a game-by-game basis.

After Varane comes this Bayern Munich trio of Benjamin Pavard, who like Kounde can also play right-back, as well as Dayot Upamecano and Lucas Hernandez.

West Ham’s Kurt Zouma comes in sixth, followed by PSG transfer target Nordi Mukiele, Leicester’s Wesley Fofana, and Ibrahima Konate of Liverpool, whose score is lower than expected because of a relative lack of game time last season.

Dayot Upamecano comes fourth in the rankings; Photo/Bundesliga

Completing the top 10 is Real Sociedad star Robin Le Normand.

Incidentally, fellow Chelsea transfer target, Presnel Kimpembe of PSG ranks only 16th with a score of 94.9.

SciSports, meanwhile, also estimates the potential of players. In this analysis, Kounde again comes out on top. Fofana, Upamecano, and Konate are joined in the top five in this case by Arsenal defender William Saliba, who is another player Barcelona is reportedly monitoring.