How Bryan Mbeumo became one of the Premier League’s hottest properties

Brentford always knew Bryan Mbeumo was a special talent.

Their former defender Pontus Jansson remembers having a conversation with Rasmus Ankersen, Brentford’s co-director of football at the time, when Mbeumo joined the west London club — then in the Championship — as a teenager in August 2019 for what was their record fee of £5.4million ($6.6m at the current exchange rate).

“He said, ‘We are going to buy a young player from France, and if he is not a world-class player in a couple of years, I’m going to be very disappointed’,” Jansson tells The Athletic. “He wasn’t wrong.”

After six years of steady progress — a period during which he has often lived in the shadows of other forwards at the club who grabbed the headlines — Mbeumo is unquestionably now the main man at Brentford.

A largely underrated player since their step up to the Premier League in summer 2021, Mbeumo’s performances this season have been impossible to ignore and have put the now 25-year-old, whose current contract expires in summer 2026, firmly on the radar of Europe’s top clubs, with Newcastle United among his many admirers.

After another star turn against Leicester on Friday night, Mbeumo has scored 15 goals, with four assists, in 26 league games this season, and is currently the fifth-highest scorer in the division. The difference between his goals scored and expected goals tally — 6.6 — is the fourth highest of any striker across Europe’s five major leagues, according to Opta.

It is fair to say Ankersen’s hunch about Mbeumo’s signing five and a half years ago has been proven right.

Mbeumo’s football journey started in Avallon, the historic town in the Burgundy region of France, a three-hour drive south of Paris, where he was born and grew up. He honed his craft on a tarmac pitch near his home, where he would play every day.

“We were always out, playing football, no matter the time and place,” he told the Premier League website in 2023. “My mother could see that park from a window at home and when I had to go home, she’d call my name to come back.”

From the age of six to 13, he played for local team Club Olympique Avallonais and has returned to visit since the move to England with Brentford.

“Even at the time, he had all the qualities to become a great player,” Patrick Bocquel, his former coach there, told L’Yonne Republicain in 2022. “He had that extra something. He was diligent, hard-working, a real enthusiast; never without his ball. He’s a real model for our young people.”

Mbeumo’s talent eventually caught the attention of Troyes, almost two hours north, and he joined at the age of 13.

He was in the Troyes youth side that won the Coupe Gambardella, France’s nationwide under-18 club competition, in 2018 before making his senior debut for them aged 18 at a time when they were still in Ligue 1, French football’s top division.

After Troyes were relegated to Ligue 2 in 2018, he played an integral role in almost getting them back up at the first time of asking, scoring 10 goals in 36 league games as they finished third, before losing in the play-offs.

It was following that breakout 2018-19 season that Brentford came calling.

Mbeumo told The Times last year he had never heard of Brentford, who had not been in England’s top flight since the 1940s, when they first registered their interest but was persuaded to join by head coach Thomas Frank. He quickly realised how desperately they wanted him, with Brentford having seen almost every one of his matches that previous season.

Yet signing him that summer was not without its hitches.

The club’s technical director Lee Dykes, along with Frank, Ankersen and the owner Matthew Benham, flew to France on a private jet to try to get a deal over the line.

“We had the meeting, spoke with the player, the club and the agent, but the deal broke down,” Dykes told the Brentford website in 2023. “On the way back, and I’m not a good flyer in general, the pilot turned to us and said, ‘It’s chaotic weather in London… it’s snowing, there’s thunder, there’s lightning’. I was thinking, ‘What? It was 43C (109F) when we left France’.

“But, fortunately, we landed safely and, more importantly, managed to turn around the deal a few days later and eventually sign him.”

After securing their man, Mbeumo hit the ground running, scoring 16 times in 45 Championship matches in his debut season as he formed a formidable forward line with Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma — a campaign that ended with play-off final heartbreak against rivals Fulham in a match that went to extra time.

“When we first got asked to watch him by the recruitment department, straight away I thought, ‘I like him, he is a good player and we need to get him’,” says Kevin O’Connor, Brentford’s first-team assistant coach. “Everyone was in agreement. When he came in for his first training session he was good, and his first season was fantastic.”

“You could see the potential and talent in him from the start,” agrees Jansson.

Mbeumo joined Brentford for £5.4m (Alex Burstow/Getty Images)

In his second season (2020-21), and with the ‘BMW’ front line broken up after Watkins joined Aston Villa and West Ham United signed Benrahma, Mbeumo forged a new partnership with Ivan Toney. Toney was the previous season’s player of the year in League One, English football’s third tier, with Peterborough. Mbeumo, playing on the right of a 4-3-3 formation, scored eight goals and provided 12 assists as Brentford won promotion, getting back to the play-off final and this time beating Swansea at Wembley.

With Brentford in the big time, Frank tweaked their tactics in a successful attempt to help them stay up. They became more direct and lined up in a 3-5-2 formation, with Mbeumo often chasing balls from Toney flick-ons rather than operating in his previous role cutting in from the right wing.

Mbeumo showed in that 2021-22 season that he could cut it at the highest level but his finishing was often wayward, and he took on too many speculative long shots. He hit the post or crossbar a Premier League-high seven times and only scored four league goals, from an xG of 9.3, in 35 appearances as he was overshadowed by Toney, who scored three times as many.

Mbuemo improved in 2022-23 after he was moved back to his favoured position, scoring eight goals and registering eight assists before an injury-hit campaign last time, though he still managed nine goals and six assists in 25 league appearances. His spell on the sidelines also coincided with Toney’s eight-month ban for breaking Football Association rules on gambling.

Underlining Mbeumo’s importance to the team, Frank said his absence last season was more keenly felt than that of Toney.

Speaking to the media after Mbeumo had scored the opening goal in a 1-1 home draw against West Ham on September 28, Frank said: “He was our biggest miss for four months last year, even with (Ivan) Toney out. He was our key player and has added another layer this season with five goals in (this season’s first) six games. That’s incredible and he’s creating chances.

“He’s a top player. I’m convinced he will play for a bigger club. I’d buy him if I was at a bigger club. We convinced him to stay and he’s very happy. All our players might need to leave us one day, but a lot of them are happy because we have a top environment, with good people. We push each other.”

With England international Toney leaving for Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli last summer for €40m (£33.8m/$41.2m at current exchange rates), Mbeumo has fully stepped up to play the leading role in attack.

He worked hard to improve his finishing with coaches O’Connor and Justin Cochrane, with his volley at Tottenham in September a particular highlight, and also practised penalties with Toney before he left — he now adopts a similar technique on spot-kicks to the one his old partner used.

“He has been getting better and better,” O’Connor says. “He is more confident, he is taking more responsibility. He works so hard on his game. He’s a very good player but there is even more to come. This season, he is showing it more. Even when he is not at his best, he is still influencing the game and I think that shows a top player.”

As well as his finishing, Frank told The Times in October that Mbeumo’s crossing, weight of pass and hold-up play in tight situations have all improved, too.

Mbeumo replaced Toney in the dressing room’s senior leadership group, which also includes Christian Norgaard, Mathias Jensen, Ethan Pinnock and Vitaly Janelt, and has been credited by Frank with driving training sessions and maintaining high standards.

Aside from that injury last season, when he was absent for 13 matches following ankle surgery, Mbeumo has shown he is physically robust, missing only three other games since summer 2021 — particularly impressive given his explosive style and attacking position.

Following the departures of Watkins, Benrahma and Toney, Mbeumo has now struck up another strong partnership: this time with Yoane Wissa, a close friend off the pitch too, with the pair living next door to one another in west London.

Mbeumo and Wissa, who joined Brentford in 2021, both grew up in France but represent Cameroon and DR Congo respectively at international level, and enjoy watching tennis and Formula 1 together. Eligible through his father, having played for France at under-20 and under-21 levels, Mbeumo represented Cameroon at the 2022 World Cup and his country currently lead their qualifying group for next year’s tournament.

Wissa, who played as a goalkeeper until he was 13, has spoken about their telepathic understanding on the pitch.

“When I assist him… sometimes we don’t need to talk. It’s just about the eyes,” Wissa told Brentford’s website last year. “Whether I’m playing as a No 9 or on the left, when I turn, the only thing I know is that Bryan is going forward. Even blind, I can put the ball forward and I know he’ll be there. Even in training, we love playing together and we always want to play together.”

Like Mbeumo, Wissa has had a blistering season so far, scoring 12 goals in 23 league appearances.

Away from the pitch, Mbeumo is not your typical footballer.

Mbeumo and Wissa’s partnership has blossomed at Brentford (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

He enjoys a game of chess — he sometimes uses his phone to play against strangers online from the changing room before matches — and reading, and even taught himself how to play the piano from YouTube tutorial videos, with Brentford buying one for him to use at the training ground. He likes to play pieces by the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi. He streams video games on Twitch and uses brain-training apps to improve his cognitive skills.

A dedicated trainer, Mbeumo has a physiotherapist visit his home regularly (as well as a posture specialist), and another expert to help on the mental side of the game, while he pays for a personal chef to make sure his diet is perfect.

Brentford received no formal transfer interest for Mbeumo last year but are preparing for that to change in the near future.

As mentioned above, his current contract expires at the end of next season, but the club have an option for an extra 12 months, so the optimum time for them to sell would be this year’s summer window.

Mbeumo has ambitions to test himself at the highest level, telling French newspaper L’Equipe in May last year that he wanted to “play in the biggest competitions, at the best clubs”.

“I’m afraid how long Brentford can keep him. That’s how good he is at the moment,” Jansson says. “He was one of my team-mates for four fantastic years, so he will always be a friend and close to my heart.

“I want him to stay at Brentford for as long as possible.”

(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

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