PROFILE | Edon Zhegrova – Lille’s mercurial playmaker makes great strides in 2024 | OneFootball

When Edon Zhegrova receives the ball it’s as if the stadium pauses. A thousand eyes hang on his every movement as they wait to see what kind of magic he can conjure on the field. The winger plays like a walking highlight reel, with his tricks, passes, and goals forming a seemingly endless stream of entertainment.

Despite the Kosovan international’s approach to the game cementing his reputation as a firm fan favourite, it has given rise to a certain criticism that has accompanied him long before he swapped Basel for Lille in 2022. The winger personifies a tension found in modern football between mercurial talent and the demands of the team.

As Jorge Maciel, a former assistant manager at Les Dogues explained to L’Équipe, “When he arrived it was 10 players plus Edon and now it is 11. In the beginning, he was a stranger in the team, he wanted to do everything, and show everything. The relationship he had in the game was between him and the ball. Now he has a relationship with his teammates.”

A sentiment that was echoed in the comments of his head coach at the start of the year, Paulo Fonseca, who stated, “He’s not the kind of player who you can leave alone. You have to put pressure on him so that he improves all the time. If we give in to constant compliments, it can be dangerous… He must be more consistent, more regular.”

These criticisms could have eventually frustrated the Kosovan international. However, Zhegrova embraced his former head coach’s demand for perfection and has taken significant steps this year to shed himself off this commentary. And in doing so the winger has not lost any of the excitement captured within his game, but he has matured and found a certain balance.

Career-best figures for Zhegrova

This helped Zhegrova become a far more efficient scorer. Before 2024, the winger had only scored nine times for Lille since January 2022. However, in the latter half of the 2023/24 season alone, he matched that tally scoring nine times in five months. Admittedly, three of those goals came against Golden Lion FC in Lille’s 12-0 demolition. But who’s to say that he would have taken those opportunities without finding that new balance?

The departure of Fonseca at the end of the 2023/24 season could have been detrimental to the winger. The Kosovan had enjoyed working under the Portuguese tactician and had called him “The best coach I’ve had in my career. He’s helped me to be a better player, a better person, better in everything.” However, Zhegrova has not slowed down and looks to be on course to record a career-best season having already found the net eight times across all competitions under Bruno Génésio.

Like Fonseca before him, Génésio still believes that Zhegrova has more to give the club and that his potential has not yet been reached. “I think he still needs to improve the consistency of his performance across the entire match.” However, he also added, “He’s a bit like our X-factor because he is capable of scoring extraordinary goals… and performing extraordinary feats.”

It was in the Champions League qualifying rounds that Zhegrova freely demonstrated his X-factor quality. He was the driving force that pushed Les Dogues to become the first French team since Monaco in the 2016/17 season to qualify via the qualifying rounds. Zhegrova scored three times across four matches guiding the club past José Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe and Slavia Prague.

An important performer in the Champions League

And while his performances have not been quite as spectacular as during the qualification rounds, he has remained a key player in the league phase as Lille have plotted an unlikely route towards qualification into the knockout rounds. The much-unfancied Nordistes have beaten title holders Real Madrid 1-0 and Atlético de Madrid 3-1, while also holding Juventus to a 1-1 draw in what has been an incredible return to Europe’s premier competition.

Zhegrova was particularly important in the victory over Atlético away at the Metropolitano Stadium. He was an early substitute with Lille a goal down and Rémy Cabella unable to continue after he picked up an injury. Zhegrova was able to restore some of the threat that had been missing from the side as he scored an exquisite strike to level the scores.

He took only two touches before curling an effort from outside of the box into the top left corner. It was a goal that made Jan Oblak, one of the finest goalkeepers in the competition, look completely helpless. It was a goal crafted purely from the Kosovan international’s genius and it was the trigger for Les Dogues’ magnificent comeback.

These performances in Europe remain crucial for the long-term plans of the club and player. Zhegrova had made it clear in multiple comments to reporters ahead of the 2024/25 season that he was keen to explore his options away from the French side and had wanted to leave the club over the summer.

Zhegrova announces desire to leave Lille

Zhegrova told Oxygen at the end of May that he believed his time at Lille had come to an end, “I think that I have given the best of myself at Lille and that the moment has come to leave for a bigger club.” However, with his contract expiring in 2026, it was always going to take a substantial offer to shift him from Les Dogues’ grasp.

And Lille proved unwilling to sanction a sale over the summer as it was reported that they believed that the eight games in the Champions League league phase could act as a shop window that would bring in more lucrative bids in the 2025 summer transfer window.

There is no doubt that he has become a more efficient and balanced player this year. However, it is also not unfair to say that inconsistency still rears its ugly head from time to time. At 25, it’s possible that this might always be a facet of his game, no matter how much his managers may push him towards his potential.

And yet, the thing about Zhegrova is that when he is able to express his genius, he becomes without question the best player on the pitch, a player that could unpick any defence. If he were to be more consistent, there is little doubt that he would sit atop our list. Instead, he will just have to settle for being exceptional.

GFFN | Nick Hartland