William Saliba wasn't always a centre-back or even a defender.
Like so many top-level footballers, the position in which he has made his name in the professional game was not the one he started out in.
Famously, Ashley Cole was an attacker before moving back to play at left-back. Hector Bellerin initially set his sights on breaking through at Barcelona as a winger before proving himself to be an excellent right-back for the Gunners.
Kolo Toure had also played as a striker earlier in his career only to line up as a centre-back for the Invincibles under Arsene Wenger.
Saliba is another defender whose qualities as a footballer saw him play far higher up the field as a youngster, especially at his former club AS Bondy.
According to Antonio Ricardi, who trained the teenager at the club, he was a midfielder at first.
"William was morphologically ahead of the game," he told France Bleu . "He was playing defensive midfielder because he was able to make some differences.
"A little awkward, but he was already doing things that were interesting because of his size.
"He was a very nice boy, positive, smiling, calm, surrounded by the right people and this allows you to keep your feet on the ground when you start to hear about exceptional sums."
In an interview with 20 Minutes, translated by Get French Football News , another one of his former coaches, Abdelaziz Kaddour, revealed how he changed Saliba's position at Montfermeil to play in defence.
"He quickly understood that he could only achieve his dreams by accepting to become a central defender like I repeated to him, and not as a midfielder or even attacker like he was at AS Bondy."
If Saliba follows in the footsteps of Bellerin, Cole or Toure for Arsenal, fans will only have reason to cheer.
