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West Ham United have one of the most potent wide forwards in the modern Premier League era in captain Jarrod Bowen.
Had powerhouse centre-half Axel Disasi not piled on the muscle while rising like a beanstalk to well over six feet, the Chelsea loanee could have formed quite the double-act with Jarrod Bowen at the London Stadium.
Speaking to West Ham United’s official YouTube channel alongside centre-back partner Konstantinos Mavropanos, Disasi charts his evolution from a Bowen-esque winger to a string-pulling regista, and eventually into a 6ft 3ins colossus of a defender.
Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty ImagesWest Ham United defender Axel Disasi was a winger in youth days
“I was getting fatter, so they put me at the back!” Disasi says with a laugh. “I started as a ‘nine’, then I played as a winger. I was great! I was coming in on my right like ‘Jazz’, but on the right; cutting inside and shooting.
“Then I played as a ‘six’, and then… a lot of food.”
Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images
Disasi possesses a solid goalscoring record for a man in his position. That stoppage-time volley against Leeds in the FA Cup quarter-finals was his 18th since moving from Reims to Monaco back in 2020.
The France international always had a knack for finding the net. A knack he maintains from centre-half, despite his early complaints and concerns.
“I remember when they started to put me at centre-back, it was the Under-15s. I was mad because, at the beginning, for me, centre-back was something very boring because you don’t score goals!” Disasi recalls.
“I was like, ‘I want to play six!’ And now I’m here!
“I was one of the tallest kids in my team. When you are tall, they say go [and play as the] goalkeeper, or the nine, or centre-back. Compared to my other friends, I was already tall and big. That’s why they put me in there.”
Hammers have two goalscoring centre-backs in Disasi and Dinos Mavropanos
In the meantime, Mavropanos became the first West Ham defender since 2013 – James Collins, if you were wondering – to score two goals in a single game.
Unlike Disasi, his path had been mapped out from that first growth spurt.
“For me, I think it was natural because I was playing as a centre-back in the beginning,” Mavropanos explains. “I moved around some positions because, as a kid, normally you try different things, but I think I was performing better as a centre-back.”
The two are expected to start together again as West Ham look to record their fifth clean sheet in ten Premier League matches away to Crystal Palace on Monday.
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