The regrets of Anthony Modeste: how a singular transfer changed the fate of a club and a career

You may know Anthony Modeste in recent times as the man who lasted just a single season at Borussia Dortmund with just 2 league goals to his name. However, I would imagine and indeed hope that the memory of Modeste comes from his wonderful spells at FC Koln. Modeste is perhaps one of the biggest anomalies in football, a player whose career is completely disjointed and broken up into so many different eras. Modeste came from a time which saw a peak in French talent up front. Karim Benzema, Oliver Giroud, Alexandre Lacazette were all top talents from Ligue 1 that came through at the same time as him, preventing him from ever earning a cap for Les Bleus. However, this didn’t mean Modeste wasn’t prolific and what many don’t know is Modeste had great numbers in Ligue 1, scoring 15 for Bastia in the 2012/13 season before being shipped off to Hoffenheim. This move, although slow in its beginning, was the best move he could’ve made at the time to get away from those big French names. Away from Ligue 1, it allowed him to flourish in a league that suited his play style far better. Modeste favoured physicality, heading as well as dribbling which allowed him to develop at Hoffenheim scoring 23 goals in 62 games. For most mid table strikers, this can be considered a respectable return, but compared to his next 2 seasons these numbers can be considered failures. After a shrewd bit of business by Bundesliga rivals Koln, who picked him up for just over 4 million euros, Modeste exploded. The 2015/16 season saw him pick up a respectable 15 goals, followed by his best season of his career: 25 goals in just 34 games. Modeste finished the season as Koln’s top scorer and the 3rd highest goal tally in the league behind the 2 elites of Aubameyang and Lewandowski. More significantly however is the fact that Modeste fired Koln to 5th place, their best finish in 4 seasons and their highest average attendance in decades. Koln had a feel-good factor and Modeste was riding on the same high. But then, the fate of both player and club was definitively altered on the 12th July 2017. Koln accepted a bid of around 35 million euros, the most money received in the clubs history, from Chinese side Tianjin Quanjian as a part of the expansion of the Chinese Super League. Now 35 million euros is a lot of money for a player at 30 years old, so its fair to say that Koln had every right to part ways with their star man, but the problem for them was the lack of significant spending. Despite a 17 million euro transfer in of Jhon Cordoba from Mainz, little else was done to bolster the squad and Koln, despite making the round of 16 of the Europa League, were relegated in last place. As for Modeste, it was reported that he didn’t even want to move, and only reluctantly accepted the deal with little option. Modeste’s numbers in China were extremely uninspiring which would come as little surprise considering the lack of stakes and the unhappiness of the player, and just 2 years later Modeste would rejoin Koln. However, he came back a different and far less prolific man, following the same pattern as last time in which the last of his 4 seasons being the most prolific, leading Koln to a respectable 7th place with 23 goals in all competitions. It seemed as if Modeste’s biggest career mistake was repeated again in the 2022/23 season when he joined Dortmund but failed to hit it off and Koln were relegated a season later. If you asked FC Koln about their biggest regret, I am no doubt sure that selling Modeste to China would be the first thing on the list, but history cannot be changed. That one mistake caused a relegation and the derailing of a footballer’s career in his very prime. Koln and Modeste: a bond that should’ve been so much more.