PLAYER PROFILE

Johan Djourou

Position: Defence

Height: 6'4

Weight: 14st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1987-01-18 Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Johan Djourou

The Ivory Coast born player started out his career at Swiss side Etoile-Carouge but was quickly snapped up as a 15-year old by Arsenal in 2002.

Two years later Djourou was given his debut by Arsenal, coming on as an 89th minute substitute in the 2-1 win over West Brom in the Carling Cup on 27 October 2004. The next round saw Djourou make his full debut for the club in a 2-0 win over Everton. He played just one more fisrt-team game that season, the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United in the quarter-finals.

The following season saw Djourou make his league debut in the 7-0 thrashing of Middlesbrough at Highbury. The youngster then had an extended run in the first team due to Campbell's absence and began to establish himself in the heart of the defence.

He made his full international debut for Switzerland in March 2006 in a friendly against Scotland and was later included in the Switzerland squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He made three appearances for the Swiss team during the tournament but couldn't prevent them from crashing out 3-0 on penalties to the Ukraine in the second round.

In Arsenal's first season at the Emirates Stadium, Djourou began to establish himself as a regular at the club. An early injury to new signing William Gallas handed the youngster an opportunity to secure a regular start and his performances alongside Kolo Toure at the back were impressive. He ended up playing 27 games.

In August 2007, however, he left the Gunners on loan to join Birmingham City on a year-long deal.

The deal was cut short, though, and in January 2008 Djourou moved back to Arsenal and has proven a valuable utility man since.