Ivory Coast-born striker feels his League One strugglers are capable of giving Premier League stars a bumpy ride

At first the memories have to be coaxed from François Zoko. That much is understandable given it is more than 12 years since the inauspicious loss in question, a home defeat to Le Mans at the Stade Marcel Picot and a game graced by the then Nancy-Lorraine forward for only 24 minutes before he limped off injured, a teenage substitute substituted. It takes a glance down the team lineups before there is a flicker of recollection and a smile creases his face.

“Ah yes, Didier Drogba, I remember more now,” he says, lingering on the name of his compatriot who had entered the fray just before the hour. “Big, strong, a presence. He was still finding his way back then and, to be honest, we were more worried about their other striker, Daniel Cousin. But you couldn’t ignore Drogba. He didn’t have the same reputation. He was almost unknown. But he came on and bang, bang, bang, we felt him. I was 18 and believed I could take on the world. My idols were George Weah, Ronaldo, not rival players in the second division. But, looking back, I came up against a special player that day, someone who is an example now for others to follow.”

When Zoko comes to reminisce on a nomadic career that has taken him to clubs in four countries and outposts from Ankara’s Hacettepe Spor to Carlisle, it will be brushes with Drogba and his ilk that stand out. He may linger on his first senior goal, to defeat a Nîmes team who included Patrice Evra in their number. There may be mention of witnessing Ronaldinho weave his magic for Paris Saint-Germain at close quarters, of visits to the frenzy of Galatasaray’s Ali Sami Yen in Istanbul, or even confrontations in the Jupiler League with a generation of young, talented Belgians who are currently proving their pedigree on a world stage.

All those experiences may yet be trumped if the Ivory Coast-born striker can inspire Stevenage, bottom of League One, to dump Everton out of the FA Cup at the Lamex Stadium on Saturday. Zoko has 12 goals in 22 games for Stevenage since leaving Notts County last autumn, his blend of skill and industry up front having now earned him a six-month deal with the club. He scored one and set up the winner in the FA Cup third round win at Doncaster Rovers. If Everton, beaten once in 16 matches, are to be wounded by Graham Westley’s side, then the forward who still commutes from the family home in Nottingham will most likely be the man to do it.

His has long been the tale of a journeyman, an émigré from Daloa, Ivory Coast whose raw talent had marked him out as a youngster in amateur football at Savigny-sur-Orge in the Parisian suburbs, where he had joined his mother at the age of 10. Nancy and Stade Lavallois went on to offer him a taste of Ligue 2, his game progressing further in the Belgian top flight at recently promoted Mons. He had spied a revolution in progress over those two seasons in Hainaut.

“Something special was happening,” he says. “You’d come up against brilliant young players, every week, even at the biggest clubs like Anderlecht or Standard Liège. These kids were in the team: Marouane Fellaini, Axel Witsel, Steven Defour … The national team had been struggling so they had done something about it and the set-up was geared towards bringing these kids through.

“It was realpolitik. They were giving themselves a base to build from and these teenagers all progressed every week. When Vincent Kompany left for Hamburg, it was as if people suddenly noticed what was happening. The talent was there. Others followed because they were ready. The quality that has come through has been amazing, but we’d see Christian Benteke playing as a kid in the Belgian first division, being allowed to make mistakes and grow.

“The league gave them that opportunity. I remember hearing about [Romelu] Lukaku even back then, this kid who was tearing it up in the youth teams and was destined for great things. Look at him now: he’s progressing quickly and is better this year than last. A problem for us on Saturday, for sure. A big problem.”

Everton will pose plenty of them, although, with a Merseyside derby to come on Tuesday, they must be wary of the threat posed by Stevenage on their heavily scarred pitch in Hertfordshire.

There is former Premier League experience in the home ranks, from Jimmy Smith to Jon Ashton, with Stevenage ready to lean on a striker enjoying the most consistent scoring form of his career.

Zoko has swapped wanderlust to feel at home in England having spent two years at Carlisle and a season at Notts County before being lured south in October. At 30, previous ambitions have been tempered though recalling Drogba, who blossomed relatively late in the professional game, feels apt.

“He proves that age is no barrier in achieving what you want in this game,” Zoko says. “When I was a teenager I was ambitious but, when you are young, you can make poor choices. You can make mistakes and, in football, if you make two or three of them, they can cost you five seasons to recover. For example, I went to Turkey after a good season in Belgium and, even though I loved the life there, it was a bad mistake from a sporting sense. I started off being injured for a month, then played games in pain, and in central midfield which was not my position. I went backwards, and there were problems [with his contract], too.

“It was hard, coming back from that. After Hacettepe I had seven months without playing, in rehabilitation and training on my own to try and get back to fitness. I went to Ostend for a while [in the Belgian second division] but I needed something completely different. There was France, Belgium, maybe again in Turkey, but I wanted to experience something completely new for my career and my life. England. Carlisle, why not? I really didn’t care where I was playing: I just wanted to enjoy my football again.” He scored against Kendal Town while on trial and, over two years at Brunton Park, became a cult figure in Cumbria.

Then came County, where Keith Curle “sold me his vision at the oldest club in the world” only for the manager’s dismissal and financial pressures to force his release. Stevenage offered a route back, initially on a short-term deal until January. Four goals in his first three matches set an upbeat tone which, by and large, has been maintained. “People judge you on goals alone, and I’m scoring more, but I’d been playing left, right, top of the diamond or central midfield and I’d never had this chance to play through the middle this regularly. People tell me I’m more consistent now, but that’s because I’m centre-forward every week.

“Everton will be a proper test. We’re in a false position in the league and we’re working hard to improve our situation, but this is a break. I don’t know how many of their senior players will play given they have a derby against Liverpool on Tuesday, but I’ll be playing against Sylvain Distin maybe, or Phil Jagielka. It’s a challenge, but you play football for matches like this. Coming up against players like them brings the best out of you.”

Make his mark and Zoko will surely never have to trawl the recesses of his mind to recall the day he bruised some of the Premier League’s best.

• Stevenage
• Everton
• FA Cup

Dominic Fifield

theguardian.com