Marco Kana made a remarkable return to the first team in Anderlecht. What can he hope for this season, a year before the end of his contract?
There is something tragic and inspiring in the course of Marco Kana. As a young talent of neerped, he was described as the new Kompany: a leader, intelligent and strong ball on the foot. However, 6 years old passed away and Kana only played a little more than 3100 minutes for Anderlecht. But he continues to hang on and resurfaced at the start of the season.
The hatch did not take place. However, there seems to be a bit of hope again. Under the direction of Besnik Hasi, Kana obtained an unexpected chance in the first team. In the last two championship games, he started in central defense.
Tranquility Balle to Welcome
Kana was not distinguished by great tackles or spectacular actions, but by her calm and her simplicity. His ease on the foot makes him important: he remains calm under pressure and dares to play forward. The horizon is however more reduced than in its beginnings: it will no longer have the opportunity to play in the midfield. The competition is too strong with Llansana, Cat, Saliba, Verschaeren and Hatenboer. If Kana still wants to appear with the jersey of her club forever, it will be in the rearguard.
His conversion as a central defender does not seem to be an intermediate solution, but a necessity. Because among all the central defenders of the current workforce – Simic, Hey, Engwanda, Keita, Ozcan – Kana seems the surest ball to the foot and the most intelligent tactically. Simic and Hey, for example, seem reliable in defense but often lack audacity and precision in the construction of the game.
Kana is not the biggest (1m82), nor the fastest, but he compensates by reading the game and his positioning. What he loses in physical presence, he compensates for him by his tactical intelligence and his calm. In this way, it brings something which Anderlecht greatly needs in this area: the control of the ball and the first construction pass which breaks lines.
Seeing him continue to fight after all these seasons without managing to take place in the duration also deserves to be recognized. “I just want to play. No matter where. I’m hungry,” he said himself.
The question is now whether Anderlecht wishes to keep it in the long term. Kana is under contract until June 2026, but there have not yet been any concrete discussions on an extension. Those who saw the preparation and the first games know it despite everything: he participates thanks to his merit, and not by sympathy.
In a workforce where there are a lot of doubts about defenders, Marco Kana could become the unexpected stabilizer. Not like the new Kompany, not as a general in the midfield, but as a sober and intelligent defender who reads the game like no one in the team.
