Jérôme Roussillon became the latest addition to Nathan Jones’s squad last week, bringing reinforcements to a depleted left hand side.
Roussillon was born in the Paris suburb of Sarcelle and was selected to attend Clairefontaine - the French national football centre from the age of twelve. Four years later he moved to eastern France to sign for Sochaux, playing a number of games for their second team before making his professional debut in 2012 and going on to make 54 appearances. A three year spell in Montpellier followed before a move to Wolfsburg in 2018.
The left back turned out 107 times for the German side, including appearances in the Champions League and Europa League. He continued to taste European competition at Union Berlin until his release this summer. During his stay in the German capital, Roussillon earned his international debut for Guadeloupe in a 1-0 loss to Antigua and Barbuda. In fact, the Addicks number 15’s last competitive match was in June against a Jamaica side including Amari’i Bell, Karoy Anderson and Kaheim Dixon.
A key attribute to Roussillon’s game is his pace, something that led to him being a very popular player in FIFA video games. Now aged 32 it will be interesting to see how much of that pace remains. Looking back at his stats from 2023/24, where he made 23 Bundesliga appearances, it is clear to see why Nathan Jones is willing to take a gamble on Jérôme. He is strong in the tackle, winning over 50% of his duels and is rarely dribbled past. His passing is distinctly average but that’s ok as the left wing back in a Nathan Jones side is not expected to be secure on the ball. The two key roles for Roussillon are to be defensively solid and to create space for Tyreece Campbell in attacking areas by drawing defenders to him.
Jones told the club website: ”We’re delighted to be able to bring in someone with Jérôme’s experience. We’ve obviously been light in that area with the injury to Josh Edwards and it’s the only position that we haven’t really got cover on, so we’re please to bring Jérôme in to give us more competition and quality in that area."
Roussillon said” "I’m really happy to be here and be part of the team. I’m excited to get started and can’t wait to play in front of our supporters.”.
He played the first half of the under 21 game against Preston on Tuesday evening in order to gain some match sharpness.
Welcome to SE7, Jérôme.