future, and was quickly called up by Ivory Coast manager Herve Renard. The defender was named in the squad for the 2015 African Nations Cup as an uncapped player, before making his international debut in a friendly against Nigeria in January 2015. Seen as Kolo Toure's successor, he started all six games in the tournament as they went on to be crowned champions of Africa for only the second time in their history. He now has 14 caps for Ivory Coast in total.

VILLARREAL SWITCH

Financially challenged Espanyol sold him to Villarreal for only €5.7 million in January 2015, signing a five-year deal with his new club. He was brought in to replace Arsenal-bound Gabriel Paulista and it appears that he filled the boots of the Brazilian very successfully. Duringthe recent 2015-16 season, which was his first full campaign as a first-team regular, he was part of a defence that kept 17 La Liga clean sheets, conceding only 35 goals in 38 games, on the way to finishing fourth behind Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

MADRID MOMENTS

Madrid's giants Real and Atletico -- the 2016 Champions League finalists - have both been shown what Bailly has to offer. The player was part of a defence who were the only team to keep clean sheets on two occasions against Atletico during the season -- during a 1-0 win in September, then again in a 0-0 draw in January. It was in December against Real when he really made his mark though, playing at right-back and marshalling Cristiano Ronaldo and