Player #853 for Aston Villa, Yacouba Sylla played as a midfielder for the club in Villa’s 2012-13 and 2013-14 Premier League campaigns making 24 appearances.

Yacouba was born in Étampes, France on 29 November 1990.

Paul Lambert had signed Sylla from Clermont Foot 63 for £2,160,000 on 31 January 2013 but Sylla was another in a long recent line of midfielders brought into the club by successive managers who didn’t possess the necessary abilities to cope with top flight football. O’Leary had Djemba Djemba, O’Neill had Salifou and Houllier had Makoun. Lambert had started his own path with Karim El Ahmadi and then surpassed himself with the signing of Sylla.

Lambert gave Sylla his debut as a 79’ substitute for Charles N’Zogbia in Villa’s 3-3 draw at Everton on Saturday, 2 February 2013.

Sylla would be handed his first start in Villa’s 2-1 Premier League win at Reading on Saturday, 9 March 2013 and would make 7 starts to the end of the campaign and 4 substitute appearances having been named in all 14 of Villa’s fixtures to the end of the 2012-13 season. Sylla, when starting, tended to be substituted early, being taken off on four occasions, on 58’ 76’ 68’ 78’ and 59’ as the player struggled to remain competitive over 90’.

Sylla was used far more sparingly in his second season as would often be the case with players under Lambert, making just 6 starts and 7 substitute appearances. Sylla did however remain on the pitch for the full 90’ in four of his six starts, but again left the field of play on 57’ and 62’ when hooked off. Lambert’s trust in his signing had clearly worn off.

Sylla made his final appearance for Villa as a 33’ substitute for the injured Andreas Weimann in the 1-4 home defeat to Stoke City on Sunday, 23 March 2014 aged 23.

For the 2014-15 season Lambert sent Sylla on a season long loan to Kayseri Erciyesspor with his Villa career effectively over, and on his return to Villa, Lambert was gone, replaced by Tim Sherwood and Sylla was sold to Stade Rennais in July 2015 for a fee of £1,350,000 aged 24.