By SABC Sport
5th February 2024
Twelve months later, the 22-year-old forward has joined the Clarets on loan and he made an instant impact on his home debut on Saturday, scoring twice in the last 20 minutes as Burnley came from 2-0 down to take a point from a 2-2 draw against Fulham.
Fofana joined Chelsea from Molde last January for a reported £11million fee, having scored 24 goals and added 10 assists in 65 appearances for the Norwegian club.
However, he struggled for game time at Stamford Bridge and spent the first half of this season on loan at Union Berlin, scoring twice in 17 games.
"I was following him before Chelsea got him, I tried to get him," Kompany said. "He has goalscoring ability. He had that in Norway but then you get lost in the top five leagues and as a striker you need to get used to it. But sometimes it's just the right timing."
Kompany believes Fofana offers something different to the Burnley attack, and brings vital depth after Lyle Foster missed several games in the first half of the campaign to deal with mental health issues.
Given Fofana only came on after the hour mark, Saturday's debut could hardly have gone much better as he headed Burnley back into the game in the 71st minute before scrambling in the equaliser in the first minute of time added on.
"I think he's a player who is still finding his feet within the squad so hopefully we can benefit from him even more as the season goes on," Kompany said. "We had to manage as well with Lyle and Zeki (Amdouni) so for us to have him as part of that group of talented strikers is really important...
"I don't believe in any one individual on his own getting us over the line. But I do believe that, as a collective, having these options will give us a chance."
Burnley remain seven points adrift of safety, but given that prior to Saturday the Clarets had lost the last 19 top-flight games in which they had conceded first, there was a greater significance to the result.
Kompany, a four-time Premier League champion with Manchester City, recalled Sergio Aguero's famous 2012 title-winning goal against QPR deep into stoppage time when he insisted he for one had never lost belief in his side.
"I won the league title having about 30 seconds to score two goals, so belief is never an issue with me," he said. "I'd be more disappointed if we didn't have a go. In the end, everybody could see we had a go and I think the fans always respect that here.
"The first half was just silly in terms of how we conceded the goals, but the belief is always there. There is no doubt about that."
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