.jpg) Gusto withChelsea in 2025 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Malo Arthur Gusto | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (2003-05-19)19 May 2003 (age 22)[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Décines-Charpieu, France | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Right-back[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Chelsea | ||||||||||||||||
| Number | 27 | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2012–2015 | AS Villefontaine | ||||||||||||||||
| 2015–2016 | Bourgoin-Jallieu | ||||||||||||||||
| 2016–2021 | Lyon | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2020–2021 | Lyon II | 8 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2021–2023 | Lyon | 53 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2023– | Chelsea | 69 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | France U16 | 2 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2019 | France U17 | 1 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2021 | France U19 | 3 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2021–2024 | France U21 | 10 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2023– | France | 8 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 22:00, 22 November 2025 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals as of 16 November 2025 (UTC) | |||||||||||||||||
Malo Arthur Gusto (born 19 May 2003)[1] is a French professionalfootballer who plays as aright-back forPremier League clubChelsea and theFrance national team.[3][4]
Malo Arthur Gusto[3] was born on 19 May 2003[1] inDécines-Charpieu, a commune in theMetropolis of Lyon.[5] Growing up inVillefontaine, Isère, his father first made him playrugby, but the young Gusto soon chose to play association football, pursuing his dream to become a professional footballer while studying for abaccalauréat technologique.[6][7]
Malo Gusto started playing at theASVF,[8] later joiningBourgoin-Jallieu on a one-year spell,[9] before entering theLyonacademy as an under-14, in a move resembling the one of his elder academy fellowAmine Gouiri.[10][11][12][6] Gusto so happened to arrive inLyon the same year that the club moved to theStade des Lumières, in his home town.[12]
There he was part of the same generation asFlorent da Silva,Yaya Soumaré andRayan Cherki, eventually signing his first professional contract with the French club in December 2020.[13][14] At that point he had already made a few appearance on the team sheet forLigue 1 games underRudi Garcia's management, while already having shown his talent in theYouth League andNational 2, with thereserve.[11][13]
Malo Gusto made his professional debut forLyon on 24 January 2021, replacingBruno Guimarães on the 90th minute of a 5–0Ligue 1 away win against theirDerby du Rhône rivals ofSaint-Étienne.[7][15] Having made another short Ligue 1 appearance at the end of theseason, the young defender signed a new contract with Lyon in June, tying him to the club until 2024.[16][17]
Gusto started his first game during Lyon's opening match againstBrest on 7 August.[10][18] By doing so he became the youngest defender to start aLigue 1 game for OL sinceSamuel Umtiti.[19][20]
While still appearing to be behind Dubois in the right back hierarchy, Gusto still took the spotlight on several occasions under Bosz's direction, as he started games such as the 2–0Europa League away win againstRangers or the 2–1Ligue 1 away loss againstParis Saint-Germain.[10][7][21][22]
On 29 January 2023, Chelsea announced the signing of Malo Gusto on a deal until 2030.[4] Lyon reported the transfer fee to be €30m plus €5m in bonuses.[23] He was loaned back to Lyon until the end of the2022–23 season.[4] On 13 August, he made his debut for the club in a 1–1 draw againstLiverpool in Chelsea's opening match of the2023–24 season.[24] On 24 September, he was shown his firstred card in his career afterJarred Gillett went to theVAR monitor to review a late challenge he made onLucas Digne in their home defeat toAston Villa.[25] On 8 November 2025, Gusto scored his first goal for Chelsea againstWolverhampton Wanderers, ending a run of 165 games without a goal.[26]
Born in France, Gusto is of Portuguese descent through his father,[27] and Martiniquais descent through his mother.[28] He is a youth international for France: he first played as amidfielder for theunder-16, but was later selected as afullback with theU17 andU18. However, he did not play any official game with the latter, as theCOVID-19 pandemic did not allow most youth international encounters or competitions to go on as planned during 2020–2021.[12][29][30]
In September 2021, as the pandemic was slowing down, the young defender eventually gained his next French cap, this time playing with theunder-19.[10][7] He was called up for a friendly tournament inSlovenia, againstRussia,Slovakia and thehosts, along with his teammateRayan Cherki.[31][32] There he started and played every minute of all three games, even ending up wearing the captain's armband.[33][34][35]
However only a month later both he and Cherki were directly promoted to theunder-21 team, bySylvain Ripoll.[36][37] The two of them made their debut coming off the bench with theespoirs on 8 October 2021, helping their team to an important 5–0 win againstUkraine in theEuroqualifying.[38][39][40]
On 9 October 2023, Gusto received his first call-up to theFrance national team for matches against theNetherlands andScotland, replacing the injuredJules Koundé.[41][42] On 13 October 2023, he made his international debut in theEuropean Championship qualifier match against theNetherlands, coming off the bench in the 80th minute, helping France to a 2–1 victory, clinching the qualification as a result.[43]
Gusto is seen as an agile and offensively minded player, ever since playing eight-a-side football at Villefontaine, and he first played as anattacking midfielder or aforward. While he was at theLyon academy he played in several different positions, includingwide midfielder,advanced playmaker, andright winger. He eventually settled as aright back, where he took full advantage of his speed and athleticism.[10][12][7][44][45][46]
| Club | Season | League | National cup[a] | League cup[b] | Europe | Other | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Lyon II | 2020–21 | National 2 | 7 | 0 | — | — | — | — | 7 | 0 | ||||
| 2021–22 | National 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Total | 8 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 8 | 1 | ||||||
| Lyon | 2020–21 | Ligue 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | 2 | 0 | |||
| 2021–22 | Ligue 1 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 7[c] | 0 | — | 37 | 0 | |||
| 2022–23 | Ligue 1 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 22 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 53 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 7 | 0 | — | 61 | 0 | ||||
| Chelsea | 2023–24 | Premier League | 27 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | — | — | 37 | 0 | ||
| 2024–25 | Premier League | 32 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6[d] | 0 | 7[e] | 0 | 48 | 0 | |
| 2025–26 | Premier League | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2[f] | 0 | — | 14 | 1 | ||
| Total | 69 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 99 | 1 | ||
| Career total | 130 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 168 | 2 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | 2023 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | |
| Total | 8 | 0 | |
Chelsea
France
