Ballou Tabla joins the Impact on loan until the end of the season
The Impact’s acquisitions – and good news – just keep coming, as the MLS transfer window gets set to close today. Now, the Impact welcomes, on loan, until the end of the 2019 season, the player sold to FC Barcelona following the 2017 season, Ballou Tabla. The young Quebecer is therefore making a temporary return back home, becoming the second former Barcelona man to join Rémi Garde’s squad.
We’ll recall that Ballou had registered his name in the Impact’s record books in quite a few interesting and promising categories: he was the youngest Impact player to sign a pro contract with the first team, on October 20, 2016, aged 17 years and 204 days, the youngest player to feature in an MLS game with the Impact, on March 4, 2017, aged 17 years and 338 days, and the youngest to score a goal in MLS for the Impact on April 1, 2017, at just 18 years old and 1 day.
Since he’s left Montreal, Ballou played 30 games with Barcelona B, 12 in LaLiga2, Spain’s second division, and 18 in Secunda B, the Spanish third division. He also represented Barcelona U19 in the UEFA Youth League, playing 67 minutes against PSG in the round of 16 on February 16, 2018. He was also loaned out to Albacete Balompié for half a season, for whom he played two games in LaLiga2 earlier this year.
Now 20 years old, Ballou is tied to Canada on the international stage, having played two games with the Reds during Concacaf Nations League qualifying, against Dominica and Saint Kitts and Nevis. He officially chose to represent his adoptive country last fall, originally born in Ivory Coast and arriving in Canada with his family when he was eight years old.
Ballou will actually be at the stadium tonight, for the first leg of the Canadian Championship semifinals against Cavalry FC, at 7:30pm (TICKETS – 98,5, TSN 690). Welcome home Ballou!
