Towering Centre-Back Charlie Cresswell traded in Yorkshire for the South of France last Summer – and it may well prove to be a career-defining leap for the young man.

The England U21 International may be a familiar name for those who only follow the English Premier League, with Cresswell coming through the Leeds academy and making his senior debut in the English top flight in a defeat against West Ham in 2021 – then aged just 18. His father, Richard Cresswell, also featured in the Premier League, along with an extensive Football League career, and over 40 appearances for Leeds United in the 2000s.

However, Charlie Cresswell would only go on to make another nine appearances for his hometown club – four in the Premier League, and five in the Championship.

After a productive loan spell with Millwall in the Championship, Cresswell struggled for gametime at Leeds, and Toulouse took notice. The Ligue 1 club picked the defender up for just £3.8M in the Summer of 2024.

It’s safe to say that Toulouse would now demand a good deal more than that to let him go again.

“[Toulouse] had a clear plan for me and a clear part for me to play, which excited me, and I wanted to be a part of it” 

Since the switch, Cresswell has been almost ever-present in the Toulouse backline, featuring 31 times in Ligue 1, only missing three matches this season, two of which down to suspension from yellow card accumulation.

So, what did Toulouse see in a young centre-back struggling for gametime in the EFL Championship?

Well, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, and yes, I am referring to Cresswell.

The man is a giant. 6 foot 3 or 1.9 metres tall, his presence on the pitch is immediately noticeable. He really is just the right height for a centre-back. An entirely subjective opinion, but too small they’re liable to be bullied in the air, too tall and it can be difficult to build strength and remain agile enough to deal with pacy attackers.

Charlie is a dominant force in the air. Winning just over 69% of aerial duels, while contesting over 140 of them in the 24/25 season. For context, this puts him roughly on par with 6’5 Nottingham Forest centre-back Nikola Milenkovic.

Typically playing in the heart of a back three at Toulouse, this makes them a very difficult side to play direct football against. Opponents will often have to feed the ball wide if going long because their target through the middle is going to have a long afternoon battling to win any knockdowns.

Obviously a prize asset in defensive set-piece situations, Cresswell also shows a positional intelligence at the other end of the pitch as well. Clever and quick movement in the opposition area makes him a threat on attacking set pieces. Not only in attacking the initial ball, but with determination to follow in and pounce on rebounds and deflections. He’s not quite Gabriel yet, but Cresswell did notch three goals last season in Ligue 1.

That big frame helps a lot in the air, but could be utilised better on the ground. While he’s not long and thin like, say, Leny Yoro – who uses those long limbs to pluck the ball away from attackers – he’s also not big and bulky, muscling attackers off the ball with ease. His frame sits somewhere in the middle, which leaves him vulnerable to getting shoved around a little when battling for the ball.

It’s not necessarily a glaring weakness yet, but something that could definitely be improved, and would perhaps need to be against higher level opposition. I couldn’t picture Cresswell having a great time against Erling Haaland or Jean-Philippe Mateta, for example.

Middling pace and acceleration also account for another area where he could struggle – a high-line defence could spell trouble and it’s no surprise to see Cresswell’s heatmap show him sitting fairly deep over the course of a season. Toulouse signed him to fit their system and theirs is not designed with the intent to smother opponents and control through possession.

But some say that the heart is the strongest muscle, and Cresswell certainly has plenty of that. There’s a lot of joy to be had in watching a defender that genuinely loves defending and will consistently throw their entire body and soul into a challenge. 

That, of course, has its downsides. When you get it wrong you tend to get it VERY wrong, but for a young defender ,his timing tends to be fairly good. Good positional awareness and an improving ability to read the game will only refine this even more in the long run.

In possession, Cresswell appears tidy, if unremarkable. It’s clear his role at Toulouse is not to be a playmaker, but to simply sit in the last line and be available to receive and recycle pressure. He does what he’s asked to do with relative comfort, though can be susceptible to sustained high pressure. 

There’s a handy big switch and long ball in there somewhere that we do see on occasion, so it’ll be interesting to see just how much this side of his game develops going forward.

Having only just made the switch to Ligue 1, it seems unlikely Cresswell will be saying “Au Revoir” to Toulouse any time soon, though he has stated in interviews that his intention is to eventually return to English football.

If he keeps up his progression into the 25/26 season and enjoys another promising domestic campaign – finishing 10th with Toulouse – we may well start seeing links to Premier League clubs appearing ahead of the 2026 Summer transfer window.