When looking at his height, the 1.80m listed on Transfermarkt appears a little low. I looked through photos of him with teammates and spoke with one of his representatives, and he appears to be around 1.85m tall. Not the 6ft4in striker some desired, but far from small.

Now let’s look at his preferred position. Even though his representative claims he’s a winger who can play up front, I disagree.

We’ll get into why I believe his data and eye test indicate he’s a good fit for a central forward position later, but first, let’s look at the roles he’s played based on all of the Wyscout data available.

He has 29 appearances as a centre forward, including one of his two caps for Burkina Faso. He’s also made 19 appearances as a winger and six as a central midfielder or left back.

While those numbers are fairly evenly split between centre forward and other positions, he has only played outside of centre forward six times in the last year and once this season.

It’s clear to me that he started out wide or further back as a left back, but has recently been moved to a centre forward position.

This is supported by my custom ranking systems, which I developed to rank players within their leagues, similar to a Poundland version of the JTA system. He is ranked first in Estonia as a striker in 2025, and sixth among wingers.

How does the Estonian Meistriliiga compare to Scottish football?

When comparing the Estonian Meistriliiga to the Scottish Premiership and Championship, I removed the top ten Premiership teams and the bottom two Meistriliiga teams to get a good sense of how the leagues fit together.

The top team in Estonia, Levadia, is likely to stay in the Premiership, while the next three teams, Flora, Paide, and Kalju, are likely to be comparable to a Championship team vying for promotion.

The rest, such as Trans Narva, would be closer to a mid or lower-half Championship team.

(Image: Opta)

The data

When looking at Kabore in comparison to wingers, he shows up very highly in his attacking data, as well as some of his possession data. I think it speaks volumes that he has poor data for things like his expected assists, assists per 90, crosses per 90, successful dribbles, accelerations and shot assists per 90.

For me, Hearts will be looking to sign wingers that drive forward with the ball, cross often and create lots of chances. From this data, Kabore doesn’t match that criteria, though it may be tainted by spending more time centrally than out wide.

Kabore’s data compared to wingers in Estonia. (Image: Tom Irving)

When looking at Kabore in comparison to all other strikers, we see a more impressive data set. He scores 0.83 non-penalty goals per 90, slightly outperforming his expected goals due to his high goal conversion rate of just over 22 per cent and his impressive shooting accuracy of 45 per cent. These two high percentages are even more impressive, knowing that he shoots more than any other striker in the league, with 4.76 shots per 90.

In possession, unlike his league low of 0.75 crosses per 90 when compared to wingers, he is in the top 20 per cent of strikers when it comes to passes into the penalty box, with 2.42 per 90 and an accuracy of 55 per cent.

Lastly, and maybe most impressively, we see a player who shows up as incredibly effective off the ball. Kabore is the best in the league when it comes to the number of aerial duels and success rate for his aerial duels, plus the top seven per cent when it comes to successful defensive actions per 90. This all points to a player who isn’t afraid to get involved in the dirty defensive work.

Kabore compared to Estonian strikers. (Image: Tom Irving) The eye test I saw Kabore play in two games against the league’s top teams, Levadia and Kalju, with the Kalju game being the only one this season where he appeared in a wider position.

Against Levadia, he played primarily as a right-sided centre forward, usually standing about an inch in front of the deepest centre back. In the match against Kalju, he played as a right forward in a front three rather than a traditional winger.

Even though these were the positions he played the most in these games, he would occasionally switch positions within the game for brief periods of time.

For example, while playing centre forward, he may be committed to pressing a player or being involved in the press during a phase of play, causing him to briefly switch to right midfield.

He wouldn’t need to immediately return to his position because a teammate would have filled the gap for him, and he’d look natural sitting in that wide midfield area until the time came to move further up the pitch again.

You’d probably have a hard time determining which game he was playing based on where his touches were.

Kabore as a striker v Levadia. (Image: Tom Irving)

Kabore as a wide attacker versus Kalju. (Image: Tom Irving) There are two major reasons why he appeals to me as a centre forward. The first relates to the runs he makes through on goal.

He timed his direct runs well, which led to him receiving a lot of through balls. I believe his teammates are not always on his level, and the ball is either not played, played poorly, or played too late – something that should not be an issue given the attacking options he will have at Tynecastle.

The second reason is that he naturally plays with his back to the goal.

He has a good touch even when under pressure, and he drops into good positions to get on the ball and play quick one-touch passes before moving and attempting to get back on the ball quickly further up the pitch. Most impressively, he stays closer to the centre back.

He will back into the defender, engage him physically, and use his strength to effectively control the player before receiving the ball.

This type of intelligent play does not scream, ‘I’m a winger. It sounds more like something Uche Ikpeazu would say rather than Alan Forrest.

This brings me to one of the most noticeable aspects of his performances: he enjoys a good tussle. Any chance he gets involved in some argy-bargy, he will be there with bells on.

He can be overzealous at times, but he always has good intentions and is not aggressive in a malicious way. This passion and effort are evident in other aspects of his game.

Off the ball, he is full of energy and can run for 90 minutes with intelligent and constant pressing. He doesn’t just press the defenders; if necessary, he will also defend further back on the pitch.

He appears to have extremely high fitness levels, as his effort did not seem to wane at any point, despite the amount of running he was doing. It’s easy to see why he ranks so high in successful defensive actions; he appears to enjoy working off the ball.

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