Baroan Tagro

With Cloughie‘s second spell in charge not quite living up to his imperious first, was Baroan Tagro the signing to change all that? After coming back as gaffer in summer 2000 after the ridiculous decision to sack him in December 1998, Cloughie had us finishing in seventh in his first campaign. Hopes of building on that in the second, however, weren’t going to plan and a spark was needed to bring some consistency to the second half of the season.

Baroan Tagro: Who Is He?

Tagro, as we understand, was born in Bouaké – the Ivory Coast’s second city. But, due to the nature of the country’s historic ties to France, the player holds dual nationality. This is pretty irrelevant to the story here, except for the fact it explains why his footballing career started across the Channel. And with PSG, if we can depend on his Wikipedia to be right.

After spells at Dijon where he didn’t quite cut the mustard (come on, eh?) and Langon, it was across the Channel for Tagro. By this point, however, he suffered a cruciate ligament injury.

When did he sign and who from?

Tagro ‘signed’ for us in February 2002 – and it seems he ended up with us after a spell down in south London with Carshalton Athletic. It came after he had an “emergency operation” on his cruciate ligament, which got borked again while at Barnet.

Did he play often?

No. It’s odd to note from that linked interview that Tagro says he was with us for a season. He didn’t even play a whole game for us. He came off the bench for a 25-minute cameo in our 4-1 humilation at home to Woking. Now, making your debut when we’re being made to look silly by the Cards is not a good first impression. To be fair to the lad, the damage was already done by the time he came on.

He didn’t even get a mention in the programme for that game – or indeed the game after; a 4-1 home win over Forest Green Rovers. You’ll see Tagro listed among the subs. But our bench that day was distinctly Tagro-less. That’s more than likely because Cloughie entered the loan market and brought in Jude Stirling, Louis Riddle and Tony Shields. But Tagro was a player who you’d almost never know was on our books.

Not that anyone chooses to remember that Woking game, to be fair.

Where is Baroan Tagro now?

After moving on from Boro’, Tagro next pops up north of the border with Raith Rovers; his manager up there being Claude Anelka – brother of Nicolas. It wasn’t a brilliant spell if we must be honest. With four outings under his belt and a new gaffer in charge, the midfielder was shown the door; leaving on a free in early 2005. With that, he headed back to France; turning out for Houilles in 2005.

All we know after that is that he spent some time as head coach with Noisiel around 2014.

BAROAN TAGRO – 0 (1) appearances, 0 goals (2002)