Frédéric Kanouté

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Frédéric Kanouté
Personal information
Full name	Frédéric Kanouté
Date of birth	September 2, 1977 (1977-09-02) (age 30)
Place of birth	Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, France
Height	1.92 m (6 ft 3+1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Second striker
Club information
Current club	Sevilla
Number	12
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997–2000 2000 2000–2003 2003–2005 2005-	Lyon → West Ham United (loan) West Ham United Tottenham Hotspur Sevilla	40 0(9) 08 0(2) 76 (27) 60 (14) 83 (37)
National team2
2004–	Mali	18 0(8)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 January 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 3 September 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Frédéric "Fredi" Oumar Kanouté (born September 2, 1977 in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, near Lyon) is a French born Malian footballer, who plays for Sevilla FC in the Spanish league. On February 2, 2008, Kanouté was named the 2007 African Footballer of the Year.^[1]

Contents 1 Career 2 Personal 3 Career statistics 4 Honours 5 References 6 External links

Career

Kanouté's talents as a lanky striker were first noticed by his local team, Olympique Lyonnais, and he joined them as an apprentice in 1997. He played for the French under-21 team while at the club.^[2]

Kanouté joined English club West Ham United in 2000. He went on to play 84 times for the East London club, scoring 29 goals. His speed and awareness attracted interest from Tottenham Hotspur who bought him at the end of the 2002-03 season.

Although eligible for either, Kanouté elected to play for Mali rather than for France. Kanouté was joint top goal scorer for Mali at the 2004 African Nations Cup. Kanouté scored 4 goals in 4 matches helping Mali to the Semifinals where they lost to Morocco.

Kanouté enjoyed mixed success at Tottenham, where he scored on his debut with an acrobatic volley, with occasional flashes of brilliance marked by apparent pique when he preferred the African Nations Cup over the Premiership and went AWOL from Tottenham's 2005 summer tour to Mauritius.

Kanouté was sold to Sevilla on 17 August 2005 for €6.5m.^[3] He was a second half substitute for the club in the UEFA Cup Final against Middlesbrough and scored in the 89th minute. Sevilla won 4-0.

Kanouté's first games for Sevilla against Tottenham Hotspur led to him scoring a (somewhat controversial) penalty at the Sánchez Pizjuán in a game marred by crowd trouble, and an excellent goal at White Hart Lane, leaving the final aggregate score 4-3 to Sevilla.

The 2006/2007 season has proved his most productive and has earned him much praise for the prominent role he has played in leading Sevilla's surprising charge on three fronts. Challenging for the Copa del Rey 2006/2007, where they played Getafe FC in the final, as well as the Uefa Cup and the La Liga have moved him into relatively unchartered territory as he had not experienced such a combination of success and influence in the past. The previous year's Uefa Cup had featured just a cameo appearance for him in a comfortable victory, although he grabbed a late goal. Nonetheless, he secured his first honour of the season on the 16th May with Sevilla's victory over Espanyol on penalties, after a 2-2 draw aet. Kanouté had seemingly retained the title for Sevilla with his extra-time goal (his 4th of the tournament) to make it 2-1 but a late equalizer prompted penalties. Kanouté scored the first in a 3-1 penalty triumph.

Sevilla's title challenge ultimately unravelled and Real Madrid took the title, with Kanouté's side in third. ^[4]

In October 2007, Kanouté, along with Mali international teammate Mamady Sidibe, were attacked by irate Togo fans after they knocked the country out of the African Nations Cup qualifier.^[5]

Personal

Frédéric Kanouté has been a practising Muslim from around the age of 20. This meant that his current club in the 2006/07 La Liga season, Sevilla, had to give him a brand-free jersey every match, because of the club's sponsor—888.com, an internet gambling site—and gambling is against the principles of Islam. The company, however, agreed to give some money to an Islamic charity in return for Kanouté wearing the sponsored kit. Frédéric Kanouté has splashed out more than US$700,000 to buy his own mosque in Spain. The privately owned mosque was due to be sold after a contract to use the premises by the local Muslim population had expired. The Islamic Community of Spain confirmed that a last-minute appeal was made to Kanouté after the mosque had been put up for sale.^[6]

In 2006, he has launched an appeal to establish a 'Children’s Village' in Mali.^[7]Kanoute is married to Fatima and they have two small kids,Ibrahim and Iman.

Career statistics

(correct as of May 19, 2008)

Club	Season	League			Cup[8]		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Sevilla	2005-06	32	6	4	2	2	11	6	45	14
	2006-07	32	21	6	5	4	11	5	48	30
	2007-08	30	16	3	3	4	9	6	42	26
	All	94	43	13	10	10	31	17	136	70

Honours

Personal

• 2007 African Footballer of the Year

Sevilla

• 2006 UEFA Cup
• 2006 UEFA Super Cup
• 2007 UEFA Cup
• 2007 Copa del Rey
• 2007 Supercopa de Espana

Awards
Preceded by Didier Drogba	African Footballer of the Year 2007	Succeeded by Incumbent

References

External links

• Frédéric Kanouté FIFA competition record
• Frédéric Kanouté career stats at Soccerbase
• Kanoute interview, Show Racism the Red Card campaign.
• FootballDatabase provides Frédéric Kanouté's profile and stats
• Real Madrid keen on Sevilla ace Kanoute
• Latest speculation about transfers
• Muslim footballer saves Spanish mosque

v • d • e Sevilla FC – current squad 1 Palop • 2 J. Navarro • 3 Drago • 4 Dani Alves • 5 Duda • 6 Adriano • 7 J. Navas • 8 Poulsen • 10 Luís Fabiano • 11 Renato • 12 Kanouté • 13 De Sanctis • 14 Escudé • 15 Mosquera • 17 D. Capel • 19 Chevantón • 20 de Mul • 22 Koné • 23 Boulahrouz • 25 Maresca • 26 Crespo • 27 Alfaro • 28 Fazio • Coach: Manolo Jiménez