Frédéric Kanouté

Frédéric "Fredi" Kanouté (born September 2, 1977 in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, near Lyon) is a France born Malian football (soccer), who plays for Sevilla FC in La Liga.

Career

Kanouté's talents as a tall striker were first noticed by his local team, Olympique Lyonnais, and he joined them as an apprentice in 1997. He played for the France national under-21 football team while at the club.

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

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

Kanouté enjoyed mixed success at Tottenham with occasional flashes of brilliance marked by apparent pique when he preferred the African Nations Cup over the FA Premier League and went AWOL from Tottenham's 2005 summer tour to Mauritius.

Kanouté was sold to Sevilla on 17 August 2005 for £4.4m. He was a second half substitute for the club in the UEFA Cup Final against Middlesbrough F.C. and scored in the 89th minute. Sevilla won 4-0.

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

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 FC, 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.

In 2006, he has launched an appeal to establish a 'Children’s Village' in Mali.

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 will play Getafe 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. Kanoute 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. Kanoute scored the first in a 3-1 penalty triumph.

Sevilla's title challenge ultimately unravelled and Real Madrid C.F. took the title, with Kanoute's side in third. Since the opening of the Summer transfer window he has been linked to a succession of clubs, and frequently to moves back to the English Premier League with Portsmouth, Bolton and Newcastle all interested. He is reportedly valued at around 7 million pounds.

Sevilla FC career

(correct as of June 25, 2007)

Honours

Sevilla

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