Abdoul-Razak "Razak" Boukari (born 25 April 1987) is a Togolese professional footballer who plays as a winger. He progressed from Châteauroux to play top-level football in France for both Lens and

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2012. In 2016, he returned to Châteauroux, playing for the club until 2022.

Club career

Early days

Boukari began his career with Châteauroux, for whom his father

Sadou The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is sel ...

also played. He made his professional debut during the 2004–05 season in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

, ending the campaign with two goals from his fourteen appearances. In the following season he became regular player and caught the eye of several top division clubs, such as

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, Lille and Monaco.

Ligue 1 moves

In June 2006 he signed a five-year contract with Lens of

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

. He played 29 league games for Lens in his first year and 19 in his second season but could not prevent the club from being relegated. Promised more playing time, Boukari remained after relegation to be part of the team that won promotion back to the top flight as Ligue 2 champions in 2009–10. In January 2011 he left Lens to sign for fellow Ligue 1 club

for €4.5 million in a four-and-a-half-year deal. He scored four goals for his new club in 18 games, most of them as a starter, before injury kept him out for the remainder of the season. However, he lost his starting position during the following campaign to Jonathan Pitroipa. This situation was compounded by suffering from a torn left thigh injury in January 2012, which kept Boukari on the sidelines for four weeks. He did though manage 20 appearances for the club, 13 of them as a substitute and scored three goals as Rennes finished in 6th place.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Boukari moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers of the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

on 27 August 2012, signing a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee. Only weeks before, Boukari had spent time on trial at newly promoted Premier League side West Ham United, but they instead opted to buy Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Matt Jarvis, opening up a position at Wolverhampton Wanderers for Boukari to eventually fill. After a promising start to the season, Boukari was substituted during a 1–0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on 29 September 2012, after suffering a calf injury. It was subsequently reported that he would be out of action for three to six weeks, but it was later reported he wouldn't be fit until Autumn 2013. On 12 August 2013, Ligue 1 side Sochaux announced that Boukari was to spend a week on trial with them, with a view to a season-long loan deal. Although it was reported after this initial week that the player could not agree terms, on 27 August, a loan deal to cover the 2013–14 season was completed. His time with Sochaux was again impaired by injury problems, making only ten appearances (all as substitute), as the team suffered relegation.

International career

Boukari, who holds dual citizenship with Togo and France, made his France U21 debut against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

on 14 November 2006. In July 2010, he confirmed with the Togolese Football Federation to represent Togo thereafter. From 2010 to 2018, Boukari played for the Togo national team.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Togo's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Boukari goal''.

Honours

Lens *

: 2008–09 *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

runner-up:

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Châteauroux * Championnat National: 2016–17 France U21 * Toulon Tournament:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

References

External links

* *
FFF
national team stats. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boukari, Abdoulrazak 1987 births Living people Footballers from Lomé Togolese men's footballers Togo men's international footballers French men's footballers France men's youth international footballers France men's under-21 international footballers French sportspeople of Togolese descent Togolese Muslims Black French sportspeople Men's association football wingers Ligue 2 players Ligue 1 players English Football League players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National players Championnat National 3 players LB Châteauroux players RC Lens players Stade Rennais F.C. players FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Togolese expatriate men's footballers French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Togolese expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in England