Aboubakary Kanté (born 11 August 1994) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

AC Ajaccio Athletic Club Ajaccien (), commonly referred to as AC Ajaccio, ACA or simply Ajaccio, is a French professional football club based in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. The club was founded in 1910 and plays in the Ligue 2, the sec ...

. Born in France, he plays for the Gambia national team.

Club career

Aboubakar began playing football at the age of 6, and played for various clubs in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He joined

Paris FC Paris Football Club (French pronunciation: Help:IPA/French, aʁi futbol klœb, commonly referred to as Paris FC or simply PFC, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris, France. They will compete in Ligue ...

in 2013. He joined

Béziers Béziers (; ) is a city in southern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. Every August Béziers ho ...

in 2017 after a couple of seasons in the lower divisions of France, and helped them get promoted into the

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

. Kanté made his professional debut in a 2–0

win over

AS Nancy Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine (), known as AS Nancy Lorraine, and more commonly as Nancy, is a French football club founded in 1967 and based in Nancy, Grand Est. The club plays its home matches at the Stade Marcel Picot located in Tomb ...

on 27 July 2018. On 5 June 2019, Kanté joined Belgian club

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. They compete in the Belgian Pro League, the top flight of Belgian football. Their matricule number is 12. The club plays home games at the 29 ...

on a three-year contract. However, in the beginning of September 2019, after having only played about 65 minutes in three games, he was loaned out to

Le Mans FC Le Mans Football Club (; commonly referred to as Le Mans FC) is a French professional football club based in Le Mans. The club set to compete in Ligue 2 from 2025–26, the second tier of French football after promotion from Championnat Nation ...

, according to him because he didn't felt like the club trusted him. On 23 August 2020, Kanté agreed to a three-year contract with Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

side

CF Fuenlabrada Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada, S.A.D. is a football club based in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, the third tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded in 1975. It holds ...

. On 14 July 2022, after ''Fuenla''s relegation, he moved to fellow second division side

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club based in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in th ...

on a two-year deal. On 29 January 2024, Kanté terminated his contract with Huesca.

International career

Kanté was born in France and is of Gambian descent. He debuted for the Gambia in a 1–0 friendly win over

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

on 8 June 2021.

Career statistics

References

External links

LFP Profile
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ASB Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanté, Aboubakary 1994 births Living people Footballers from Pontoise Men's association football forwards Gambian men's footballers 21st-century Gambian sportsmen The Gambia men's international footballers French men's footballers French sportspeople of Gambian descent Gambian expatriate men's footballers French expatriate men's footballers AS Béziers (2007) players CA Bastia players Paris FC players Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players Le Mans FC players CF Fuenlabrada footballers SD Huesca footballers Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Championnat National 3 players Belgian Pro League players Segunda División players Gambian expatriate sportspeople in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Black French sportspeople 21st-century French sportsmen