Aziz Ouattara Mohammed (born 4 January 2001) is an Ivorian 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 le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club KV Mechelen on loan from Genk.

Early life

Ouattara was born in the Ivorian capital

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, ...

. At age three, Ouattara moved to his grandmother in the neighboring country

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

, where he mostly grew up. At age 15, he moved back to Abidjan and started to play football in the youth academy of local club

ASEC Mimosas The Association Sportive des Employés de Commerce Mimosas, literally Mimosas Commerce Employees' Sporting Association, is an Côte d'Ivoire, Ivorian Association football, football club based in Abidjan. The club is also known as ''ASEC Mimosas A ...

Club career

Hammarby IF

On 23 May 2019, Ouattara joined Swedish side

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

on loan, alongside ASEC teammate Bayéré Junior Loué, after a successful trial. Their chief scout Mikael Hjelmberg compared his playing style to that of compatriot

Odilon Kossounou Kouakou Odilon Dorgeless Kossounou (; born 4 January 2001) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Ivory Coast national team. Club career Early career Kossounou started his c ...

, who just had been sold for a club record fee to

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

. Both Ouattara and Loué completed a permanent transfer to Hammarby IF on 30 December 2019, signing four-year deals with the club. In 2020, Ouattara went on loan to Hammarby's affiliated club IK Frej in Ettan, Sweden's third tier. He played 26 league games, and scored twice, as the side finished 9th in the table. On 1 April 2021, Ouattara made his competitive debut for Hammarby IF against Trelleborgs FF in the quarter-final of the Svenska Cupen, the main domestic cup. His side won 3–2

after extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a Draw (tie), tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is ...

, with Ouattara coming on as a half-time substitute. Three days later, Ouattara started and scored the only goal in a 1–0 win against

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

in the semi-final. On 30 May 2021, Ouattara won the

2020–21 Svenska Cupen The 2020–21 Svenska Cupen was the 65th season of the Svenska Cupen and the ninth season with the current format. Hammarby won the cup for the first time and secured a spot in the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference Le ...

with Hammarby IF, through a 5–4 win on penalties (0–0 after full-time) against BK Häcken in the final. He featured in four games as the side reached the play-off round of the

2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana, Albania, with Roma ...

, after eliminating

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

(4–1 on aggregate) and FK Čukarički (6–4 on aggregate), where the club was knocked out by

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

(4–4 on aggregate) after a penalty shoot-out, although Ouattara scored in the second leg at home. Following his performances in 2021, Ouattara reportedly attracted interest from other clubs, such as

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 ...

and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

in the French

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 ...

, as well as from

Al Ain Al Ain ( ar, ٱلْعَيْن, , ) is a city in the western side of Tawam (region), Tuwwam region and the seat of the administrative division of its namesake, Al-Ain Region, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. ...

in the UAE Pro League.

Genk

On 7 January 2022, Ouattara completed a transfer to

club Genk, signing a contract until the summer of 2026. The transfer fee was reportedly set at around 30 million SEK (

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2.9 million at that time). In July 2024, Ouattara signed a one-season loan with fellow Pro League club KV Mechelen.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Hammarby IF * Svenska Cupen:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ouattara Mohammed, Aziz 2001 births Living people Men's association football central defenders Ivorian men's footballers Hammarby Fotboll players IK Frej players K.R.C. Genk players Jong Genk players K.V. Mechelen players Ettan Fotboll players Allsvenskan players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Ivorian expatriate men's footballers Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium