Bonaventure Kalou (born 12 January 1978) is an Ivorian former 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 played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

. He serves as elected mayor of Vavoua.

Club career

Born in

Oumé Oumé is a town in south-central Ivory Coast. It is a Sub-prefectures of Ivory Coast, sub-prefecture of and the seat of Oumé Department in Gôh Region, Gôh-Djiboua District. Oumé is also a Communes of Ivory Coast, commune. Notable people * Bo ...

, Kalou started playing for

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 ...

in his home country, before moving to Dutch-based

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

. He played in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

for six seasons as a first team regular. He mainly played as a winger, but also played as a striker when necessary. Meanwhile, his brother, Salomon, who came to visit him, impressed the Feyenoord staff and was signed as a youth player. When Bonaventure decided to leave Feyenoord and try his luck in another European competition, the Ligue 1, at

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or simply Auxerre (), is a French football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the first division o ...

, Salomon was sent to Feyenoord's partner

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

on loan, before taking over his brother's role. Bonaventure played two seasons at Auxerre, where he developed further as a striker and an attacking

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 ...

as opposed to a winger. However, he still managed to score a similar number of goals compared to previous seasons. It was in this period that he talked to his brother, who still played at Feyenoord, into acquiring Dutch citizenship, which eventually was rejected by Dutch Immigration Minister

Rita Verdonk Maria Cornelia Frederika "Rita" Verdonk (born 18 October 1955) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and later founder of the Proud of the Netherlands (Trots) party and businesswoman. Verdonk atten ...

. While at Auxerre, Kalou scored the winning goal in injury time in the 2005 Coupe de France final as they defeated his future club

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

. In 2005–06, he was transferred to Auxerre's

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 ...

rivals Paris Saint-Germain. He scored one of PSG's goals as they won the

2006 Coupe de France Final The 2006 Coupe de France Final was a football match held at Stade de France, Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis on 29 April 2006, that saw Paris Saint-Germain defeat Olympique de Marseille 2–1 thanks to goals by Bonaventure Kalou and Vikash Dhoraso ...

; the second consecutive season he had scored in the final. PSG started to become a relegation-threatened team and he soon signed for another French team,

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

. The future looked bright for them, but they were surprisingly relegated at the end of the season. Kalou returned to the Netherlands in 2008 with

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands. History Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July ...

, with whom he won the

Dutch Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

in 2009. Heerenveen beat

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese Bo ...

in the final, and Kalou scored a goal. In the end of 2009, he was on trial at

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

and

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

, but both trials were unsuccessful. In February 2011, Kalou announced his retirement from professional football. He joined French lower league amateur club Combs-la-Ville for the 2011–12 campaign.

International career

Kalou played in the

1997 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 in Malaysia. It was th ...

, and was also in the squad for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

for the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. He scored the winning goal in their final match, against

Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

Political career

In 2018 Kalou successfully ran as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidate for Mayor of Vavoua.

Personal life

His younger brother, Salomon, also played for

. In the build-up to the

, there was speculation that the brothers could have become the first to play against each other in a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

match, as Salomon was attempting to gain fast-track Dutch citizenship. This did not happen and ultimately Salomon would also play for the

, though not until after the World Cup. Kalou was formerly a Catholic, but told ''

La Croix La Croix primarily refers to: * ''La Croix'' (newspaper), a French Catholic newspaper * La Croix Sparkling Water, a beverage distributed by the National Beverage Corporation La Croix or Lacroix may also refer to: Places * Lacroix-Barrez, a muni ...

'' in 2017 that he had become an Evangelical Christian.

Honours

Feyenoord *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

: 1998–99 *

Johan Cruyff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 2001–02 Auxerre *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

: 2004–05 Paris Saint-Germain *Coupe de France: 2005–06 Heerenveen *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 2008–09 Ivory Coast *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

runner-up:

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Individual * UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year: 2004–05

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalou, Bonaventure 1978 births Living people Ivorian footballers Ivory Coast international footballers Ivory Coast under-20 international footballers Association football forwards ASEC Mimosas players Feyenoord players AJ Auxerre players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players RC Lens players Al Jazira Club players SC Heerenveen players UEFA Cup winning players 2006 FIFA World Cup players 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Eredivisie players Ligue 1 players Ivorian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in France Ivorian sportsperson-politicians Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in the United Arab Emirates Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates People from Gôh-Djiboua District UAE Pro League players