Fodé Fofana (born 26 October 2002) is a Dutch 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

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) ** Sm ...

for

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 ...

club PSV.

Club career

Fofana started his career by playing youth football for several amateur clubs in Groningen including

GVAV-Rapiditas GVAV-Rapiditas are a Dutch multi-sport club based in Groningen, Netherlands. Its first association football team competes in the seventh-tier Tweede Klasse since 2015, when it relegated from the Eerste Klasse. From 1954 to 1971, the club featured ...

. During his family's summer vacation in 2012, Fofana played a street football tournament at

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

where a scout of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

was present. He was impressed by Fofana's style of play and recommended him to the club. Fofana joined Barcelona following year after two internships at the club. However, he was forced to leave the club after two years as FIFA imposed a sanction on Barcelona for buying players aged under 18. He returned to Netherlands after leaving Barcelona and joined PSV later. On 2 August 2019, PSV announced that three 16-year-olds from their youth academy including Fofana have signed their first professional contract with the club. He signed a three-year contract through to the summer of 2022. He made his professional debut for

Jong PSV Jong PSV is a Dutch football team based in Eindhoven. It is the reserve team of PSV Eindhoven and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2013–14 season. History Until 2013, Jong PSV played in the Beloften Eredivisie, a league exclusively for ...

on 6 November 2020 in a 2–1 league win against

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

. He played whole 90 minutes in the match and scored his team's both goals. On 7 July 2021, Fofana made his first appearance for PSV by scoring a hat-trick in 10–1

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

win against

Delbrücker SC Delbrücker SC is a German association football club playing in Delbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia. History The origins of the club lie in the founding of the youth's football club ''DJK Delbrück'' in 1920. This in turn led to the formation of ...

. After being an unused substitute in

2021 Johan Cruyff Shield The 2021 Johan Cruyff Shield was the 25th edition of the Johan Cruyff Shield (Dutch: ''Johan Cruijff Schaal''), an annual Dutch football match played between the winners of the previous season's Eredivisie and KNVB Cup. The match was contested by ...

win against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

, he made his official debut for PSV on 10 August in a UEFA Champions League qualifying match against

Midtjylland The Central Denmark Region ( da, Region Midtjylland), or more directly translated as the Central Jutland Region and sometimes simply Mid Jutland, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish muni ...

. On 20 August 2021, Fofana extended his contract with PSV until June 2025. On 2 September 2023, Fofana joined Vitesse on a season long loan deal.

International career

Fofana is a Dutch youth international. On 27 August 2021, he received maiden call-up to Netherlands under-21 team for

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition to determine the 14 teams that would be joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Romania and Georgia in the 2023 UEFA European Under- ...

matches. On 7 September, he made his Dutch youth team debut by coming on as an 83rd-minute substitute for Brian Brobbey in 3–0 win against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

Personal life

Fofana was born in Groningen to Uljana and Abdoul Fofana. His mother is from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and father is from

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

Career statistics

Honours

PSV *

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 ...

: 2021–22,

2022–23 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 ...

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 ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

* 2002 births Living people Footballers from Groningen (city) Dutch men's footballers Dutch people of Guinean descent Dutch people of Russian descent Men's association football forwards PSV Eindhoven players Jong PSV players SBV Vitesse players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players {{Netherlands-footy-forward-stub