Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo (born 30 January 1982) 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 ...
who played as a
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 ...
.
Club career
Born in
Abidjan
Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...
, Yapi Yapo started his career at
ASEC Mimosas and then moved to Europe with
Beveren
Beveren () is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders which comprises the towns of Beveren, Doel, Haasdonk, Kallo, Kieldrecht, Melsele, Verrebroek and Vrasene.
The port of the Waasland (Dutch: ''Waaslandhaven'') is in Beveren ...
. He joined
Nantes on a loan contract in January 2004, and on 17 May, he signed a three-year contract, because his contract with Beveren was due to expire in the summer. At this stage of his career, he played as an attacking midfielder. He was on the fringe at Nantes in the 2005–06 season, prompting a loan move to
Young Boys. He then joined Young Boys on a permanent basis, where he played as a defensive midfielder and playmaker.
On 15 February 2010
FC Basel
Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...
announced that they had signed Yapi Yapo as from 1 July on a three-year contract.
He joined Basel's first team during their
2010–11 season under head coach
Thorsten Fink
Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, currently works as manager of Riga FC.
Career
Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to SG Wattenscheid 09, where he hel ...
. After playing in eight test games Yapi Yapo played his
domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the
St. Jakob-Park on 20 July 2010 as Basel won 3–2 against
FC Zürich
Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...
.
He scored his first goal for his new club in the home game on 1 August 2010 as Basel won 3–0 against
FC St. Gallen
Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the Swiss Super League.
History
Founde ...
.
Basel started in the
2010–11 UEFA Champions League
The 2010–11 UEFA Champions League was the 56th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 19th under the UEFA Champions League format. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 28 May 2011, wher ...
third qualifying round and advanced to the group stage, but ended the group in third position. Therefore they dropped to the
2010–11 Europa League knockout phase, but here they were eliminated by
Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia:
* FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club
* HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team
* Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club
* WB ...
due to a last minute goal against them.
Yapi Yapo played in 11 of the 12 European matches. With Basel, Yapi Yapo won the Swiss Championship at the end of the
2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
season topping the table just one point clear of rivals
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
.
To the beginning of their
2011–12 season season Yapi Yapo was member of the Basel team that won the
2011 Uhrencup, beating both
Hertha Berlin
Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charlo ...
3–0 and
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
2–1 to lead the table on goal difference above
Young Boys.
During just the second league game of the
2011–12 Super League season, Yapi Yapo suffered a rupture of the cruciate ligament,
and this kept him out of the game for six months. He returned to the team the away draw in the
Stade de Suisse against
Young Boys on 16 February 2012 as he was substituted in during the 65th minute.
At the end of the 2011–12 season he won the
Double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* ...
with his new club. They won the
League Championship title with 20 points advantage.
The team won the
Swiss Cup, winning the final 4–3 in a penalty shootout against
Luzern.
Basel had started in the
2012–13 UEFA Champions League
The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The final was pl ...
in the qualifying rounds. But were knocked out of the competition by
CFR Cluj
Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vasutas Sport Club'', whe ...
in the play-off round. They then continued in the
2012–13 UEFA Europa League
The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the Amsterdam Aren ...
group stage. Ending the group in second position, Basel continued in the knockout phase and advanced as far as the
semi-finals
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
, there being matched against the reigning
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
holders
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
. Chelsea won both games advancing 5–2 on aggregate, eventually winning the competition.
In the early stages of the season Yapi Yapo came to regular playing time, but following an injury in August, his appearance time diminished. At the end of the
Swiss Super League season 2012–13 he won the Championship title with the team.
In the
2012–13 Swiss Cup
The 2012–13 Swiss Cup was the 88th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition commenced on 14 September 2012 with the first game of Round 1 and ended on 20 May 2013 with the Final. The winners of the competition, Gr ...
Basel reached the final, but were runners up behind
Grasshopper Club, being defeated 4–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time.
Yapi Yapo appeared in just four games in the second half of the season. But because head coach
Murat Yakin
Murat Yakin ( tr, Yakın; born 15 September 1974) is a Swiss football coach and former player. He is the manager of the Switzerland national football team.
Playing career
Yakin spent the longest spell of his career playing for his hometown c ...
no longer considered Yapi Yapo within his plans, the contract between club and player was not prolonged and he departed as free agent. During his time with the club, Yapi Yapo played a total of 119 games for Basel scoring a total of nine goals. 58 of these games were in the
Swiss Super League, seven in the
Swiss Cup, 15 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 39 were friendly games. He scored three goals in the domestic league and the other nine were scored during the test games.
In August 2013 Yapi Yapo signed for
Dubai CSC
Dubai Cultural Sports Club () was a football club based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
In 2017 merged with Al Shabab to join Al-Ahli to rebrand the club into Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai FC.
History
The club was relegated in 2007 to the UAE ...
.
On 22 June 2014 it was announced that Yapi Yapo had signed with
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
on a one-year contract.
On 9 November 2014,
Aarau player and former Basel teammate
Sandro Wieser committed a knee-high challenge on Yapi Yapo in a league match, leaving the latter's career in serious doubt. He suffered torn anterior and cruciate ligaments, a torn meniscus, a torn kneecap tendon, serious cartilage damage and deep bruising to his thigh. Wieser was shown a straight red card for the tackle, and was later suspended for six matches by the Swiss league. With Yapi Yapo highly unlikely to ever play again, Zürich president Ancillo Canepa launched legal proceedings against Wieser.
Yapi Yapo did eventually return to action as a first-half substitute, in a 3–3 draw against FC Thun at the Letzigrund on 13 September 2015, scoring the third Zürich goal in the process.
On 26 August 2017
FC Aarau
FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League.
History
FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local br ...
announced that they had signed Yapi Yapo on a loan period for one season.
On 20 July 2018 it was announced that Yapi Yapo would return to FC Basel. Preparing for a course as trainer, he was to help with the Basel U-21 team in the
Promotion League, the third tier of Swiss football. In the announcement it was also suggested that he could help with the coaching team.
International career
Yapi Yapo was part of the
Ivory Coast team at 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 th ...
in Germany. He was also selected in the preliminary Ivory Coast squad for the
2010 FIFA World Cup
, image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg
, size = 200px
, caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
, but was eventually dropped along with
Bakari Koné
Bakari Koné (born 17 September 1981) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a winger.
Club career
Early career
Koné was born in Abidjan. Like many other Ivorian stars, he began his career at the famed youth academy at A ...
and
Emerse Faé, who played with him in the 2006 World Cup. He retired from the Ivory Coast national team after this.
Honours
ASEC Mimosas
*
Côte d'Ivoire Premier Division: 1999-2000, 2000–01
Basel
*
Swiss Super League:
2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
,
2011–12,
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
*
Swiss Cup:
2011–12
*
Uhrencup
The Uhrencup is a club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local industry on the cultural lives of the areas residents. The tou ...
: 2011
FC Zürich
*
Swiss Cup:
2015–16
Ivory Coast
*
Africa Cup of Nations runner-up:
2006
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yapi Yapo, Gilles
Living people
1982 births
Footballers from Abidjan
Men's association football midfielders
2002 African Cup of Nations players
2006 Africa Cup of Nations players
2006 FIFA World Cup players
FC Basel players
BSC Young Boys players
FC Nantes players
FC Zürich players
FC Aarau players
Ivorian men's footballers
Ivory Coast men's international footballers
K.S.K. Beveren players
Ligue 1 players
Swiss Super League players
Belgian Pro League players
Dubai CSC players
ASEC Mimosas players
Ivorian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in France
Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland
Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium
Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates
Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
UAE Pro League players