Guy Kokou Acolatse (born 28 April 1942) is a Togolese former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He was the first Black professional footballer to play in Germany.

Career

Acolatse made his debut for the Togo national team at the age of 17. He joined one of the two major clubs in Lomé, the Togolese capital, from Kpalimé. He was courted by French and Belgian clubs but rejected their offers. German coach Otto Westphal, who had coached the Togo national team and who had become FC St. Pauli coach, convinced Acolatse to join the club in August 1963. The club played in the Regionalliga Nord, which was the German second tier at the time. He made his debut in a 4–1 league win against

Altona 93 Altonaer FC von 1893, commonly known as Altona 93 and abbreviated to AFC, is a German association football club based in the Altona district of the city of Hamburg. The football team is a department of a larger sports club which also offers ha ...

. Acolatse spent three years at the clubs, making 43 appearances and scoring six goals. He then played a further three years for HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst, another Hamburg-based side. He returned to FC St. Pauli in 1970 to play for the club's second team, where he played for three years, occasionally helping out the first team.

Personal life

Acolatse moved to Saint-Denis, Paris in 1980 where he coached the third team of Paris Saint-Germain and worked at Ford. As of April 2020, he was retired and still lived in the Paris suburb where he trained children in an honorary capacity. In 2021, he featured in ', a documentary detailing the experiences of Black players in German professional football.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acolatse, Guy Living people 1942 births Togolese footballers Association football midfielders Togo international footballers Regionalliga players FC St. Pauli players FC St. Pauli II players 21st-century Togolese people