Issouf Ouattara (born 7 October 1988) is a Burkinabé 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 ...

Club career

Born in Ouagadougou, Ouattara began his career in Etoile Filante Ouagadougou. In July 2008 he signed with Portugal's

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. M ...

in the second division, and played his first game on 30 August in a 1–0 home loss against

Portimonense Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. It als ...

where he came on as a second-half substitute. He contributed with 26 matches (one goal) as the club promoted back to the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

, but appeared significantly less in the following year. In September 2011, after spending the 2010–11 season on loan to

C.D. Trofense Clube Desportivo Trofense (), commonly known as Trofense, is a Portuguese football club based in Trofa, Portugal. Founded in 1930, it plays in Segunda Liga, holding home games at '' Estádio do Clube Desportivo Trofense'', with a capacity of 5,0 ...

– second level, less than one third of the matches played – Ouattara left Leiria and signed for Nîmes Olympique in the French division three. In the following campaign he moved teams and countries again, joining Bulgaria's

PSFC Chernomorets Burgas PSFC Chernomorets Burgas ( bg, ПСФК Черноморец Бургас) or simply Chernomorets ( bg, Черноморец) was a Bulgarian football club from the city of Burgas. The club never won any major competition, its most notable achi ...

after a period of trial. In his only full season in the country, Ouattara was voted his club's ''Best Foreign Player'' in a poll conducted in its official website, earning over 1,000 votes. He was released in late 2013.

International career

Ouattara made his debut for Burkina Faso not yet aged 19, helping to a 1–1 home draw against Mozambique on 24 March 2007 for the

2008 Africa Cup of Nations The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the MTN Africa Cup of Nations due to the competition's sponsorship by MTN, was the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football tournament for nations affiliated to the Confederat ...

qualifiers. He was selected for the 2013 edition of the tournament on 8 January, playing against Togo in the quarter-finalsJonathan Pitroipa headed the winner in extra-time to send Burkina Faso into the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals.
; BBC Sport, 3 February 2013 in an eventual runner-up finish for the nation. :''Scores and results list Burkina Faso's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ouattara goal.''

References

External links