Jean-Paul Yaovi Dosseh Abalo (born 26 June 1975 in

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

) is a former

lese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender and current coach of the Togo national under-20 football team.

Club career

Abalo played for six seasons in the French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

with Amiens SC. In 2006, he moved to

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

in Cyprus, where he won the 2005–06 Cypriot Cup. Whilst at Amiens, Abalo played in the 2001 Coupe de France Final. It was his penalty miss that proved decisive as Amiens lost to Strasbourg.

International career

He was the captain of the

Togo national football team The Togo national football team ( French: Équipe nationale de football du Togo) represents Togo in international football and is controlled by the Togolese Football Federation. The national football team of Togo made their debut in the FIFA Wor ...

, was called up to the 2006 World Cup, and represented his country at four

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 ...

tournaments. His contribution to the team's World Cup campaign was overshadowed by the red card he received in the opening match against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, as his side suffered a 1–2 defeat.

Coaching career

In January 2018, Abalo was announced as the Togo national under-20 football team coach for the 2018 Toulon Tournament.

Honours

APOEL *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

: 2005–06

References

* 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Lomé Togolese footballers Togolese expatriate footballers Togo international footballers Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players APOEL FC players LB Châteauroux players Amiens SC players OC Agaza players USL Dunkerque players Al-Merrikh SC players Ligue 2 players Cypriot First Division 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 Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Association football defenders 21st-century Togolese people {{Togo-footy-bio-stub