José Kanté Martínez (born 27 September 1990) is a 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 plays as a forward. Born in Spain, he played for the Guinea national team, representing the country in three Africa Cup of Nations.

Club career

Born in Sabadell,

Province of Barcelona Barcelona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is .Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, Spain, Kanté only played lower league or amateur football in his country of birth initially, representing CE Manresa,

UE Rubí The Unió Esportiva Rubí is a football club in Rubí, Barcelona, which is currently playing in Group 5 of the Tercera División, equivalent to the fourth category of the Spanish football league system. History It was June 30, 1912, when a gro ...

AE Prat Associació Esportiva Prat is a Spanish football team based in El Prat de Llobregat, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1945 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3, holding home games at ''Estadi Sagnier'', with a 500-s ...

(all in his native region) and

Atlético Malagueño Club Atlético Malagueño, shortened to Atlético Malagueño, () is a Spanish football team based in Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1990, it is the reserve team of Málaga CF, and currently plays in Tercera Fede ...

. He scored his first goal in the Segunda División B while at the service of the third club, in a 2–1 away win against

CF Badalona Club de Fútbol Badalona () is a Spanish football team based in Badalona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1903 it plays in Tercera Federación – Group 5, temporarily holding home games at Estadi Municipal de Badalona, wit ...

on 11 November 2012. In June 2014, Kanté signed with

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

side AEK Larnaca FC, where he shared teams with a host of compatriots. He played his first top-flight game on 31 August of that year, coming on as a second-half substitute in the 0–2 home loss to

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

. Kanté moved to the Polish

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 ...

in January 2016, going on to remain several years in the country with

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning the second-most Po ...

and

Wisła Płock Wisła Płock Spółka Akcyjna (''Wisła Płock S.A.''), commonly referred to as Wisła Płock (), is a Polish professional football club, based in Płock, Masovian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national fo ...

. In the 2016–17 season he scored ten goals, helping to a final ninth-place finish. On 18 June 2018, Kanté signed for Legia Warsaw in the same league. The following 31 January, he joined

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2. ...

on loan for the remainder of the campaign in the Segunda División. Kanté terminated his Legia contract by mutual consent on 23 February 2021. On 10 March, he moved to

Kazakhstan Premier League The Kazakhstan Professional Football League ( kk, Қазақстан Премьер Лигасы, ''Qazaqstan Premer Ligasy''), commonly referred to as Kazakh Premier League or simply Premier League, is the top division of football in Kazakhstan ...

club

FC Kairat Football Club Kairat ( kk, Qaırat Fýtbol Klýby) is a professional football club based in Almaty, which plays in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. Founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma-Ata, they became Urozhay in ...

on a deal until December 2022, but left four months after it expired. On 27 August 2022, Kanté joined Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C. on a free transfer. On 24 September, in his third appearance and first start in the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association ...

, he scored all of his team's goals in a 4–3 victory over leaders Wuhan Three Towns FC, which ended the opponent's 17-game unbeaten run since getting promoted the previous season. In 2023, Kante signed for J1 League club

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

. On 27 November that year, having scored 12 times in all competitions, the 33-year-old announced his retirement at the end of the campaign.

International career

Of Guinean descent, Kanté opted to represent that nation even though he did not speak French nor any of the local dialects when he was first summoned by manager Kanfory Lappé Bangoura in November 2016. He earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

on the 13th, playing 25 minutes in a 1–2 home defeat against DR Congo for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Kanté was included in the squads for Guinea at the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

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 coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

and 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Guinea goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kanté goal.''

Honours

Legia Warsaw *

: 2019–20,

2020–21 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 ...

Kairat *

Kazakhstan Cup The Kazakhstan Cup is the main knockout cup competition in Kazakhstan football, run by the Football Federation of Kazakhstan. The tournament was initially founded in 1936 as a competition for clubs in the Kazakh SSR ; kk, Қазақ Сове� ...

Urawa Red Diamonds * AFC Champions League:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kante, Jose 1990 births Living people Spanish people of Guinean descent Guinean people of Spanish descent Spanish men's footballers Guinean men's footballers Footballers from Sabadell Men's association football forwards Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CE Manresa players UE Rubí players AE Prat players Atlético Malagueño players Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers Cypriot First Division players AEK Larnaca FC players Ekstraklasa players Górnik Zabrze players Wisła Płock players Legia Warsaw players Kazakhstan Premier League players FC Kairat players Chinese Super League players Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C. players J1 League players Urawa Red Diamonds players Guinea men's international footballers 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players 2023 Africa Cup of Nations players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Guinean expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Japan Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Japan