Jules Olivier Koundé (born 12 November 1998) is a French 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or right-back for La Liga club Barcelona and the France national team.

Early life

Jules Olivier Koundé was born on 12 November 1998 in Paris.

Club career

Bordeaux

Koundé started in his first team debut for Bordeaux in the 2–1 Coupe de France away loss to Granville in the round of 64 on 7 January 2018, playing the full 90 minutes of normal time and the full 30 minutes of extra time. He made his

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

debut for Bordeaux in a 1–0 away win over

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

on 13 January 2018. On 10 February 2018, Koundé scored the opening goal of a 3–2 Ligue 1 home win over Amiens; it was his first career Ligue 1 goal and his first competitive goal for Bordeaux's first team.

Sevilla

On 3 July 2019, he signed for Spanish club Sevilla. The transfer fee paid to Bordeaux was reported as €25 million. In his first season at Sevilla, he helped the club win the UEFA Europa League for a record sixth time and was named in the competition's team of the season.

Barcelona

On 29 July 2022, Barcelona announced an agreement with Sevilla for the transfer of Koundé. Koundé missed Barcelona's first match of the La Liga season against Rayo Vallecano as the club could not register him as they were over the league's salary cap limit. He also missed Barcelona's second league match against

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

on 21 August for the same reason. Kounde was registered with La Liga on 26 August and made his official debut for the club two days later in a 4–0 win over Real Valladolid at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

International career

On 18 May 2021, Koundé was selected by Didier Deschamps as part of the 26 players that formed the France national team for UEFA Euro 2020. He made his debut on 2 June 2021 in a friendly against Wales, substituting

Benjamin Pavard Benjamin Jacques Marcel Pavard (born 28 March 1996) is a French professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Bayern Munich and the France national team. Although usually deployed as a right-back, he is also capable of playing ...

at half-time. On 10 October 2021, Koundé started in France's win over Spain in the 2021 UEFA Nations League Final.

Personal life

Koundé has French and Beninese nationality.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Sevilla * UEFA Europa League: 2019–20 Barcelona * La Liga:

2022–23 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 ...

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

France * UEFA Nations League:

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 ...

* FIFA World Cup runner-up:

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

Individual *UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season: 2019–20 * La Liga Team of the Season: 2021–22,

References

External links

Profile
at the FC Barcelona website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kounde, Jules 1998 births Living people Footballers from Paris French men's footballers Men's association football defenders FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Sevilla FC players FC Barcelona players Ligue 1 players La Liga players UEFA Europa League winning players France men's youth international footballers France men's under-21 international footballers France men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Nations League-winning players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Spain Black French sportspeople French sportspeople of Beninese descent