Kanga Gauthier Akalé (born 7 March 1981) is an Ivorian former 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 played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Whilst at Auxerre he helped them win the Coupe de France in both 2003 and 2005, playing in both finals. In June 2007, Akalé signed a four-year contract with

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), co ...

for an undisclosed transfer fee, and he was loaned to

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

in January 2008, then

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football club based in Huelva, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 23 December 1889, 2 days before Christmas, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play i ...

. Originally a striker, he started playing as a central midfielder or left winger. He is described as a pacey player with top technical abilities. In 2011, Akalé joined Qatari club

Lekhwiya SC Al-Duhail Sports Club ( ar, نادي الدحيل الرياضي), formerly Lekhwiya SC, is a Qatari sports club, best known for its football team, which plays in the Qatar Stars League. The club is based in the Duhail district in the city ...

to cover for injured striker, and countryman

Bakari Koné Bakari Koné (born 17 September 1981) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a winger. Club career Early career Koné was born in Abidjan. Like many other Ivorian stars, he began his career at the famed youth academy at A ...

. He made his debut in the 2011 Qatari Stars Cup on 11 November, and scored a hat-trick against

Al Rayyan Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...

in a 3–1 win. On 31 January 2012, Akalé signed a six-month contract with Greek club Panetolikos F.C. About three months after becoming a free agent, on 24 October 2012, Akalé joined French Ligue 2 side Arles-Avignon on a two-year contract.

International career

He has 35

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for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

, and was called up to the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:Source:

International goals

:Source:

Honors

Ivory Coast * Africa Cup of Nations runner-up: 2006

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akale, Kanga Living people 1981 births Footballers from Abidjan Men's association football midfielders Ivorian men's footballers Ivory Coast men's international footballers Swiss Super League players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players La Liga players Qatar Stars League players Stella Club d'Adjamé players FC Sion players FC Zürich players AJ Auxerre players RC Lens players Olympique de Marseille players Recreativo de Huelva players Al-Duhail SC players Panetolikos F.C. players AC Arlésien players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Ivorian expatriate men's footballers Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in France Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland