Stevy Okitokandjo (born 18 June 1994) is a Dutch 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 ...

for Portuguese club Trofense. He spent his entire career in the lower leagues of Belgium and Portugal

Career

Born in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

, to a family of Congolese descent, Okitokandjo played in his youth for Olympia Haarlem. At the age of 8, he was accepted into the academy of

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

, but his family moved to Belgium, telling him at first that it was only on holiday; he was then not allowed to join high level youth academies due his parents' emphasis on education. When he was 17, his club

Dender The Dender (Dutch, ) or Dendre ( French, ) is a 65-kilometre (40 mi) long river in Belgium, the right tributary of the river Scheldt. The confluence of the two rivers is in the Belgian town of Dendermonde. The Western or Little Dender is 22 kilome ...

went bankrupt and he moved to

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, a ...

. Okitokandjo did not make a top-flight appearance in Belgium for Gent or for

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

, and was loaned to

Roeselare Roeselare (; french: Roulers, ; West Flemish: ''Roeseloare'') is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. The ...

and

Patro Eisden Koninklijke Patro Eisden Maasmechelen is a Belgian football club from the municipality of Maasmechelen in Limburg. The original club name was ''V.V. Patro Eisden'' until 1992 when they changed to ''K. Patro Eisden''. In 1998, it changed to ''K. ...

in the second tier. He trialled with Beerschot in 2016 but on the day that he was due to sign, he suffered a car crash, which he alleged to be due to sabotage by an envious neighbour. After Beerschot postponed signing him, Okitokandjo signed for third-tier

Virton Virton (; Gaumais: ''Viertån''; wa, Vierton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. It is also the administrative centre of the district (''arrondissement'') of the same name, as well as the princ ...

, where he was scouted by

Leixões The Port of Leixões ( pt, Porto de Leixões, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city i ...

after scoring twice and assisting another goal in 20 minutes; the Portuguese

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club were in Belgium to watch one of his teammates. Struggling with the new language and climate, he was loaned to

Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense () is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth tier of Portuguese football. It holds home matches at the ...

in the league below. After trials at

FC Eindhoven FC Eindhoven is a Dutch football club based in Eindhoven, North Brabant. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie (second tier of Dutch football), and are one of two professional clubs which are based in the city of Eindhoven, the other one bei ...

and for Slovak club

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 55,000, which makes it the eighth largest municip ...

, he joined Olhanense permanently. Olhanense's main financial backer died, putting the club into financial turmoil and making Okitokandjo sleep in a room in the stadium for four months rather than in the apartment he had been promised in his contract. He then moved to Castelo Branco in the same league. He was the top scorer in the 2019–20

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

with six goals, four of which in a 7–0 win at Eléctrico in the first round. On 30 June 2020, Okitokandjo moved up a league to

Mafra Mafra is a Czech media group that publishes printed and internet media, headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a subsidiary of Agrofert holding conglomerate owned by trust of Andrej Babiš, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Repu ...

. He scored 7 goals in 27 games in his first season, including a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

on his debut on 13 September in a 4–0 opening win at

Cova da Piedade Cova da Piedade is a former civil parish in the municipality of Almada, Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Almada, Cova da Piedade, Pragal e Cacilhas. The population in 2011 was 19,904, in an area of ...

and two on 20 December as they came back to draw 2–2 at home to

U.D. Oliveirense União Desportiva Oliveirense (UDO), commonly known as Oliveirense, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Oliveira de Azeméis, in Aveiro District. The club was founded on 25 October 1922. The main football team currently plays at the Es ...

. Okitokandjo moved to Trofense, also in the Portuguese second tier, on 9 July 2022. He scored on his debut on 6 August, as the season began with a 3–2 home win over

Belenenses SAD B-SAD is a Portuguese football club from Lisbon founded on 30 June 2018 as an independent entity. A rebel offshoot of Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, they last played in the Primeira Liga, being relegated to Liga Portugal 2 for 2022–23. They ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Okitokandjo, Stevy 1994 births Living people Footballers from Haarlem Dutch footballers Dutch people of Republic of the Congo descent Association football forwards K.A.A. Gent players K.V. Mechelen players K.S.V. Roeselare players K. Patro Eisden Maasmechelen players R.E. Virton players Leixões S.C. players S.C. Olhanense players Sport Benfica e Castelo Branco players C.D. Mafra players C.D. Trofense players Challenger Pro League players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Portugal