Wilfrid Jaures Kaptoum (born 7 July 1996) is a Cameroonian 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

central 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 ...

for

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at the ...

Club career

Barcelona

Born in Douala, Kaptoum joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

's youth ranks in 2008, aged 12, after a stint in Samuel Eto'o's foundation. He was subsequently loaned to neighbouring UE Sant Andreu, and in June 2014 was promoted to the reserves in

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. Kaptoum played his first match as a professional on 23 August 2014, starting in a 0–2 away loss against CA Osasuna. He scored his first goal on 19 October, netting the second in a 4–1 home win against AD Alcorcón. On 28 October 2015, Kaptoum made his debut for Barcelona's first team, starting in a goalless draw away to

CF Villanovense Club de Fútbol Villanovense is a Spanish football team based in Villanueva de la Serena, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 1992 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 4, holding home matches at ''Estadio Romero Cuerda' ...

in the season's

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

. Kaptoum's first appearance in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

came on 9 December 2015, in a 1–1 draw away to Leverkusen. In another 1–1 draw game against Valencia CF on 10 February 2016, he scored his debut goal for the first team 2 minutes after coming in as a substitute in the second leg of Copa del Rey semifinals. His goal also served to extend FC Barcelona's unbeaten run to 29 games, breaking the previous record of 28 games set under

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...

in the 2010–11 season. Kaptoum sustained a knee injury which kept him out of action for five months. He returned to fitness in December 2017. On 29 January 2018, he agreed to terminate his contract with Barcelona.

Betis

On 31 January 2018, two days after leaving Barcelona, Kaptoum signed with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

and was initially assigned to

the B-team The B-Team was a professional wrestling tag team in WWE, composed of Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. The team are former one-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. They also formerly performed as The Social Outcasts and The Miztourage from 2016 to 2018 be ...

. He made his first team debut on 4 October, replacing

Sergio León Sergio León Limones (; born 6 January 1989) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Real Valladolid as a forward. An academy graduate of Betis where he was mainly a reserve, he played more frequently at Reus before being signed by Elche in 201 ...

in a 3–0 home defeat of F91 Dudelange, for the season's

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. Kaptoum made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

debut on 3 February 2019, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 home win against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

. On 10 January 2020, Kaptoum joined UD Almería on loan for the remainder of the season. On 5 October 2020, Kaptoum terminated his contract with the ''Verdiblancos''.

New England Revolution

On 23 December 2020, the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

announced the signing of Kaptoum on a free transfer. He scored his first goal for the club against Chicago Fire on 16 October 2021. Following the 2022 season, New England opted to decline his contract option.

Las Palmas

On 13 January 2023, Kaptoum returned to Spain and its second division, after signing a short-term deal with

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Barcelona *

: 2015–16 * UEFA Youth League: 2013–14 New England Revolution *

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 19 ...

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 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaptoum, Wilfrid 1996 births Living people Footballers from Douala Cameroonian footballers Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players Betis Deportivo Balompié footballers Real Betis players UD Almería players New England Revolution players UD Las Palmas players Cameroon under-20 international footballers Cameroonian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Spain 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Major League Soccer players