Serge Wilfried Kanon (born 6 July 1993) is an Ivorian 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 mainly as a centre-back for Finnish club

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

and the Ivory Coast national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in Taabo, Ivory Coast, Kanon made his debut for Empoli's junior team in 2010 in the Primavera championship. At the age of 17, he scored for the youth side in a 2–2 draw with

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...

Gloria Bistrița and Corona Brașov

After impressing during his trial period at Gloria Bistrița in Romania, club coach Nicolae Manea decided to offer Kanon a contract. He made his

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently Sponsor (commercial), sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It ...

debut on 22 July, in a 2–1 defeat against Astra Ploiești in which he played 40 minutes of the game. In the 2012–13 season, Kanon and several other players followed Manea at Corona Brașov. He featured as a

left-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 ...

in the campaign opener, a 1–0 defeat to Oțelul Galați at home. Kanon established himself as a regular starter, but missed the sixth fixture due to work permit issues.

ADO Den Haag

Following the work permit issues at Corona Brașov, Kanon was released to sign a two-year contract with

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

team ADO Den Haag. The issues also continued in the Netherlands and prevented him from playing during the first half of the season. On 25 January 2014, he made his debut for the club in the 3–2 home win over

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

. In July 2015, Kanon was close to signing for Ligue 1 club

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

, which offered a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

500,000 fee for his transfer. There, he would had been reunited with manager

Hervé Renard Hervé Jean-Marie Roger Renard (born 30 September 1968) is a French professional football coach and former player who is the manager of the Saudi Arabia national team. Renard has previously been the manager of Zambia national team, with whom ...

, who coached him during Ivory Coast's conquest of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015. Medical examinations which revealed

cardiac arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults ...

made the move fall through, and Kanon returned to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

to undergo heart surgery. During the 2016–17 season, he totalled 28 appearances and scored once. His only goal came on the last matchday of the season in a 4–1 win over

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

Pyramids

Kanon joined Egyptian Premier League side

Pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

on 18 September 2019. On 1 February 2021, he agreed to a six-month loan with Qatar Stars League side

Al-Gharafa Al-Gharafa Sports Club ( ar, نادي الغرافة الرياضي) is a Qatari multisports club based in the Al Gharrafa district of Al Rayyan. It is best known for its football team, although it also has teams for other sports. It was estab ...

HIFK

On 28 March 2022, Kanon signed with

in Finland.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Ivory Coast's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kanon goal.''

Honours

Ivory Coast * Africa Cup of Nations: 2015

References

External links

* * *
Voetbal International profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanon, Wilfried 1993 births Living people Ivorian expatriate footballers Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Egypt Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in France Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Ivorian footballers Ivory Coast international footballers 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players ACF Gloria Bistrița players ADO Den Haag players Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Al-Gharafa SC players Association football defenders CSM Corona Brașov footballers Empoli F.C. players HIFK Fotboll players Pyramids FC players Liga I players Eredivisie players Egyptian Premier League players Qatar Stars League players Expatriate footballers in Egypt Expatriate footballers in Finland Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Qatar Expatriate footballers in Romania Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands People from Lagunes District