Bote Ridle Nzuzi Baku (born Bote Nzuzi Baku; 8 April 1998) is a German 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

right-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 ...

, winger or

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

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club VfL Wolfsburg and the Germany national team.

Club career

Mainz 05

In the 2017–18 season, Baku joined the squad of Mainz 05 II, making his debut in the Regionalliga Südwest on 30 July 2017 in a 3–0 home win against

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

. Baku scored his first goal for the reserve team on 16 September 2017, scoring Mainz's second in the 82nd minute of the 2–0 home win against Kickers Offenbach. Baku made his professional debut for

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top ...

in the

2017–18 DFB-Pokal The 2017–18 DFB-Pokal was the 75th season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 1 ...

on 19 December 2017, starting in the 3–1 home win against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

. He made his

debut on 29 April 2018 in the 3–0 home win against RB Leipzig. Baku secured the victory for Mainz, scoring the final goal of the match in the 90th minute.

VfL Wolfsburg

2020–21 season

On 1 October 2020, Baku completed a move to fellow

side VfL Wolfsburg, for an undisclosed fee on a five-year contract. He made his club debut three days later in a 0–0 draw with

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

, replacing Renato Steffen who had tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in a 1–1 draw with Hertha Berlin on 1 November. Baku impressed in his first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

at the club and was named to the Bundesliga Team of the Season. He contributed with a league-leading 2583 intensive runs after 31 matchdays, including an also league-leading 993 sprints, over 150 more than the second name on that particular list. He scored six goals and supplied a further four assists to go with 82 crosses, 32 shots, and 305 successful tackles.

2021–22 season

Baku scored in Wolfsburg's opening match of the 2021–22 season on 8 August 2021, a 3–1 win over

fourth division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

club

SC Preußen Münster SC Preußen Münster (English: Prussia Münster) is a German sports club based in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia which is mostly recognised for its football section. The football team currently plays in Regionalliga West which is the fourth tie ...

in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. However, Wolfsburg used a total of six substitutes, while only five were allowed, and were disqualified after a protest by Preußen Münster. Baku scored again two weeks later in a come-from-behind

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

win over Hertha Berlin.

International career

Baku earned his first call-up for the German senior team on 8 November 2020. His debut came on 11 November 2020, in a friendly game against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. On 6 June 2021, he won the UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021 with the Germany U21, giving the assist to the solitary goal against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Style of play

Baku has been described as an energetic right full-back who can both inflict damage going forward while possessing the defensive nous to hold things together defensively when on the back foot.

Personal life

Born Bote Nzuzi Baku on 8 April 1998 in Mainz, Germany, Baku is of Congolese descent. He is the twin brother of Makana Baku, who is also a professional footballer. He was given the nickname "Ridle" by his father, who was a fan of German footballer Karl-Heinz Riedle. In 2018, Baku had his name legally changed to include Ridle.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 14 November 2021'' :''Germany score listed first, score column indicates score after each Baku goal''

Honours

Germany U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the compe ...

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 ...

Individual *UEFA European Under-21 Championship Team of the Tournament:

Team of the Season:

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 ...

References

External links

Profile
at the VfL Wolfsburg website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baku, Ridle 1998 births Living people Footballers from Mainz German men's footballers German sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Men's association football wingers Men's association football utility players 1. FSV Mainz 05 II players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players VfL Wolfsburg players Regionalliga players Bundesliga players Germany men's youth international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers Germany men's international footballers