Somen Alfred Tchoyi (born 29 March 1983) is a Cameroonian 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 an

attacking 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 ...

. He played for the Cameroon national team from to 2008 to 2011 scoring two goals in 15 appearances.

Club career

Odd Grenland & Stabæk IF

Tchoyi signed for

Odd Grenland Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

in time for the 2005–2006 season from

Union Douala Union Sportive de Douala is a Cameroonian professional football club based in Douala, that competes in the Elite One. History It was founded in 1958 and played its home matches in the Stade de la Réunification. Achievements National *Cameroon ...

. After Odd purchased Tommy Svindal Larsen, he played less due to the two not mixing well on the field and due to restrictions on non-EU players in Norway. Subsequently, Tchoyi was sold to Stabæk during the 2006–07 season for 3.000.000 NOK (approx. £330,000).

West Bromwich Albion

During the early summer of 2010, Tchoyi was reportedly the subject of interest from

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

clubs, including

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

, Fulham and

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, but on 20 August 2010, after some lengthy preparation work, including a successful appeal for a UK work permit, newly promoted

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

acquired the player's services for two years on an undisclosed fee. He made his debut for the club when he came on as a substitute in a 1–0 defeat to Liverpool on 29 August 2010. He scored his first goal for the club against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 16 October 2010. He scored his second goal for the club in the 4–1 win over

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

in the English League Cup on 27 October 2010. He scored his third goal for West Bromwich Albion against Everton in a Premier League fixture on 27 November 2010, with a fourth the following weekend against Newcastle United. In a feat revered as 'Tchoyi Story 3' by Baggies fans (referencing the film ''

Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to '' Toy Story 2'' (1999). It wa ...

'') he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against Newcastle United at St. James' Park on the last day of the 2010–11 season, rescuing a point for the Baggies after being down 3–0 early into the second half. He picked up his form by starting West Brom's first game of the 2011–12 campaign at home to Manchester United, linking up well with the club's new record signing

Shane Long Shane Patrick Long (born 22 January 1987) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL Championship club Reading and the Republic of Ireland national team. He also played hurling for the Tipperary county team in his early ...

. Despite a battling performance to level the score at 1–1, United won the game 2–1. Tchoyi scored his last goal for the club away to Fulham to level the score at 1–1 late on in the game. He was an enigmatic but liked player at the Hawthorns, earning the nickname 'big unit'.

FC Augsburg

Following 41 games at West Brom netting 7 goals, Tchoyi was released. He subsequently signed a contract with Augsburg in Germany until the end of the season with an option for an extension.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tchoyi, Somen 1983 births Living people Footballers from Douala Men's association football midfielders Cameroonian men's footballers Union Douala players Odds BK players FC Augsburg players Stabæk Fotball players FC Red Bull Salzburg players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Eliteserien players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Premier League players 2. Bundesliga players Cameroon men's international footballers Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in England Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Germany