Cheick Oumar Doucouré (born 8 January 2000) is a Malian 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 lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for club

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

and the Mali national team.

Club career

Lens

Doucouré developed as a youth player at JMG Academy Bamako. He then spent the 2016–17 season with Real Bamako before moving the following season to

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

. Doucouré quickly cemented his place at Lens in the

2018–19 Ligue 2 The 2018–19 Ligue 2 (referred to as the Domino's Ligue 2 for sponsorship reasons) season was the 80th season since its establishment. Teams Team changes Promoted from 2017–18 Championnat National *Red Star *Béziers *Grenoble Relegated ...

campaign with him playing a total of 34 games across all competitions that season.

Crystal Palace

On 11 July 2022, Doucouré was signed by English club

on a five-year contract. In his first season, he was named the club's

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

. On 25 November 2023, Doucouré sustained an Achilles injury in a 2–1 loss to

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

, likely ruling him out for the rest of the 2023–24 season. On 28 February 2024, he extended his contract with Palace until 2029.

International career

In October 2018, Doucouré received his first call-up to the Mali national team. He made his debut for Mali in a 1–0

2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, the 32nd edition of the international men's association footbal ...

win over

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

on 17 November 2018.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Individual *

Player of the Season:

2022–23 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 ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Crystal Palace F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Doucouré, Cheick 2000 births Living people Footballers from Bamako Men's association football midfielders Malian men's footballers RC Lens players Crystal Palace F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Premier League players Mali men's international footballers Mali men's youth international footballers 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Malian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in France Malian expatriate sportspeople in England Malian expatriate sportspeople in France JMG Academy (Bamako) players 21st-century Malian sportsmen