Sikou Niakaté (born 10 July 1999) is a 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

club S.C. Braga. Born in France, he plays for the Mali national team.

Personal life

Sikou Niakaté was born in Montreuil, France. He holds French and Malian nationalities.

Club career

Niakaté made his professional debut for

Valenciennes FC Valenciennes Football Club (; commonly known as Valenciennes, VA or VAFC) is a French professional football club based in Valenciennes. The club was founded in 1914 and currently play in Championnat National, the third tier of French footbal ...

in a 1–0

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

loss to

Nîmes Olympique Nîmes Olympique (commonly referred to as simply Nîmes) is a French association football club based in Nîmes. The club was founded on 12 April 1937 and currently plays in the Championnat National, the third tier of French football. The Sta ...

on 31 July 2017, making his appearance at the age of 18. On 31 August 2018, the last day of the 2018 summer transfer window, Niakaté joined

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

side

Guingamp Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 7,115 as of 2020, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Guin ...

on a five-year contract. He was immediately loaned back to Valenciennes for the remainder of the

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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. On 12 August 2021, he joined

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

on a season-long loan with an option to buy. On 28 June 2022, Niakaté moved on loan to

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

in Portugal. Braga held an option to buy his rights at the end of the loan for €1.8 million, and if he played in half of the official games in the season, the option would become an obligation to buy. On 7 June 2023, Braga announced the triggering of the clause, with Niakaté signing a five-year contract. On 20 September 2023, Niakate's 88th minute

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

prompted SC Braga 2–1 home defeat against

SSC Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli (), commonly known as SSC Napoli or simply Napoli, is an Italian professional football club based in Naples, Campania that currently competes in the Serie A, the highest league of Italian football. Napoli are am ...

in SC Braga's first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

game in a decade.

International career

Niakaté was called up to the France U17 national team in December 2015, becoming the first player in

Évreux FC 27 Évreux Football Club 27 is a French association football club founded in 2009. They are based in Évreux, Normandy and as of 2023–24 they play in Régional 2, the seventh tier of the French football league system, after an administrative releg ...

history to do so. Niakaté was called up to the Mali national team for the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

match against

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 ...

. He officially decided to represent the home country of his parents, Mali, in 2023. He made his debut for the African nation in a 4–0 victory of Mali against

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

during the

2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, the 34th edition of the international men's fo ...

, resulting in their qualification for the 2024 tournament.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Braga *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

: 2023–24

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Niakate, Sikou 1999 births Living people Malian men's footballers Footballers from Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis Black French sportspeople French men's footballers Men's association football central defenders France men's youth international footballers Mali men's international footballers Valenciennes FC players En Avant Guingamp players FC Metz players S.C. Braga players Ligue 2 players Ligue 1 players Primeira Liga players Malian expatriate men's footballers French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Malian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal French expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 2023 Africa Cup of Nations players 21st-century French sportsmen