Souleymane Coulibaly

Souleymane Coulibaly (born 26 December 1994) is an Ivorian footballer who plays as a centre forward for Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock.

Biography

As a 13-year-old Coulibaly emigrated to Italy to avoid conflict in Côte d'Ivoire.^[1] He joined his father who had married an Italian woman.^[2][3]

Club career

Siena

Soon after arriving in Italy he signed for Junior Camp Arezzo Football Academy, one of the best academies in Tuscany. He played in the Allievi Regionali team and after a few months President Umberto Zerbini suggested his name to Siena.^[4] In 2010–11 he played 10 games for the Siena under-19s, scoring once.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 18 July 2011 Tottenham Hotspur confirmed they had signed Coulibaly beating off the advances of a host of leading European clubs including Real Madrid and Manchester United following his golden boot-winning performance at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup.^[5] 'Soli' scored for the Tottenham Hotspur XI on his debut against Brighton and Hove Albion in Algarve.

Coulibaly then scored twice in a 7–1 win for Spurs youth over Inter Milan in their second group game of the NextGen Tournament on 31 August 2011. He also opened the scoring in their third group game away at PSV Eindhoven, where they won 2–1. On 22 December 2011 Coulibaly scored an injury time winner against Stevenage in the FA Youth Cup, followed by a goal in a 2–1 victory over Cardiff City in the fourth round on 11 January 2012. He made his first team debut as a 65th-minute substitute in a pre-season friendly against Stevenage on 18 July 2012 and managed to score the winner.

Loan to Grosseto

On 25 January 2013, Coulibaly joined Italian Serie B club Grosseto on loan until the end of the season where he scored two goals from 12 appearances.^[6]

Bari

In September 2014, Coulibaly was sold to Bari and was immediately loaned to Pistoiese.^[7]

Peterborough United

Coulibaly was revealed as a Peterborough United player after his trial at the club on 20 July 2015 Along with Englishman Andrew Fox and Irishman Kieran Sadlier. Coulibaly has started five games for Peterborough, coming on nine times as a Substitute, scoring eight goals.^[8] On 24 March 2016 Coulibaly joined Newport County on loan until the end of the 2015–16 season. He made his debut from Newport on 2 April 2016 in the starting line-up versus Yeovil Town. Yeovil won the match 1–0. He scored his first goal for Newport on 23 April 2016 versus Luton Town.

Kilmarnock

After leaving Peterborough United it was confirmed in June 2016 that Coulibaly had signed for Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock.^[9] He scored on his debut as Kilmarnock beat Clyde 2–1 in the League Cup.^[10]

International career

Souleymane Coulibaly began his international career with Côte d'Ivoire national under-17 football team at the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup where he scored nine goals in four matches: one goal against Australia, a poker against Denmark, and a hat-trick in a draw against Brazil.^[11][12][13] Coulibaly also scored a goal in a 2–3 loss to France in the Round of 16. He is the former tournament's topscorer. When it comes to "most goals scored at one tournament" only one other player scored the same amount of goals, VIctor Osimhen of Nigeria is the new top scorer with 10 goals. Osimhen is now at Wolfsburg. Florent Sinama Pongolle from France (at the earlier held 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship), who did that in six matches, not in Coulibaly's four.^[14] He scored nine of his side's ten goals overall, which meant that he scored every 40 minutes of match time, or slightly more than once per half played.^{[15][16][17][18]}

As a result of his performances, Coulibaly was linked in the media to moves to Manchester United and Real Madrid, before finally moving to Tottenham.^[19][20][21] He has received the label of the "New Drogba" in reference to fellow Ivorian footballer, Didier Drogba.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Career statistics

As of 3 December 2016^[26]

References

External links

• Souleymane Coulibaly career statistics at Soccerbase