2004 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Semi-Final vs Valencia

Lore & Background

Kanouté began his career with Lyon in France before moving to West Ham United of the Premier League in 2000. After a spell at their London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Kanouté moved to Spanish club Sevilla where he won two consecutive UEFA Cups in 2006 and 2007 in addition to various other European and domestic honours and remains the club's highest-scoring foreign player. He joined Beijing Guoan in June 2012.

Reader's Guide

Kanouté's talents as a striker were first noticed by his local team, Olympique Lyonnais, and he joined them as an apprentice in 1997. He made his debut in the Intertoto Cup against Polish side Odra Wodzisław. He was a second-half substitute for Sevilla in the 2006 UEFA Cup Final against Middlesbrough and scored in the 89th minute as Sevilla won 4–0. In the 2006-07 UEFA Cup, Kanouté's first games for Sevilla against Tottenham Hotspur led to him scoring a penalty at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium and a goal at White Hart Lane, leaving the final aggregate score 4–3 to Sevilla.

Did You Know?

• Kanouté was joint top goal scorer for Mali at the 2004 African Cup of Nations, scoring four goals in four matches helping Mali to the semi-finals.
• Kanouté refused to wear a Sevilla shirt bearing the name of club sponsor 888.com due to gambling being against the principles of Islam.
• In 2007, Kanouté paid more than US$700,000 out of his pocket to buy a mosque in Seville.
• After scoring a goal in a January 2009 Copa Del Rey match, Kanouté lifted his jersey and displayed a black shirt with the word 'Palestine', for which he was cautioned with a yellow card and fined around $4,000.