Chris Howie

The West African country of Mali is currently represented by two players plying their trade in the Premier League. The path both Moussa Djenepo and Yves Bissouma have had to tread may not be as beaten as other trails from the African continent, but there have been diamonds in the rough.

You may have heard of the more stellar names; Seydou Keita and Mahamdou Diarra reached the pinnacle of European football, playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid in the late 2000s, however, the Premier League only got a glimpse of the powers of Frederic Kanoute, who remains the highest-scoring Malian in the Premier League with 43 strikes. 

During the early 2000s, Arsenal were the dominant force in Premier League football. Known for their verve and attacking flair, Frenchman Thierry Henry was the spearhead for an unrelenting Gunners side. At 6 ft 2 Henry possessed pace, the deftness of touch and an ethereal grace on the ball. He seemed one of a kind. That was until Kanoute arrived at West Ham. 

Born 3 weeks after Henry and 300 miles away, Kanoute grew up in Lyon with his French mother and Malian father. Struggling for game time at his local club, West Ham manager, Harry Redknapp took his chances on a tall, languid, graceful ‘French’ striker who needed a new challenge.

When Kanoute arrived at the Boleyn Ground, he was thrown in at the deep end. Unlike Henry at Arsenal, the dressing room at West Ham was replete with dogged characters. The likes of Steve Lomas, Neil Ruddock and John Moncur were dovetailed with the youth of players like Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and of course the mercurial Paolo Di Canio. 

Donning the number 14 shirt for the Hammers, Kanoute’s debut against Wimbledon in March 2000 is one West Ham fans remember vividly. The young Frenchman was darting across the field, all zip and thrust, eventually bagging himself a goal in the process, capping what had been a fantastic maiden performance.

The headlines were written for Kanoute. That was until his strike partner, Paolo Di Canio would steal the youngster’s thunder by scoring one of the best goals in premier league history – yes that goal. 

It’s perhaps churlish to devalue the performance of Kanoute because of one ludicrous scissor-kick volley, but history has a funny way of pushing Kanoute’s exploits to the back of the mind. After making his loan move permanent, Kanoute finished the following season as West Ham’s top scorer in the Premier League with 11 goals. He’d go on to repeat the feat the following season but by now, his side was starting to flounder. 

With West Ham in a relegation battle in 2003 and with the need for urgency and more direct play, the young, waspish striker Jermain Defoe was beginning to displace Kanoute. Clearly a very gifted footballer, ‘Fredi’ was still prone to the odd bout of poor finishing, an issue the young Defoe didn’t possess. With a clear clash of styles and a recurring groin injury that kept him sidelined for 4 months – Kanoute no longer had a clear place in the West Ham side.

With the hammers relegated, Tottenham snapped him up for £3.5 Million where once again he was able to display the skills that had drawn the comparisons with Henry. In a game against Leeds, he came off the bench to score a winner before thundering home a 30-yard dipping drive a few weeks later in thumping win against Everton at Goodison Park. At Tottenham, he was loved once more.

That was until 2004 where a new FIFA ruling made players eligible to represent another nation so long as they hadn’t played for a national side at senior level. Kanoute, who had played for France only at youth level, elected to switch his allegiance to Mali through his father’s citizenship.

Midway through the season, he left North London to take part in the 2004 AFCON in Tunisia where he would help Mali reach the semi-finals, simultaneously picking up the golden boot in the process – Kanoute and Mali were over the moon, needless to say, Tottenham was not best pleased. 

When looking back at the late switch, Kanoute says: “I honestly don’t regret choosing to play for Mali as I saw the bigger picture. I have been a fan of African football and I wanted to bring something back to Mali and participate in the development of their football. In that way, what I could have brought to France was actually quite limited.”

In a way he is right. In a six-year career for Mali he scored 23 goals in 38 appearances, two shy of countryman Seydou Keita. Had Kanoute made the switch earlier, one can be sure his name would top the charts. 

In true sliding doors fashion, the decision to play for Mali ultimately precipitated in him leaving Spurs and joining Sevilla, where he would line up alongside fellow Malian Seydou Keita. It was at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan that Kanoute became a revelation. Goals quickly followed in the south of Spain, grabbing a late strike in the 4-0 demolition of Steve McLaren’s Middlesbrough in the 2006 UEFA Cup final – thus helping Sevilla lift their first silverware for 58 years. 

Kanoute stayed at Sevilla until 2012, winning two UEFA Cups, two Copa Del Rey medals as well as becoming the 2007 African footballer of the year. He currently remains Sevilla’s all-time top goalscorer with 131 strikes, ahead of heralded company such as Luis Fabiano and Alvaro Negredo. A late bloomer in the truest sense, Kanoute became a revelation from the age of 27 to his eventual retirement at 35 years of age. 

There is still time for his 43 goals scored by a Malian in the Premier League to be overhauled – especially if young Spaniard Adama Traore capitalises on his talent and like Kanoute, makes the switch to represent the West African nation.

When asked about the matter, Kanoute said, "I would like him to [play for Mali] but I will tell him the truth that it is obviously going to be a struggle and that it is not going to be so comfortable to play for an African national team, but the people give you back so much and he has the opportunity to make something big with a very, very talented generation that we have in Mali, so I will try to convince him."

Time is still on Traore’ side and he could do far worse than to follow Kanoute’s path.