Salomon Kalou

2003/06 Feyenoord (NET) 79 games, 40 goals

(Eredivisie: 67 games, 35 goals)

(Play-Offs Conference League: 2 games)

(TOTO KNVB Beker: 1 game, 1 goal)

(Europa League: 9 games, 4 goals)

2004 Excelsior (NET) (Loan) 9 games, 1 goal

(Keuken Kampioen Divisie: 3 games, 1 goal)

(Keuken Kampioen Play-Offs: 6 games)

2006/12 Chelsea FC (ENG) 254 games, 60 goals

(Premier League: 156 games, 36 goals)

(FA Cup: 28 games, 8 goals)

(English League Cup: 18 games, 8 goals)

(Community Shield: 3 games, 1 goal)

(Champions League: 49 games, 7 goals)

2012/14 LOSC (FRA) 80 games, 34 goals

(Ligue 1: 67 games, 30 goals)

(French Cup: 3 games, 3 goals)

(French League Cup: 1 game)

(Champions League Qualifiers: 4 games)

(Champions League: 5 games, 1 goal)

2014/20 Hertha Berlin (GER) 172 games, 53 goals

(Bundesliga: 151 games, 48 ​​goals)

(German Cup: 16 games, 5 goals)

(Europa League Qualifiers: 2 games)

(Europa League: 3 games)

2020/21 Botafogo (BRA) 27 games, 1 goal

2022 AS Arta/Solar 7 (DJI) 3 games, 0 goals

With the National Team :

87 caps, 23 goals

(Friendly matches: 25 caps, 3 goals)

(Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers: 12 caps, 7 goals)

(Africa Cup of Nations: 24 caps, 5 goals)

(World Cup Qualifiers: 20 caps, 7 goals)

(World Cup: 6 caps, 1 goal)

1st cap: February 6, 2007 against Guinea (1-0)

Last cap: November 11, 2017 against Morocco (0-2)

U23 Ivory Coast: 4 caps, 2 goals

Olympic Ivory Coast: 4 caps, 2 goals

Salomon Armand Magloire Kalou

Born on August 5, 1985 in Oumé (IVO)

Ivorian Coast, Striker/Right-Winger/Left-Winger, 1m84

Salomon Kalou was born in Oumé in Ivory Coast, like his big brother, Bonaventure Kalou, he began his career in the local club ASEC Mimosas. Spotted by Feyenoord, he then joined Europe where he began his professional career during the 2003/04 season. His first match was against Ajax on November 30, 2003, a 2-0 defeat but Kalou began his career at 18 with his first 22 minutes played.

He was then loaned to the Excelsior club where he played a few matches before returning to Feyenoord where he would establish himself for 2 more seasons. He had a mind-blowing 2004/05 season, scoring 25 goals and providing 11 assists in 39 games as a striker. The 2005/06 season was a little less prolific but still enough to consider him one of the greatest hopes of the Dutch championship with 38 games played, 15 goals and 8 assists. During this period he also won the Johan Cruyff award, given to the best player in the championship under 21 years old during the 2004/05 season.

It is therefore logical that we expect a big transfer of the African player to a bigger club and it is Chelsea FC who recruit him for 9 million pounds sterling. Wearing the number 21, he meets José Mourinho who will appreciate the player for his hard work, his versatility, his commitment, his desire to always progress and his athletic qualities.

Kalou lives his arrival at Chelsea as the most beautiful dream of his life, that of rubbing shoulders with stars of world football. In a substitute role, he still participates in 58 matches (31 in terms of time played), for 9 goals and 9 assists, an excellent debut.

During this first season, he participates in almost all the Champions League matches as a substitute with the exception of the semi-final return against Liverpool where he is a starter but cannot prevent his team's defeat on penalties. He was a spectacular winger for his goals scored and the importance of some of them.

The 2007/08 season was even better, always helping out in the three offensive positions that are striker, right winger and left winger, he seemed to specialize in the latter. In 48 games, he scored 11 goals and delivered 13 assists, enough to place him among the most effective wingers in the world. He also became more decisive in big games and already showed a certain maturity in his game that allowed him to reach the Champions League final with Chelsea.

Consistency is something that characterizes the Ivorian player, his 2008/09 season is a concrete example, despite an even shorter playing time (43 games played but 28 in terms of playing time), he scored 10 goals and delivered 11 assists, mind-blowing statistics for a substitute winger. And on top of that, he started to win a few trophies with his club.

Still losing a little more playing time, he played 37 games in the 2009/10 season (21 in terms of playing time) and still scored 12 goals and 4 assists while playing mainly as a right winger. He also scored a wonderful hat-trick and provided an assist on the 36th day of the Premier League against Stoke City in a 7-0 victory.

Specializing in the right wing position, he started the 2010/11 season with 4 goals and 1 assist in the first 5 Premier League games, but once again he was relegated to the position of occasional starter and luxury joker. He then signed a season with 42 games (24 games in terms of playing time) for 13 goals and 7 assists.

The 2011/12 season will be one of the most complicated of his career and yet the one that will offer him the most prestigious trophy of his career. Being on the bench or even sometimes not selected in the group, the 26-year-old player will only play 26 matches in total (16 in terms of playing time) and will score 5 goals and 3 assists.

In the Champions League, he hardly plays the first part of the season, but the arrival of Roberto Di Matteo as coach will change everything, he puts him back in the squad and he is a starter in the quarter-finals against Benfica, he also scores a decisive goal in the first leg. And at the end of the season, he wins the Champions League on penalties against Bayern Munich after having been a starter.

Winner of the most prestigious club competition, Salomon Kalou in search of playing time left Chelsea FC to join LOSC, which was then one of the big clubs in the French championship. A starter, he played 37 matches for 16 goals and 6 assists as a striker and right winger.

His first half of the season was disappointing but the second half was masterful, the player was on fire, over the last 15 days of the championship, he scored 12 goals and provided 2 assists, Kalou was then one of the best players in the French championship and he won the prize for best player in the championship in April 2013.

He continued with a second season at LOSC in a good dynamic, in 40 matches, he scored 18 goals and provided 5 assists in a season where he played almost exclusively as a striker. He won the prize for best player in the championship in December 2013.

In the summer of 2014, he left LOSC to join Hertha Berlin in Germany, a mid-table club, there, he had a disappointing first season before having a masterful 2015/16 season, 37 games played, 17 goals and 2 assists mainly as a left winger.

He then had seasons where his level dropped and in 2020 after 172 games played in Germany, 53 goals and 16 assists, he left Europe to join Brazil and Botafogo then quietly retire in Djibouti in 2022 at the age of 37.

Let's go back to his international career which could have been really different from the one he lived. Indeed, during his time at Feyenoord, Salomon Kalou had requested naturalization and therefore Dutch nationality in order to play for the Netherlands. Supported by the support of Van Basten and Johan Cruyff, the case was in all the media in the country and those of Ivory Coast because the player could have played against his country of origin and his brother at the 2006 World Cup.

Finally, his request was rejected in August 2005 because the player was probably going to join a bigger club abroad. Despite an appeal to give a new decision, the verdict was the same in February 2006.

And that is how the player made the decision to leave the Netherlands and Feyenoord for Chelsea FC. During the year 2006, he was called to play several times for Ivory Coast but he refused several times. He finally agreed to play for his country in 2007 in a friendly match won 1-0 against Guinea on February 6.

Within the country's squad, he was one of the best players in the national team alongside Yaya Touré, Kolo Touré, Gervinho and Didier Drogba. Often decisive in international competitions, he kept a starting place between 2007 and 2017.

He reached the final of the African Cup of Nations in 2012 and won the tournament in 2015. And in 2017, he ended his international career after 87 matches played, 23 goals scored and 6 assists provided.

- Best hope of the Dutch Championship in 2005

- Best African hope of the year in 2008

- UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month Trophy for April 2013

- UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month Trophy for December 2013

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