Bonaventure Kalou

Bonaventure Kalou

Personal information
Date of birth	12 January 1978 (1978-01-12)
Place of birth	Oumé, Côte d'Ivoire
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Combs-la-Ville
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1997	Mimosas Abidjan	35	(6)
1997–2003	Feyenoord	149	(35)
2003–2005	Auxerre	63	(19)
2005–2007	Paris Saint-Germain	55	(11)
2007	Lens	4	(0)
2007–2008	Al-Jazira Club	1	(1)
2008–2010	Heerenveen	23	(2)
2011-	Combs-la-Ville
National team
1998–2006	Côte d'Ivoire	47	(10)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 7 July 2010. † Appearances (Goals).

Bonaventure "Barry" Kalou (born 12 January 1978 in Oumé) is a former Ivorian football player who played as a striker.

Club career

He started playing for ASEC Mimosas in his home country before moving to Dutch based Feyenoord. He played in Rotterdam for six seasons as a first team regular. He mainly played as a winger, but was also able to participate as a striker when necessary. In the meanwhile his brother Salomon Kalou who came to visit him, impressed the Feyenoord staff as well and was signed as a youth player.

When Bona decided to leave Feyenoord and try his luck in another European competition in the Ligue 1 at AJ Auxerre, Salomon was sent to Feyenoord's partner Excelsior on loan, before taking over his brother's tasks. Bonaventure Kalou played two seasons at Auxerre where he developed more into a striker and an attacking midfielder then into a winger. However he still maintained to score about the same amount of goals compared to previous seasons. It was in this period that he talked his brother (who still played at Feyenoord) into a Dutch citizenship, which eventually was rejected by Dutch minister Rita Verdonk.

In 2005/06 his next team became Ligue 1 rivals Paris Saint-Germain. Paris Saint-Germain started to become a relegation threatened team and he signed for another French team, RC Lens. The future looked bright for them, but they were surprisingly got relegated at the end of the season. Kalou returned to the Netherlands in 2008 with SC Heerenveen, with whom he won the Dutch Cup in 2009. Heerenveen beat FC Twente in the final, and Kalou scored a goal. In the end of 2009 he was on trial at Crystal Palace and Le Mans, but both trials were unsuccessful. In February 2011 Kalou announced his retirement from professional football. He joined French lower league amateurclub Combs-la-Ville for their 2011/12 campaign.

International career

Kalou scores for Côte d'Ivoire on Dragoslav Jevrić in the 2006 World Cup

Kalou played in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, and was also in the squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup for Côte d'Ivoire. Kalou scored the winning goal in their final match, against Serbia and Montenegro.

Personal

His younger brother, Salomon Kalou, currently plays for Chelsea as a forward/winger; Bonaventure had himself scored against Chelsea in the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League season for Feyenoord. They also have 8 sisters along with an other brother.

In the build-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup there was speculation that the brothers could have become the first to play against each other in a World Cup match as Salomon was attempting to gain fast-track Dutch citizenship. This did not happen and ultimately Salomon would also play for Côte d'Ivoire, though not until after the World Cup.

Honours

• UEFA Cup: 1

2002 (Feyenoord Rotterdam)

• Intertoto Cup: 1

2007 (RC Lens)

• Eredivise: 1

1999 (Feyenoord Rotterdam)

• French Cup: 2

2005 (AJ Auxerre)

2006 (Paris Saint Germain)

• KNVB Cup: 1

2009 (SC Heerenveen)