Billy Ketkeophomphone ( ; born 24 March 1990) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a striker . Born in France, he represents the Laos national team at international level.

Club career

Early career

Born in

Champigny-sur-Marne Champigny-sur-Marne (, literally ''Champigny on Marne'') is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Name Champigny-sur-Marne was originally called simply Champigny. The name Champigny ul ...

, Ketkeophomphone began his career with

Racing Paris Racing Club de France Football (, also known as Racing Paris, RCF Paris, Matra Racing, Racing Club, or Racing) is a French association football club based in Colombes, a suburb of Paris. Racing was founded in 1882 as a multi-discipline spor ...

, before joining the prestigious Clairefontaine academy in 2003. After three years, he left the club to sign for Strasbourg. In summer 2008, he was promoted to the first team. He made his debut against

Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-hi ...

on 1 December 2009 in the

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...

playing 44 minutes. On 20 May 2011, he signed a five-year contract with

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 seaso ...

side Sion. He was released on 31 January 2012 and subsequently returned to France to sign a four-year deal with

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metr ...

Angers

On 16 June 2015, Ketkeophomphone signed with

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

, who had just been promoted to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

. He was the first footballer of Southeast Asian descent to have played in the top division of French football. On 4 October, he scored his first goal for Angers against Bastia. He played 38 games that season, scoring 6 goals. In his second season, he sustained a knee injury, restricting him to only five games, but still managed to score a goal.

Auxerre

On 31 August 2018, the last day of the 2018 summer transfer window, Ketkeophomphone moved down a division and joined

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are re ...

. He made his debut on 14 September 2018 in a match against

Clermont Foot Clermont Foot 63 (Occitan: ''Clarmont d'Auvèrnhe''; commonly referred to as Clermont Foot or simply Clermont) is a French association football club based in Clermont-Ferrand. The first incarnation of the club was formed in 1911 and the curren ...

Cholet

On 20 November 2019, Ketkeophomphone joined Championnat National side

Cholet Cholet (, , probably from Latin ''cauletum'', "cabbage") is a commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire department. With 54,307 inhabitants (2019), it is the second most populous commune of Maine-et-Loire, after the prefecture Angers. G ...

. He made his debut and scored first goal for Cholet on 22 November 2019 in a match against Red Star.

Dunkerque

On 1 July 2020, Ketkeophomphone joined

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

side

Dunkerque Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...

. On 29 August 2020, Ketkeophomphone scored his first goal for Dunkerque in the 39th minute against

. He left the club in January 2022.

Sri Pahang

On 28 January 2022, Ketkeophomphone signed with Malaysian club Sri Pahang. He made his debut on 6 April 2022 in a match against Kedah Darul Aman.

International career

Born to Laotian refugee parents who

fled ''Fled'' is a 1996 American buddy action comedy film directed by Kevin Hooks. It stars Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin as two prisoners chained together who flee during an escape attempt gone bad. Plot An interrogator prepares a man to ...

to France in the 1980s, Ketkeophomphone has expressed interest in representing Laos internationally. In 2021, he was called up to the Laotian squad for the

2020 AFF Championship The 2020 AFF Championship (officially AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), the 7th and the last editio ...

. Ketkeophomphone made his debut for Laos on 6 December 2021 in the AFF Cup against

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

. Ketkeophonphone made two caps appearances in the

2022 AFF Championship The 2022 AFF Championship (officially AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the ...

tournament.

Career statistics

International

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ketkeophomphone, Billy 1990 births Living people Association football forwards Laotian footballers Laos international footballers French footballers French people of Laotian descent French sportspeople of Asian descent RC Strasbourg Alsace players FC Sion players Racing Club de France Football players Angers SCO players AJ Auxerre players SO Cholet players USL Dunkerque players Sri Pahang FC players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Swiss Super League players Laotian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Laotian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Malaysia Laotian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia