Chaka Traorè (born 23 December 2004) is an Ivorian 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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

Club career

Parma

Traorè made his professional debut with

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

in a 2–1

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

loss to

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

on 21 January 2021. On 10 April 2021 he made his

debut in a 3–1 loss against

; he also became the first 2004-born player to play in Serie A.

AC Milan

On 30 August 2021, Traorè moved to Serie A club AC Milan, immediately joining the youth sector roster. In July 2023, he extended his contract with the club until June 2028 and was promoted to the senior team. He made his senior debut for AC Milan on 28 November 2023 in a 3–1 Champions League loss to

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

, coming on as a substitute in the 77th minute. Traorè made his first league appearance for AC Milan four days later in a 3–1 win against

Frosinone Frosinone (; local dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lazio, administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is about southeast of Rome, close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of th ...

. He started and scored his first senior goal for AC Milan on 2 January 2024 in

, securing a 4–1 win over

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

. On 7 January, Traorè scored his first Serie A goal in a match against

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

, contributing to a 3–0 win.

Loan to Palermo

On 1 February 2024, he joined

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

on loan for the rest of the season, with an option to make the move permanent.

Return to AC Milan and Milan Futuro

After the 2023–24 season concluded, Traorè returned to AC Milan and joined their newly created

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

Milan Futuro, set to compete in the

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

Group B. He made his debut with Milan Futuro on 17 August 2024, starting for a 2–1 away win

Coppa Italia Serie C Coppa Italia Serie C (), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972. Format There are a total of six rounds in the competition. It begins i ...

round of 16 match against

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

. He scored his first goal with Milan Futuro on 26 September 2024, coming on as a substitute for Mattia Liberali at the 73rd minute, and scoring the second goal with a header at the 85th minute, for a 2–1 home win Serie C Group B match against

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly referred to by the acronym SPAL (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. During the 2024–25 season the team played in Serie C, the third tier of the Italian foot ...

International career

Traorè was called up to the Ivory Coast U23s in March 2023.

Personal life

Born in Ivory Coast, he moved to Italy where he grew up. In 2015 he took a small boat from Africa's north coast with the aim to reach Italy. Once in Italy, Traorè and his agent, who was later found guilty of assisting illegal immigration, were headed to Parma. Traorè was traveling under a false name and was listed as Cissè in his passport. In Italy, the then 11-year-old took on various part-time jobs to survive before he finally was discovered by U.S. Audace—a prominent academy club in the provincial capital.

Career statistics

Club

;Notes

Honours

AC Milan *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links

*
Serie A profile
2004 births Living people People from Abengourou Sportspeople from Comoé District Ivorian men's footballers Men's association football wingers Ivory Coast men's international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Parma Calcio 1913 players AC Milan players Palermo FC players Ivorian expatriate men's footballers Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century Ivorian sportsmen {{IvoryCoast-footy-bio-stub