Djiman Waidi Koukou (born 14 November 1990) is a Beninese 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 most recently played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for French club Les Herbiers VF. He made 42 appearances for the Benin national team scoring once.

Club career

Born in

Porto-Novo , , ; ; ; also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Benin, second-largest city of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. In 1863, following Bri ...

, Koukou played for Requins de l'Atlantique FC and Soleil FC in his country. On 5 July 2009, he signed with Thonon Évian F.C. in France, going on to play two seasons in the third division. After a successful year with US Créteil-Lusitanos, Koukou joined Portuguese club S.C. Beira-Mar in late June 2011, on a free transfer. He was immediately loaned to Segunda Liga team C.F. Os Belenenses, appearing in slightly more than half of the games during his only campaign. Koukou failed to break into the first team with the Aveiro side, and returned to France in the summer of 2012. He trained with amateurs UMS Montélimar for several months, and eventually signed in February 2013. In January 2013, Koukou went on trial with Chamois Niortais F.C. from

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, 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 Ligue de Football Prof ...

. After training for 15 days, he was offered a contract until the end of the season by manager Pascal Gastien, and went on to compete with the team in three and a half second level seasons whilst playing 125 matches across all competitions. In early July 2016, Koukou joined

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (), commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply as Lens, is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the department of Pas-de-Calais. The club's nickname, ''Les Sang et Or'' (), comes from i ...

– also of the French division two – on a two-year deal. He scored his first and only league goal for them on 28 November 2017, helping the hosts defeat AC Ajaccio 2–0. Koukou moved to the Romanian

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

on 28 September 2018, agreeing to a two-year contract at FC Astra Giurgiu. One year later, he returned to France and its third tier by signing with recently relegated Red Star FC.

International career

Koukou made his debut for

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

in 2008, being selected for that year's

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

. He earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

on 7 September, in a 3–2 home win against

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

for the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

qualifiers.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koukou, Djiman 1990 births Living people People from Porto-Novo Beninese men's footballers 21st-century Beninese sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Championnat National 2 players Liga Portugal 2 players Liga I players Requins de l'Atlantique FC players Soleil FC players Thonon Evian Grand Genève FC players US Créteil-Lusitanos players S.C. Beira-Mar players C.F. Os Belenenses players UMS Montélimar players Chamois Niortais FC players RC Lens players FC Astra Giurgiu players Red Star FC players Les Herbiers VF players Benin men's international footballers 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players Beninese expatriate men's footballers Beninese expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Beninese expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Beninese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania