Laurent N'Dri Pokou (10 August 1947 – 13 November 2016) was an Ivorian

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 played as a striker. He notably played for French club

Stade Rennais F.C. Stade Rennais Football Club (), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes, or simply SRFC, is a French professional football club based in Rennes, Brittany. They compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and pl ...

International career

Pokou was a member of the Ivorian national team, who was twice the highest goalscorer of the

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

, scoring six goals in the 1968 tournament in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

and eight in the 1970 edition in Sudan, including 5 in one match against

, which Ivory Coast won 6–1. This performance gave him his nickname ''L'homme d'Asmara'' (the man of

Asmara Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The c ...

). With 14 total goals, he is also the tournament's second highest overall goalscorer, behind Cameroon's

Samuel Eto'o Samuel Eto'o Fils (; born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian football administrator and former player who is the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation from 11 December 2021. In his prime, Eto'o was regarded by pundits as one ...

, who eclipsed Pokou's record in the 2008 ACN tournament.African Nations Cup - Topscorers
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References

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1947 births 2016 deaths Sportspeople from Abidjan Association football forwards Ivorian footballers Ivory Coast international footballers 1968 African Cup of Nations players 1970 African Cup of Nations players 1974 African Cup of Nations players 1980 African Cup of Nations players Ligue 1 players ASEC Mimosas players Stade Rennais F.C. players AS Nancy Lorraine players Ivorian expatriate footballers Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France {{Côted'Ivoire-footy-bio-stub