Seydou Doumbia (; born 31 December 1987) is an Ivorian former 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 played as a forward. After beginning his career in the Ivory Coast and Japan, he arrived in Europe in 2008 to play for Swiss club Young Boys, where he was the top scorer and player of the year in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

in both of his seasons. In 2010, he signed for CSKA Moscow for a reported fee of €15 million, where he won six domestic honours and was twice the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

's top scorer. He was transferred to Roma in 2015, and spent much of his tenure out on loan, including the 2016–17 season at

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, where he won the league,

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

and was top scorer for a third time. Doumbia made his international debut for the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

in 2008. He was part of their squads at 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. ...

and the

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 ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, winning the latter tournament.

Club career

Early career

Doumbia started his career at the Inter FC youth academy and started playing at second division partner club AS Athlétic Adjamé in 2003. He joined second division team Toumodi on loan for the 2004–05 season, and was on loan in 2005 at AS Denguélé, where he became Côte d'Ivoire Premier Division top scorer with 15 goals. In 2006, he moved to Japan, where he played for Kashiwa Reysol and then Tokushima Vortis until 2008, when his contract expired.

Young Boys

In summer 2008, Doumbia signed with Swiss club Young Boys, before failing a trial at Rapid Bucharest. In the

, he scored 20 goals in his maiden season and 30 in the 2009–10 season, making him twice top goalscorer in the Swiss Championship. On 30 July 2009, Doumbia scored the only goal of the game as he slotted the ball past goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz to defeat

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

1–0 in the first leg of their Europa League qualifying round tie at the San Mamés. Young Boys crashed out of the competition on away goals as they lost the second leg at home 2–1 on 6 August. In the club's run to their appearance in the 2009 Swiss Cup Final, Doumbia netted five goals, including a brace against Ibach and the only goal in their Round of 16 victory over Gossau. Doumbia scored his first hat-trick for the club against Aarau on 4 October 2009, a 4–0 win, and netted another remarkable first-half hat-trick three weeks later in a 7–1 thrashing of Bellinzona on 29 October. On 13 February 2010, Doumbia proved vital in his club's 2–1 win against

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

as he netted two times in the first 17 minutes of the game. The Ivorian's final hat-trick in Swiss football came in a 4–0 thumping of

Grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

on 20 March 2010. Doumbia's performances caught the eyes of other big clubs in Europe, and he left the club having scored fifty league goals in just 64 appearances.

CSKA Moscow

On 5 January 2010, Russian club CSKA Moscow completed the transfer of Doumbia on a five-year deal, for a reported fee of €15 million. Under the terms of the contract, he would stay at Young Boys until the end of the season, before moving to Russia. He made his debut in a 2–1 win over Spartak Moscow on 1 August 2010, thereby becoming the 200th CSKA player to appear in the Russian league. On 19 August 2010, he scored his first goal for CSKA Moscow in the first leg of a Europa League playoff tie against Anorthosis Famagusta and added another goal seven minutes later. In the second leg, Doumbia leveled the score with 5 minutes to go and CSKA Moscow went on to win 2–1 (6–1 in aggregate). On 30 September, Doumbia scored goals either side of a Mark González penalty to earn his side a 3–0 victory over Sparta Prague to maintain the Russian's 100% record in Europa League Group F play. In the next matchday, the Army Men travelled to the Stadio Renzo Barbera, where Doumbia netted another brace in a 3–0 win over

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 21 October. Doumbia's first goal of the new league campaign came on 17 April 2011, in their third

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

fixture when he latched on to a

Tomáš Necid Tomáš Necid (; born 13 August 1989) is a Czech professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), striker for FK Viktoria Žižkov, Viktoria Žižkov. Club career Early years At the end of the 2007–0 ...

cross and pushed it by Rubin goalkeeper Sergey Ryzhikov; the away win pushed the Army Men up into first place in the table. In their Moscow derby against Dinamo on 8 May, Doumbia seemingly won the game with a strike in the 81st minute, until a defensive error let Marko Lomic equalize the game at 2–2 in the 90th minute. In the final of the Russian Cup on 22 May 2011, Doumbia netted two times as CSKA defeated second-tier side Alania Vladikavkaz 2–1. In CSKA's match against Tom Tomsk on 20 August 2011, Doumbia scored a second-half brace as the capital club eased to a 3–0 victory. On 14 September, he scored twice in the Champions League against

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

champions

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, helping his side secure a 2–2 draw after falling behind 2–0. The Ivorian striker added two more goals as CSKA defeated Turkish side Trabzonspor 3–0 on 18 October, to record the Russians first victory in Group B play. Five days later, Doumbia scored two goals to power CSKA to victory in their enthralling 5–3 game against side Anzhi Makhachkala. In their following league game against Spartak Nalchik on 28 October, Doumbia scored a seven-minute hat-trick to earn his side a 4–0 win, after his teammate, Vagner Love, had put the hosts up 1–0 in the 34th minute. Doumbia opened the scoring against Internazionale on 7 December, guiding his side to a 2–1 away victory, which secured a berth in the Round of 16 against Spanish club

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. On 29 December, Doumbia was voted the Russian Premier League Player of the Year after netting 24 goals in 30 league games during the calendar year as well as five Champions League goals in as many games. On 19 March 2012, Doumbia scored a goal against city rivals Spartak, earning his side a 2–1 victory. He scored his final goal of the league season from the penalty spot, as CSKA defeated local rivals Lokomotiv 3–0 on 2 May. Doumbia won the Golden Boot as he netted 23 goals in the initial league campaign, seven more than closest rival Alexandr Kerzhakov, and added five more goals in the Championship Group as well as providing 11 assists throughout the season. Doumbia scored two first-half goals, the first of which was within two minutes of kick-off, as CSKA won 2–1 at

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

in the Champions League group stage on 5 November 2014.

Roma

On 31 January 2015, Doumbia joined Italian club Roma on a four-and-a-half-year deal for an initial fee of €14.4 million, rising to a potential €15.9 million. Doumbia scored twice in his thirteen appearances, in back-to-back games against

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Loans to CSKA Moscow and Newcastle United

On 10 August 2015, Doumbia returned to CSKA Moscow on a season-long loan deal, following an unsuccessful spell with Roma. On 1 February 2016, it was confirmed that Newcastle United had signed Doumbia on loan for the remainder of the 2015–16 season, with an option to make the deal permanent in the summer. The loan was unsuccessful, with Doumbia only making three appearances, all from the bench, and failing to score. Newcastle finished the season eighteenth and were relegated to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

Loan to Basel

On 28 June 2016,

announced that they had signed Doumbia on a one-year loan deal from A.S. Roma, with the option of a permanent deal at the end of the season. He joined Basel's first team for their 2016–17 season under head coach Urs Fischer. He made his domestic league debut on 24 July 2016, in a 3–0 home win at the St. Jakob-Park against Sion. He scored his first goal for his new club in the same game and just one week later on 31 July, during the away game against

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

, he scored his second. It was the last goal of the game and Basel won 5–1. Doumbia played in all six games that Basel had in the 2016–17 Champions League group stage scoring one goal. This was in the home in the St. Jakob-Park on 6 December 2016 in front of a sold out capacity ground of 36,000 spectators. But it could not help the team as they lost 4–1 against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Under trainer Urs Fischer, Doumbia won the

championship at the end of the 2016–17 Super League season. This was the eighth title for the club in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the

for the twelfth time, which meant they had won the double for the sixth time in the club's history. Basel did not pull the option of a permanent transfer saying that the price was too high. During his time with the club Doumbia played a total of 33 games and scored 21 goals.

Loan to Sporting

On 30 June 2017, Doumbia went on his fourth consecutive loan since joining AS Roma, this time to

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. He made his debut for the

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

club on 11 August, replacing Daniel Podence for the final 25 minutes of a 1–0 home win over Vitória in the first game of the season. Doumbia played rarely for Sporting, as manager Jorge Jesus considered him incapable of partnering the prolific Dutchman Bas Dost up front. Doumbia scored his first goal for the club on 23 August, opening a 5–1 win away to

FC Steaua București Fotbal Club FCSB (), formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București, is a Romanian professional Association football, football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the Liga I, the top flight of th ...

in the Champions League play-off second leg (also aggregate score). On 13 December, in the last 16 of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

, he scored a hat-trick as the Lions won 4–0 against third-tier Vilaverdense at the Estádio José Alvalade.

Later career

On 28 August 2018, Doumbia signed with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side Girona for three years. On 16 January 2019, Doumbia scored a late goal in the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

at Metropolitano Stadium, which helped his club go through to the quarter finals on away goals after a 4-4 draw on aggregate. On 13 August of the following year, after suffering relegation, he terminated his contract. Doumbia returned to Switzerland's top flight on 2 September 2019, on a one-year deal with Sion. He and eight teammates were sacked on 20 March 2020 for refusing a pay cut during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 27 January 2021, Doumbia joined Maltese

side Ħamrun Spartans on a six-month contract.

International career

Doumbia earned his first international cap for

in a friendly against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

during the

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan national football team, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (Internatio ...

on 24 May 2008. He scored his first international goal in a friendly against Germany on 18 November 2009, in a 2–2 draw. He was selected for Ivory Coast in the 2010 World Cup, but only made one appearance, as a 79th-minute substitute for Romaric, in the 3–0 win against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. Doumbia was selected for the Ivory Coast national team for the

2012 Africa Cup of Nations The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (C ...

. Doumbia announced his retirement from international competition after failing to make the Ivory Coast's squad for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

, but was later called back by new coach Hervé Renard for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and he returned to the national team. At the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals, Doumbia scored ''les Éléphants first goal of the tournament during their opening 1–1 draw with

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

. He became 2015

champion with the Ivory Coast national football team.

Personal life

Doumbia is the brother of the footballer Ousmane Doumbia.

Career statistics

Club

International

:Source: :''Scores and results list Ivory Coast's goal tally first.''

Honours

CSKA Moscow *

: 2012–13, 2013–14 * Russian Cup: 2010–11, 2012–13 * Russian Super Cup:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

FC Basel *

: 2016–17 *

: 2016–17 Sporting CP * Taça da Liga: 2017–18 Ħamrun Spartans *

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as 360Sports Malta Premier for sponsorship reasons with 360Sports (colloquialism, colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Foot ...

: 2020–21 Ivory Coast *

; runner-up:

Individual

* Côte d'Ivoire Premier Division Top scorer: 2005 * Swiss Footballer of the Year: 2009, 2010 *

Player of the Year: 2008–09, 2009–10 *

Top scorer: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2016–17 * Russian Cup Top scorer: 2010–11 * ''Futbol'' Footballer of the Year in Russia: 2011, 2014 * ''Sport-Express'' Footballer of the Year in Russia: 2011 *

Player of the Month: November 2014 *

Player of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14 *

Forward of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14 *

Top scorer: 2011–12, 2013–14

References

External links