Footballer Frédéric Oumar Kanouté showing his support to GAZA
Career
Kanouté's talents as a striker were first noticed by his local team, Olympique Lyonnais, and he joined them as an apprentice in 1997. He made his debut in the Intertoto Cup (match with Odra Wodzisław). He played for the French under-21 team while at the club.
Kanouté joined English club West Ham United in 2000. He went on to play 84 times for the East London club, scoring 29 goals. His speed and awareness attracted interest from Tottenham Hotspur who bought him at the end of the 2002-03 season.
Although eligible for either, Kanouté elected to play for Mali rather than for France. Kanouté was joint top goal scorer for Mali at the 2004 African Cup of Nations. Kanouté scored 4 goals in 4 matches helping Mali to the Semifinals where they lost to Morocco.
Kanouté enjoyed mixed success at Tottenham, where he scored on his debut with an acrobatic volley, with occasional flashes of brilliance marked by apparent pique when he preferred the African Cup of Nations over the Premiership and went AWOL from Tottenham's 2005 summer tour to Mauritius.
Kanouté was sold to Sevilla on 17 August 2005 for €6.5m. He was a second half substitute for the club in the UEFA Cup Final against Middlesbrough and scored in the 89th minute. Sevilla won 4-0.
Kanouté's first games for Sevilla against Tottenham Hotspur led to his scoring a (somewhat controversial) penalty at the Sánchez Pizjuán in a game marred by crowd trouble, and an excellent goal at White Hart Lane, leaving the final aggregate score 4-3 to Sevilla.
The 2006/2007 season has proved his most productive and has earned him much praise for the prominent role he has played in leading Sevilla's surprising charge on three fronts. Challenging for the Copa del Rey 2006/2007, where they played Getafe FC in the final, as well as the Uefa Cup and the La Liga have moved him into relatively unchartered territory as he had not experienced such a combination of success and influence in the past. The previous year's Uefa Cup had featured just a cameo appearance for him in a comfortable victory, although he grabbed a late goal. Nonetheless, he secured his first honour of the season on the 16 May with Sevilla's victory over Espanyol on penalties, after a 2-2 draw aet. Kanouté had seemingly retained the title for Sevilla with his extra-time goal (his 4th of the tournament) to make it 2-1 but a late equalizer prompted penalties. Kanouté scored the first in a 3-1 penalty triumph.
Sevilla's title challenge ultimately unravelled and Real Madrid took the title, with Kanouté's side in third.
In October 2007, Kanouté, along with Mali international teammate Mamady Sidibe, were attacked by irate Togolese fans after they knocked Togo out of the African Cup of Nations qualifier.
After he scored a goal for Sevilla in a January 7, 2009 match Sevilla won 2-1 over Deportivo La Coruna, Kanouté raised his shirt over his head, displaying a T-shirt with the word "Palestine" in several languages. Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz yellow carded him for this action, which was interpreted as a response to Israel's offensive on Gaza, and the Spanish football federation announced that it would meet to consider issuing Kanouté a fine.
from wikipedia.
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