Ivorian football legend Laurent Pokou is dead

Former Ivorian international footballer Laurent Pokou has died at the age of 69 

He died in Abidjan, Ivory Coast capital, after a long illness 

Pokou’s five-goal haul for Ivory Coast against Ethiopia in 1970 remains a record for the most in a single Nations Cup finals game Former Ivorian international footballer Laurent Pokou has died at the age of 69 after a long illness. 

Pokou considered a symbolic figure in African football and a player one time dubbed as Pele’s successor, died in Abidjan on Sunday, November 13. 

Pele, at that time, called Pokou “my successor” but added “there’s only one fault, he is not Brazilian”.

Among Pokou’s career highlights, he is remembered as the long-time record holder for the highest number of goals scored by a single player at the African Cup of Nation tournament, a record which was broken 30 years later by Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o. 

It took him just two tournaments to set the record of 14 goals – six goals in the 1968 finals in Ethiopia where the Elephants finished third and eight in 1970 in the tournament in Sudan where the Ivorians were fourth. It stood until 2008 when Samuel Eto’o passed it, albeit when the Cameroonian was competing in his fifth Nations Cup finals. 

But Pokou’s five-goal haul for Ivory Coast against Ethiopia in Khartoum in 1970 in the group phase of the finals remains a record for the most in a single Nations Cup finals game. 

Pokou was only 19 when the Ivorians first picked him for their national team. He went on to make 70 appearances for the Ivorian national team. At the club record, Pokou first played at USFAN in Bouake before going to ASEC Abidjan, where he would win six championships. 

His form at ASEC set him up for a transfer to France where he quickly became an idol at Stade Rennes. Pokou scored 52 goals in 82 games in two spells with the club. 

In between he went for a spell at Nancy when Rennes fell into financial difficulty and had a young Michel Platini as a team-mate. Rennes supporters helped raised the 70,000 (French franc) transfer fee to take him back to the club. 

But his career in France came to an abrupt end in 1978 after an attack on a referee that earned him a two-year ban, reduced on appeal to six months. 

It came in a cup match against amateur opposition and after he had been sent off for protesting against some officiating. Pokou kicked at the referee in frustration and brought an abrupt end to his time in France. 

ASEC paid Rennes for the remainder of his contract and Pokou returned home and also to the Ivorian national side, competing at the age of 33 in the 1980 Nations Cup finals in Nigeria.