33·Legends

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Côte d’Ivoire

The thirty-three greatest. Build your eleven, then settle the duels.

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The 33 of Côte d’Ivoire

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93 Didier Drogba 104 caps · 65 goals · Le Mans, En Avant de Guingamp · Golden Foot 2013Munich, 19 May 2012, 88th minute: Drogba attacked Juan Mata's corner in a stadium full of Bayern fans and headed Chelsea level, then buried the penalty that won the European Cup. That night ended Chelsea's wait for a Champions League, and he added four Premier League titles, four FA Cups with a goal in every one of those finals, two African Footballer of the Year awards, and a record 65 goals for Ivory Coast. ST2010s

91 Yaya Touré 102 caps · 19 goals · K.S.K. Beveren, FC BarcelonaManchester City had gone 35 years without a trophy when he scored the only goal in the 2011 FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United and then the only goal in the final against Stoke. He won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, four straight African Footballer of the Year awards from 2011, the 2009 Champions League with Barcelona while filling in at centre-back in the final, three Premier League titles and two in Spain. CM2009–15

88 Kolo Touré 120 caps · Arsenal, Manchester CityHis 2002 Arsenal trial is remembered for a two-footed tackle on Arsène Wenger, who signed him anyway and later called it enthusiasm. The unbeaten 2003-04 season at Arsenal took in 37 of his league appearances, a second Premier League followed with Manchester City in 2012, and 120 caps for Côte d'Ivoire ended with the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, decided 9-8 on penalties against Ghana. CB2002–15

4 G 86 Gervinho 88 caps · 23 goals · Lille OSC, AS RomaFour minutes into stoppage time against Algeria on 1 February 2015, he took Junior Tallo's pass and finished for 3-1, and three days later he scored again as Côte d'Ivoire beat DR Congo to reach the final. That tournament ended with the Africa Cup of Nations title, and four years earlier he had helped Lille to the first Ligue 1 and Coupe de France double in the club's history. LM2010s

86 Salomon Kalou 93 caps · 27 goals · Feyenoord Rotterdam, ChelseaHertha Berlin supporters still bring up 4 November 2016, when he scored all three in a 3-0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, two of them from Mitchell Weiser crosses. Chelsea won the 2012 Champions League with him starting the final in Munich, and his medals include the 2010 Premier League title, three FA Cups and the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations with Côte d'Ivoire. RM2010–16

85 Didier Zokora 123 caps · K.R.C. Genk, Tottenham HotspurHe answered to Maestro, and in 123 internationals between 2000 and 2014 he scored exactly once, which tells you how he spent those afternoons. He is still Côte d'Ivoire's most capped player, was runner-up at the 2006 and 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, played two World Cups, and won the 2008 League Cup with Tottenham and the 2010 Copa del Rey with Sevilla. CDM2000–14

85 Franck Kessié 105 caps · 15 goals · AC Cesena, AC MilanWith Nigeria ahead in the 2023 final in Abidjan, Kessié met Adingra's corner unmarked at the back post in the 62nd minute and headed the equaliser, and Sébastien Haller won it later. He won the Africa Cup of Nations on home soil that night, having already taken Serie A with Milan in 2022 and La Liga with Barcelona in 2023, with the Asian Champions League following at Al-Ahli. CM2022–23

8 AT 84 Abdoulaye Traoré Ben Badi 90 caps · 49 goals · FC Metz, FC SèteFourteen minutes into Côte d'Ivoire's opening match of the 1992 Nations Cup, in Ziguinchor against Algeria, Ben Badi put away the goal that started a run to the country's first continental title. That title was settled 11-10 on penalties against Ghana, and with ASEC Mimosas he won six Ivorian championships in a row from 1990 to 1995, two national cups, and the league scoring prize in 1992 and 1994. CAM1990–95

9 SA 84 Serge Aurier 60 caps · R.C. Lens, ToulouseCôte d'Ivoire had used all five substitutes when their goalkeeper went down in the last seconds against Sierra Leone on 16 January 2022, so Aurier pulled on the gloves and finished the game between the posts. He won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015 and again in 2023, made the 2015 team of the tournament, and took two Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain plus three Coupes de France, captaining his country from 2017. RB2015–23

10 AD 83 Aruna Dindane 62 caps · 17 goals · R.S.C. Anderlecht, R.C. LensSerbia and Montenegro were two goals ahead on 21 June 2006 when Dindane struck from the penalty spot before half time and again after the break, turning the match into Côte d'Ivoire's first World Cup win. The Belgian Golden Shoe and Ebony Shoe both went to him in 2003, he won league titles with Anderlecht in 2001 and 2004, scored 18 goals in 64 caps, and finished runner-up at the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations. SS2001–06

11 BK 83 Bonaventure Kalou 47 caps · 10 goals · Feyenoord Rotterdam, AJ AuxerreOn 4 June 2005 Kalou won the Coupe de France for Auxerre with a goal in the ninetieth minute, and eleven months later he opened the scoring at the same stadium for Paris Saint-Germain against Marseille in the next final. His honours include the 2002 UEFA Cup and the 1999 Eredivisie title at Feyenoord, two Coupes de France, and 12 goals in 51 caps for Côte d'Ivoire, including the winning penalty against Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. CAM1999–2006

83 Boubacar Barry 84 caps · ASEC Mimosas, Stade RennaisCramp had Barry limping through the shootout in Bata on 8 February 2015, and after saving Razak Braimah's kick he walked up himself and scored the penalty that made Côte d'Ivoire champions again. That 9-8 win brought the Africa Cup of Nations home for the first time since 1992, and he retired from Côte d'Ivoire weeks later with 82 caps, having won Belgian Cups with Lokeren in 2012 and 2014 and the country's goalkeeper of the year award. GK1992–2015

83 Emmanuel Eboué 79 caps · K.S.K. Beveren, ArsenalIn the 2006 Champions League final in Paris, Eboué drove at Carles Puyol and won the free kick that Thierry Henry swung in for Sol Campbell's header, a decision Barcelona disputed all night. Arsenal lost that final, and he later won three Turkish championships with Galatasaray between 2012 and 2015, two Turkish Cups and two Super Cups, and reached two Africa Cup of Nations finals with Côte d'Ivoire in 2006 and 2012 across 79 caps. RB2006–15

83 Wilfried Bony 56 caps · 16 goals · AC Sparta Prague, SBV VitesseNo one scored more Premier League goals in the calendar year 2014 than Bony's 20 for Swansea, a tally that pushed Manchester City into paying £28m for him the following January. He won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations weeks after that move, scoring twice against Algeria in the quarter-final, and he had arrived from Vitesse as Eredivisie top scorer with 31 goals in 2012-13 and Dutch footballer of the year. ST2012–15

15 AG 82 Alain Gouaméné 58 caps · Africa Sports d'Abidjan, Olympique LyonnaisDakar, 26 January 1992: the Nations Cup final with Ghana became the first major final in which every player on the pitch took a penalty, and Gouaméné faced eleven kicks before Côte d'Ivoire won it 11-10. That night gave Côte d'Ivoire their first Africa Cup of Nations and put him in the team of the tournament in goal, and his 24 matches across seven Nations Cups remain a record for a keeper. GK1990s

82 Bakari Koné 41 caps · 9 goals · F.C. Lorient, OGC NiceIvory Coast were a goal down to Cameroon in the 2006 Nations Cup quarter-final when Koné levelled it, and the shootout that followed ran to 12-11 before the Elephants went through. He left that tournament a runner-up, won Ligue 1 and the Coupe de la Ligue with Marseille in 2010, three championships with ASEC Mimosas, and was Ligue 2 top scorer with Lorient in 2004-05 before being voted Ivorian Player of the Year in 2008. SS2004–10

17 CT 82 Cheick Tioté R.S.C. Anderlecht, Roda JC KerkradeSt James' Park had watched Arsenal go 4-0 up inside half an hour on 5 February 2011 when Tioté met a cleared corner on the volley from 25 yards, the 87th-minute goal that made Newcastle the first side in Premier League history to recover from four down. He won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, the Eredivisie with Twente in 2010, two Belgian titles with Anderlecht, and played at two World Cups in 55 caps. CDM2010–15

82 Cyril Domoraud 51 caps · Red Star, RCD Espanyol de BarcelonaHe captained Ivory Coast in Munich on 21 June 2006, two goals down inside twenty minutes to Serbia and Montenegro, and walked off with a 3-2 win that remains the country's first at a World Cup. Fifty-one caps between 1995 and 2006, runner-up at that year's Cup of Nations, the 1999 UEFA Cup final with Marseille, and spells at Inter, Monaco, Bastia and Espanyol. CB1995–2006

82 Eric Bailly 50 caps · RCD Espanyol B, Villarreal CFBailly's Europa League ended in a brawl with John Guidetti at Old Trafford on 11 May 2017, a red card in the semi-final that kept him out of the Stockholm final United went on to win. The Nations Cup came first, all six matches at twenty as Ivory Coast beat Ghana on penalties in 2015; then the Europa League and League Cup double of 2017, the Community Shield, and three straight CAF Teams of the Year. CB2015–17

82 Jean Michaël Seri Africa Sports d'Abidjan, ASEC MimosasAt Nice in 2016-17 he attempted 2,733 passes, more than any teammate, and completed ninety percent of them; by that summer Barcelona had agreed terms and were ready to meet his 40 million euro release clause. He won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast on home soil, the Championship with Fulham in 2022, and the Ivorian league title with ASEC Mimosas in 2010. CM2010–23

21 JT 82 Joël Tiéhi 40 caps · 25 goals · Le Havre AC, R.C. LensIn Dakar on 26 January 1992 he was the only Ivorian to miss in a shootout of 24 penalties, and his side still beat Ghana 11-10 to win the Cup of Nations. That 1992 title heads the list, with a place in the 1994 team of the tournament, 28 goals in 50 caps for Ivory Coast, 59 in 163 games for Le Havre, and the 1991 second-division title that took the club up. ST1991–94

82 Max Gradel AFC Bournemouth, Leicester CityTwo draws had left the quarter-finals in doubt when Gradel struck from distance to beat Cameroon on 28 January 2015, and eleven days later Ivory Coast were champions of Africa. A second Nations Cup came at home nine years later, and he closed his Ivory Coast career on 113 caps and 18 goals, with the Coupe de la Ligue at Saint-Étienne in 2013, the Turkish Cup at Sivasspor in 2022 and a 17-goal Ligue 1 season behind him. LM2013–22

23 NP 82 Nicolas Pépé Twenty-two goals and eleven assists in the 2018-19 Ligue 1 season carried Lille to second behind PSG and made Pépé the Prix Marc-Vivien Foé winner, and on 1 August 2019 Arsenal paid 72 million pounds for him, a club record. He won the FA Cup in 2020 and the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, and made the Ligue 1 team of the year in 2019. RM2018–23

24 AB 81 Arthur Boka 84 caps · K.S.K. Beveren, RC Strasbourg AlsaceStuttgart paid Strasbourg 3.5 million euros for the left back in August 2006, and nine months later he had 19 Bundesliga games and a title in his first season in Germany. That 2006-07 championship leads a list with a French League Cup at Strasbourg in 2005, two German Cup finals lost with Stuttgart, a Cup of Nations final lost with Ivory Coast in 2006, and 82 caps across three World Cups in 2006, 2010 and 2014. LB2005–14

25 SD 81 Serey Dié ES Sétif, FC SionThe camera found him during the anthem in Brasília on 19 June 2014, shoulders going, tears down his face before Colombia had even kicked off, and he explained afterwards that it was simply the weight of having got there. He was in the squad that won the 2015 Nations Cup, took four Swiss titles and a cup at Basel, two more cups at Sion, the Arab Champions League with Sétif in 2008, and finished on 61 caps. CDM2008–15

26 ST 81 Siaka Tiéné Mamelodi Sundowns, ValenciennesParis Saint-Germain closed the 2012-13 season with Tiéné at left-back, the year the club took its first French league title in nineteen years, and he finished with ninety-six Ivory Coast caps spread across fifteen seasons. He won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, Ligue 1 with PSG in 2013, and made the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations team of the tournament. LB2012–15

80 Abdoulaye Méïté 44 caps · Olympique de Marseille, Bolton WanderersAt 23 he lined up as one of three Marseille centre backs in the UEFA Cup final at Ullevi on 19 May 2004, held Valencia until a penalty in first-half stoppage time, and lost 2-0. Runner-up in that final and at the 2006 Cup of Nations, an Intertoto Cup in 2005, 48 caps, and a place at centre back for Ivory Coast's first two World Cup matches, against Argentina and the Netherlands in June 2006. CB2004–06

80 Gilles Yapi Yapo 46 caps · 10 goals · K.S.K. Beveren, FC NantesSandro Wieser's knee-high challenge in a league match against Aarau on 9 November 2014 tore Yapi Yapo's cruciate ligament, meniscus and kneecap tendon at once, and at 32 he came back anyway and scored in a 3-3 draw with Thun. He had been a Nations Cup runner-up in 2006 and went to that summer's World Cup, then won three straight Swiss titles with Basel from 2011, the Swiss Cup in 2012 and another with Zürich in 2016. CAM2006–16

80 Jean-Jacques Tizié 25 caps · Stade d'Abidjan, Africa Sports d'AbidjanEvery Ivorian international of his generation played in Europe except Tizié, who kept goal in Tunisia and was in the net in Cairo on 4 February 2006 when Ivory Coast beat Cameroon 12-11 on penalties in the quarter-final. He won five Tunisian titles and the Tunisian Cup with Espérance, the African Cup Winners' Cup with Africa Sports in 1999, and was Ivory Coast's first-choice goalkeeper for the 2006 Nations Cup final run and their first World Cup. GK1999–2006

80 Lacina Traoré 13 caps · 4 goals · CFR Cluj, FC Anzhi MakhachkalaTwo metres and three centimetres of centre forward, he put four past seventh-tier Saint-Jean Beaulieu on 3 January 2016 and was sent off at half-time all the same, Monaco winning 10-2. A Cup of Nations winner with Ivory Coast in 2015, champion of Romania with CFR Cluj in 2010 and again in 2020, two Romanian cups, two super cups, and 18 goals in 38 games for Kuban Krasnodar. ST2010–20

31 OK 80 Odilon Kossounou 35 caps · Club Brugge K.V., Bayer 04 LeverkusenA second yellow just before half-time against Mali on 3 February 2024 left Ivory Coast with ten men for the rest of a Nations Cup quarter-final they somehow won 2-1 in the 122nd minute. He was back in the side for the final eight days later, starting as Ivory Coast beat Nigeria in Abidjan, and that same season he won an unbeaten Bundesliga with Leverkusen and the German Cup as well, after two Belgian titles at Club Brugge. CB2020s

32 YF 80 Yaya Fofana Fofana was nineteen when he came off the bench against Toulouse on 4 February 2024 for his Ligue 1 debut, and seven months later, on his first start, he scored against Marseille a goal L'Équipe called quite simply sublime. The honours list is empty so far: he has played for Ivory Coast at under-23 level without a senior cap, and his Reims contract runs to 2029 after a reserve-team season of nine goals in twelve matches. CM2020s

33 WK 79 Wilfried Kanon Gloria Bistrița, ASC Corona 2010 BrașovIvory Coast picked him at centre back for the 2015 Cup of Nations final in Bata, and he was still there when the shootout against Ghana reached its 22nd kick, scoring his in a 9-8 win. That title is the whole of his honours list, earned across 53 caps and four Cup of Nations tournaments, with six seasons and 123 league games at ADO Den Haag either side of moves to Egypt, Qatar, Finland and Kuwait. CB2010s

About this XI

Didier Drogba tops Côte d’Ivoire's all-time pool, ahead of Yaya Touré and Kolo Touré. The 33 covers 3 goalkeepers, 10 defenders, 14 midfielders and 6 forwards, spanning the 1990s to the 2020s. Didier Drogba leads the pool at 93 overall. Pick a formation, drag your eleven onto the pitch, then settle the duels below. Your votes reorder the people's ranking of these 33 in real time.

Who is the greatest Côte d’Ivoire footballer of all time?

In the 33 Legends editorial ranking, Didier Drogba leads Côte d’Ivoire with an overall rating of 93. The editorial top five: Didier Drogba, Yaya Touré, Kolo Touré, Gervinho, Salomon Kalou. The people's ranking on this page moves with every duel vote and can disagree.

How were these 33 Côte d’Ivoire players chosen?

The pool covers every position across Côte d’Ivoire's football history. Ratings weigh peak level, longevity, honours and historical standing, then the full methodology page explains the tiers. Fan votes in the duels build a second, independent ranking.

Which Côte d’Ivoire players reach the Immortal tier or higher?

None yet. Didier Drogba leads the Côte d’Ivoire pool at 93, in the Mythic tier.

Can I build and share my own Côte d’Ivoire all-time XI?

Yes. Pick one of eight formations, drag any of the 33 onto the pitch, and export your lineup as a PNG. There is no account and no sign-up.