Honouring Kanoute’s role in establishing Sevilla among Europe’s elite

It was in March 2018 that Jose Mourinho produced one of his most caustic, cutting post-match press conferences.

The occasion: a Uefa Champions League Round of 16 exit at the hands of Sevilla, following a 2-1 home defeat. To a bemused press pack in the belly of Old Trafford, he insisted that elimination from the competition was “nothing new” for Manchester United; he would double down on this assessment three days later, citing the club’s lack of “football heritage”.

That he was able to pull up Sevilla’s superior record in recent continental competition as the final fig leaf to insulate himself from the chill of criticism owed much to one man: Frederic Kanoute.

Sevilla’s dominance in the UEFA Cup/Europa League over the last 15 years has pretty much established them as a top tier European club. In that span, the Andalusian side have won the competition five times, but while their three-peat between 2014 and 2016 looms larger in the memory as a consequence of recency, their first two triumphs – in 2006 and 2007 – truly put them on the map.

That double was secured by a brilliant side featuring players such as Dani Alves, Seydou Keita, Luiz Fabiano, Javier Saviola, Jesus Navas and Enzo Maresca was spearheaded by French-born Mali international Kanoute and trained by Juande Ramos, who would go on to manage Real Madrid.

That was the prototype, as it were; the first fruits of an innovative approach to scouting, by the man known simply as Monchi, which would utterly transform the club in the 21st century. Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo looked for talent off the beaten path, and sought undervalued assets from which utility could be extracted.

It was in this wise that Kanoute was recruited, a lanky, lithe striker with a modest goalscoring record at Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. At the time, he was known more for his work in deeper areas, which allowed him to dovetail on occasion with the speedier Jermaine Defoe, but he was a substitute for the most part, and averaged roughly a goal every five appearances.

In 2004, he opted to represent Mali at that year’s Africa Cup of Nations despite having earned a handful of caps for France at youth level. It was a decision that would prove the making of him, showcasing a player with the personality to lead the line on the international stage. He finished as joint top-scorer with four goals and was named in Caf’s official team of the tournament.

His fortunes in North London did not improve markedly, however, and so in 2005 Kanoute joined Monchi’s Sevilla project for €6.5 million.

He started 34 games in his first season, and while he only managed six goals in the league, it was in the Uefa Cup that he made a real impression, scoring a further six in eight starts as Sevilla went all the way to final, putting out Lille, Schalke and Zenit St Petersburg along the way.

Sevilla saved arguably their best performance for last, thrashing surprise finalists Middlesbrough – who were having a superb season with Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Yakubu, Fabio Rochemback and Gaizka Mendieta cutting through teams – by four unanswered goals in Eindhoven.

Not to be excluded from the plunder, Kanoute helped himself, coming off the bench to apply the coup de grace with a minute of the regulation 90 to play.

If the first season could be considered a decent enough start to life in Spain, the second saw him take La Liga by storm.

By the first game in December, he had hit double figures for goals. His tally at the end of the league campaign stood at 21 and Sevilla finished in third place, gaining an automatic Champions League group stage spot in the process.

There was also glory in the Copa Del Rey, as the striker scored the winner to settle an intense final against Getafe. 

In Europe, Sevilla once again made it all the way to the final, and while Kanoute’s goal contribution was down to four, the quarter-finals against former club Tottenham saw him determined to prove a point—he scored in both legs to lift Sevilla to a 4-3 aggregate victory.

There would be more final heroics, as Kanoute scored in extra-time to put Ramos’ side 2-1 up against Espanyol, and then scored in the shoot-out that wrote Los Nervionenses into the history books.

Kanoute would go on to score 89 goals in just over 200 appearances for Sevilla until 2012, a tally that makes him the club’s highest-ever foreign goalscorer to date.

There were other trophies too: a second Copa Del Rey, two Spanish Super Cups and a European Super Cup triumph. That seven-year span of success for Sevilla was the making of a club that had previously occupied the mid to lower tier in Spain, and Kanoute’s loping stride has as much to do with Sevilla’s quantum leap as anything.