Ivorian legend Laurent Pokou is dead

FORMER Ivorian footballer, Laurent Pokou has died. Pokou, who died in Abidjan on Sunday, was the holder of the record for the most number of goals at the Africa Cup of Nations finals for almost 40 years.

Aged 69, Pokou, who died after a long period of illness, took 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 on 10 February, 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 came from the Treichville slum of Abidjan but first played at USFAN in Bouake before going to ASEC Abidjan, where he would win six championships.

The goals at the continental championship saw him finish runner-up behind Salif Keita in the first African Footballer of the Year award in 1970 (at that time organised by France Football magazine).

His form also set him up for an inevitable 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.