Ismaël Bangoura

The Syli Nationale possesses a plethora of attacking options and Ismaël Bangoura is the best among those when in front of goal. The 23-year old is relatively new to the Guinea set up but since joining the national team has been an integral part of the squad is heavily relied upon to score goals for his country.

Bangoura has a natural eye for goal and has been a prolific scorer for both his club and country. He is also capable of playing wide out on the wing though he is at his best when employed as a striker. He has played in all of Guinea’s 2010 World Cup qualifying matches and was also a starter in all of the their 2008 African Cup of Nations matches scoring one goal against Morocco in the group stages.

He has been one of the two pivotal figures in Guinea’s World Cup qualifying campaign along with Guinea captain Pascal Feindouno. Bangoura scored Guinea’s first goal of qualifying in Windhoek against Namibia in a 2-1 victory. Then his best ever outing in the Guinea shirt in the following fixture at home against Namibia saw Bangoura record a hat-trick as Guinea routed the Namibians 4-0. His four goals through five games so far represents one of the best totals in Africa to this point. Bangoura will certainly be counted on to put one or more shots in the back of the net in the upcoming do or die home match against Kenya. A game Guinea has no choice but to win if they want to advance to the next stage of qualifying.

Bangoura is equally deadly in front of goal at club level for Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kyiv. In his debut season with the club in 2007-8 he scored a whopping 15 goals in just 20 appearances in the Ukrainian league. He also proved his worth on the European stage by adding an additional three goals in four games for the Ukrainians in the group stage of the Champions League. Prior to arriving in Kiev he played for Le Mans in France and scored 18 goals over the preceding two seasons. All told Ismaël has shown himself to be a proven goal scorer wherever he plays, be it for his country, his clubs in France and Ukraine and in European competition.

At just 23 years of age Bangoura figures to be the future of the Syli Nationale. As he continues to gain experience he is likely to become one of the best players ever to come out of Guinea and has a very real chance to become the country’s greatest ever star.

His reputation and accolades will be tempered however should Guinea fail to defeat Kenya and thus miss out not only on the World Cup but also the African Cup of Nations. The thought of Guinea not being in the Nations Cup is unthinkable to fans of the Syli Nationale as they are currently three times running Quarterfinalists in Africa’s showcase event.