Cheikhou Kouyaté was born on 21 December, 1989. He is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for English club West Ham United and the Senegal national team.
Cheikhou began his footballing career in 1996 in his hometown with ASC Yego Dakar and was scouted by RWDM Brussels in September 2006. RWDM Brussels then signed the player in January the following year. He went on to play ten league appearances for the first team between 2007 and 2008
Cheikhou was called up aged 18 to the Senegal under-20s in the same year as his RWDM Brussels debut. He scored two goals in just three games for the side in 2007.
Kouyaté moved from Senegal to Belgium in 2006, having been offered a youth contract at RWDM Brussels. After breaking into the first team, he went on to play just ten appearances before moving to Anderlecht aged 19. In June 2014, he joined West Ham of the Premier League. He represented the Senegal national team at the 2012 Olympics.
At age 19, he left Brussels because his former employers did not pay him three months’ worth of wages. He subsequently moved to Belgian rivals Anderlecht on a four-year deal for a free transfer. Kouyaté went on to make 153 league appearances for Anderlecht, scoring four goals in five seasons at the club. He won the following titles in these years 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13 and 2013–14 league titles as well as the 2010–11, 2012–13 and 2013–14 Belgian Super Cups respectively.
In February 2012, Cheikhou was called up to the Senegal senior team. In the same year, he was announced to be in the squad for Senegal Olympic football team. He played in every game as Senegal’s debut appearance in the tournament ended in a knockout in the quarter-final. In January 2015, he was a member of Senegal’s squad for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, held in Equatorial Guinea. Kouyaté is the current Senegalese captain. In May 2018 he was named in Senegal’s 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
