He played for Coventry City & Bolton Wanderers – he’s now in Japan’s second-tier at 30 | OneFootball

Former Coventry City and Bolton Wanderers striker Amadou Bakayoko has slipped off the radar and is now in the Japanese second-tier.

There are certain players that earn plaudits and notoriety at clubs perhaps beyond their actual technical ability and level but coming up with big moments or simply just endearing themselves to supporters.

Amadou Bakayoko was certainly one of them with his unusual route to becoming a bit of a cult hero, as such, with both Coventry City and then Bolton Wanderers.

His chant of ’20 goals, 20 goals Bakayoko’ would often ring out around grounds where he wasn’t even playing when at Wanderers but his often peculiar golden touch is something that endeared him to supporters.

Now, still only at the age of 30, the Sierra Leone international striker is plying his trade across the other side of the world and in the Japanese second-tier.

Amadou Bakayoko’s route into the EFL

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Having come through the academy at Walsall, Amadou Bakayoko spent time out on loan in non-league at Southport, AFC Telford United and Worcester City.

His record at all three clubs made for relatively underwhelming reading with just five goals scored in 26 appearances between 2014 and 2016.

However, Bakayoko, having made 13 goalless appearances for The Saddlers before those loan stints, managed to become a contributor to Walsall in League One in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.

Form in the EFL Trophy in the 2016-17 campaign, scoring six goals in four appearances, initially helped him become more of a regular in the first-team picture at the Bescot as he hit 18 goals in 92 appearances, mainly off the bench, before a surprising move to Coventry in the summer of 2018.

Amadou Bakayoko became a cult hero at Coventry and Bolton

Having gained promotion back to the third-tier of English football, Coventry sought to pad out their squad with EFL and in particular League One experience.

While having that, Bakayoko remained at an age where Sky Blues boss surely believed he had a rough diamond on his hands to polish up.

Bakayoko had his moments in a Coventry shirt, too, with seven goals in 31 League One appearances, again mainly off the bench, as City finished eighth in their first season back in the third-tier before six in 33 across all competitions as they gained promotion back to the Championship.

A contributor but deemed a fair way off being able to compete regularly at Championship level, Bakayoko would fail to score in 14 second-tier appearances before being let go in the summer of 2021.

Another newly-promoted-to-League One club would pick up the battering ram of a centre forward, though, with Ian Evatt’s Bolton Wanderers bring him in.

On league debut for The Trotters, Bakayoko scored in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Milton Keynes Dons and was something of a regular for The Whites in the first half of the season, playing both through the middle and off the right.

After Evatt shifted to a back three system in January with the notable striking addition of Dion Charles, Bakayoko found himself more on the periphery of the first-choice eleven – but still capable of contributing.

In fact, eight of Bakayoko’s ten league goals in the 2021-22 season came in the second half of the season, primarily used as the ‘super sub’ that he had seemingly developed himself into and worked towards mastering at both Walsall and Coventry before joining Wanderers.

Amadou Bakayoko left England for Scotland and then Japan

Soccer Football - League One - Bolton Wanderers v Crewe Alexandra - University of Bolton Stadium, Bolton, Britain - November 12, 2021 Crewe Alexandra's Luke Offord fouls Bolton Wanderers' Amadou Bakayoko to concede a penalty Action Images/Molly Darlington EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or sin

As Wanderers kicked on again in the 2022-23 campaign and challenged for League One promotion, much like at Coventry, Bakayoko eventually became surplus to requirements.

That led to an entirely fruitless stint at Forest Green Rovers as he failed to score to prevent FGR’s relegation to League Two – a few months that would be his last few in the EFL for now.

After leaving New Lawn, he joined Dundee in the Scottish Premiership and scored six goals in 37 appearances as they finished sixth under the management of Tony Docherty.

Bakayoko then left Scotland in 2024 to join Japanese outfit Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, where he would again fail to assist in the avoidance of a relegation, scoring one goal in six J1 League games that season.

Since then Bakayoko has been a part of Consadole Sapporo’s squad in the second-tier, scoring a further 11 goals for the club in 48 appearances.