Abdoulaye Méïté

Red Star

Méïté's first club at the age of 167 was the Division 2 Paris side, Red Star 93. He joined the club in 1998, before being snapped up by Olympique de Marseille.

Marseille

Méïté joined Marseille in July 2000, where he made 172 league appearances, as well as many in European competitions – including one against Bolton in January 2006. Whilst at Marseille, he started in the 2004 UEFA Cup Final.

Bolton Wanderers

Méïté moved to Bolton Wanderers in July 2006. He scored two goals for Bolton: one in the 3–1 FA Cup defeat to Arsenal on 14 February 2007, and the other in a 1–1 draw with ZFK Rabotnički Kometal of Macedonia in the UEFA Cup on 20 September the same year. He was involved in controversy during Bolton's defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford in March 2008. Manager Gary Megson blamed him for two goals that Bolton had conceded in the first half of the game (both scored by Cristiano Ronaldo), and Méïté refused to come out for the second half. He claimed he was unfit to carry on, but the Bolton medical staff confirmed that there was no injury. Megson subsequently forced Méïté to train with the reserves, and the player was widely expected to move on from the Reebok Stadium. He never played for Bolton again; he was not selected for any of the remaining eight Premier League fixtures in the 2007–08 season. He had previously missed only twelve League games in the two years he had been at Bolton, and five of these were while he was…

Méïté was part of the Ivory Coast national team squad for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. During the 2006 tournament, he featured in two of the team's six matches, as Ivory Coast reached the final but were defeated by Egypt. In the 2008 edition, he played in four of six games, with the team finishing fourth after losing the third-place play-off. He also represented the national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, appearing in two of the three group stage matches. The Ivory Coast were eliminated in the group stage.

Marseille

Intertoto Cup: 2005 UEFA Cup runner-up: 2003–04 Ivory Coast

Africa Cup of Nations runner-up: 2006 Individual

Veikkausliiga Player of the Month: August 2013