Eli Junior Kroupi
French footballer (born 2006)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eli Junior Éric Anatole Rainha Kroupi (born 23 June 2006) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Bournemouth.[3][4]
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Kroupi with Bournemouth in 2025 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Eli Junior Éric Anatole Rainha Kroupi[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 23 June 2006[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Lorient, France | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Forward | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Bournemouth | ||||||||||||||||
| Number | 22 | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2013–2023 | Lorient | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2022–2023 | Lorient B | 18 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 2023–2025 | Lorient | 48 | (14) | ||||||||||||||
| 2025– | Bournemouth | 32 | (13) | ||||||||||||||
| 2025 | → Lorient (loan) | 13 | (13) | ||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2022 | France U16 | 9 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 2022–2023 | France U17 | 9 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 2023 | France U18 | 2 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2023–2024 | France U19 | 12 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2025– | France U20 | 2 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2025– | France U21 | 5 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 20:45, 19 May 2026 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals as of 17 November 2025 | |||||||||||||||||
Early life
Born in Lorient, Morbihan,[5] Kroupi is the son of former Ivory Coast footballer Éli Kroupi.[6][7][8] His mother is of Portuguese descent.[9]
Club career
Lorient
A product of the Lorient Academy,[10][11] Kroupi started playing with the reserve team in the Championnat National 2 in the end of the 2021–22 season.[12] He signed his first professional contract with the club on the summer 2022.[13] While proving to be a regular goalscorer with the reserve,[14][15][16] he made his first appearance with the professional squad in April 2023, for the Ligue 1 game against Marseille.[17][18]
Kroupi made his professional debut for Lorient on the 3 June 2023 during a home Ligue 1 against Strasbourg, to be the youngest player in his club's history breaking previous record of Mattéo Guendouzi,[19] when he replaced Romain Faivre at the 83rd minute and his team won the match 2–1.[20][21] Despite this being the last round of the 2022–23 French top flight, Kroupi became at the age of 16 years and 345 days, the third youngest player to enter the field that season, only behind Warren Zaïre-Emery and Leny Yoro.[22]
On 23 September 2023, he scored his first Ligue 1 goal for Lorient in a 5–3 away defeat against Nantes,[23] to be the youngest scorer in club's history, breaking previous record of André Ayew.[19] A month later, on 8 October, after scoring twice in a 3–3 away draw against Lyon, he became the youngest player to score a brace in Ligue 1 since Bernard Zénier in 1974, at 17 years old and 107 days.[24][25] On 11 October 2023, he was named by English newspaper The Guardian as one of the best players born in 2006 worldwide.[26] In the 2024–25 season, he finished as the top scorer in Ligue 2 with 22 goals, helping Lorient secure promotion back to the top division.[27]
Bournemouth
On 3 February 2025, Premier League club Bournemouth agreed to sign Kroupi for £10 million. He would remain at Lorient for the rest of the 2024–25 season.[28] He made his debut for the club on 15 August 2025, in a 4–2 defeat to Liverpool.[29] He scored his first goal for the club on 27 September 2025, in a 2–2 draw with Leeds United.[30] He followed this up with a brace against Crystal Palace on 18 October and, after scoring against Nottingham Forest the following week, he became the fifteenth teenager in Premier League history to score in three consecutive games.[31] With teammate Rayan completing the same feat later in the season, the duo made Bournemouth the first club in Premier League history to have two teenagers score in three consecutive league matches in a single season.[32]
On 3 May 2026, he scored a penalty against Crystal Palace to mark his twelfth goal of the season, the joint highest goal tally by any teenager since the inception of the Premier League, alongside Robbie Fowler and Robbie Keane.[33] On 19 May 2026, he scored his thirteenth goal of the season against Manchester City, the highest number of goals scored by any teenager in a debut season in Premier League history, surpassing the previous record by Robbie Fowler and Robbie Keane.[34][35] This goal in the 1–1 draw ended Manchester City's chance to win the 2025-26 Premier League and confirmed Arsenal as champions, [36] and also, along with his earlier goals against Arsenal and Manchester United made Kroupi the first teenager to score against all three of the teams finishing the season in the top three in a single season.[37]
International career
Kroupi is eligible to play for France, Ivory Coast and Portugal.
Kroupi is a youth international for France, first receiving a call with the under-16 in October 2021.[38] He soon became a prolific goalscorer with France youth teams, with the U16,[6] and even more with the U17, scoring 9 goals in his first 9 appearances with the latter.[39][40][41]
In May 2023, Kroupi was selected by Jean-Luc Vannuchi for the European Under-17 Championship, as France were the reigning champions.[42] He was however forced to withdraw due to injury,[43] while his team would eventually go on to reach the final of the competition.[44]
In May 2026, Kroupi rejected an approach from coach Roberto Martínez of the Portugal national football team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, stating his desire to represent France at senior level.[45]
Career statistics
- As of match played 19 May 2026
| Club | Season | League | National cup[a] | League cup[b] | Europe | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Lorient II | 2021–22[46] | Championnat National 2 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | 3 | 2 | |||
| 2022–23[46] | Championnat National 2 | 15 | 7 | — | — | — | 15 | 7 | ||||
| Total | 18 | 9 | — | — | — | 18 | 9 | |||||
| Lorient | 2022–23[46] | Ligue 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2023–24[46] | Ligue 1 | 30 | 5 | 1 | 0 | — | — | 31 | 5 | |||
| 2024–25[46][c] | Ligue 2 | 30 | 22 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 32 | 23 | |||
| Total | 61 | 27 | 3 | 1 | — | — | 64 | 28 | ||||
| Bournemouth | 2025–26[47] | Premier League | 32 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 34 | 13 | |
| Career total | 111 | 49 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 116 | 50 | ||
