Wilfried Bony

Wilfried Guemiand Bony (born 10 December 1988) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a striker.

Bony then scored a 90th-minute winner over Feyenoord on 2 September to earn the club its third win from its first four league matches.

On 6 October, he scored a hat-trick as Vitesse came back from a goal down three times to draw 3–3 with Heerenveen.

In the third round of the FA Cup, Bony scored a 90th-minute header against Manchester United to send Swansea through to the next round in what was Swansea's first-ever win at Old Trafford.

During Vitesse's 2–0 upset of Ajax on 4 November, Bony scored both goals, helping Vitesse to six away wins in a row and the club's first win at the Amsterdam Arena since 2001.

He added two more goals to his account in Vitesse's 4–1 defeat of NEC on 18 November, earning Vitesse just their second home win of the season as NEC had three players sent off.

On 25 November, Vitesse travelled to Eindhoven to face league leaders PSV; Bony scored a late winner to put Vitesse on 31 points, level with second-placed Twente.

Having begun his career at Issia Wazi, Bony moved to Sparta Prague in 2007, helping them to the Czech First League title in 2009–10.

Bony began his professional career at Issia Wazi in the Ivorian top flight and ended the 2007 season as top goalscorer.

Bony had a two-week trial at Premier League club Liverpool in 2007 but was not offered a contract.

In October 2007, Bony joined Czech club Sparta Prague on a loan deal where he immediately started playing for their B team.

He won the Bohemian Football League championship with Sparta Prague B. Bony then joined the club on a permanent basis and broke into the first team in the 2008–09 season, scoring 3 goals in 16 appearances.

In 2009–10, he scored nine times as Sparta won the Czech First League title.

Internationally, Bony made his debut for Ivory Coast, in 2010, and was selected in the squads for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, helping them to victory in 2015.

Wilfried Bony was born in Bingerville and played street football from a young age, later playing at the Maracanã Bingerville football school.

He also participated in many interschool and city cups, before spending three years at the Cyril Domoraud Academy in Bingerville.

After scoring 17 goals during the first half of the 2010–11 season, including five goals in six appearances in the UEFA Europa League, Bony was signed by Dutch Eredivisie club Vitesse in January 2011 for a £3.4 million transfer fee.

In January 2011, he was signed by Dutch club Vitesse, where he was the top scorer in the Eredivisie in 2012–13, leading to a £12 million transfer to Premier League club Swansea City.

Bony signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Vitesse and scored on his debut in a 2–0 derby win over De Graafschap on 20 February 2011.

In his first full season with Vitesse, Bony scored 12 goals in the Eredivisie, earning the top goalscoring honours for the club and was tied for tenth-highest scorer in the league.

In February 2012, he signed a contract extension which would have kept him at the club until 2015, also ending transfer speculation.

Bony made his first appearance of the 2012–13 Eredivisie campaign for Vitesse on 12 August 2012 in a 2–2 draw with ADO Den Haag at the GelreDome, equalizing for the hosts less than a minute after Tjaronn Chery had put ADO in front.

On 9 February 2013, Bony returned from his participation in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations to face PSV and once again scored twice, securing a 2–2 draw.

On 23 February, Bony scored a hat-trick to send Vitesse to a 5–3 victory over Heracles Almelo.

On 15 April, he scored for the ninth consecutive match in a 3–3 draw with Roda JC.

Bony ended the season as the Eredivisie's top scorer with 31 goals in 30 matches and was awarded the Golden Shoe for the best player in the Netherlands.

On 11 July 2013, Bony signed a four-year contract with Welsh side Swansea City, who paid a Welsh record transfer fee of £12 million.

Bony's work permit was delayed briefly, but was granted three days later.

He made his competitive debut for Swansea in the club's UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie against Malmö FF, scoring two second-half goals in a 4–0 first-leg victory on 1 August.

The BBC listed Bony as one of the Premier League signings to watch for the 2013–14 Premier League.

In the opening match of the 2013–14 season on 17 August, Bony scored his first goal for the club in a 1–4 loss against Manchester United.

Shortly after, Bony scored his first goal for Swansea in a UEFA competition, in the first leg of the Europa League qualification round against Romanian side Petrolul Ploiești in a 5–1 win.

He then scored a brace in Swansea's 3–3 draw with Stoke City in November.

After scoring in a 3–1 win at Sunderland on the final day of the Premier League season, he finished 2013–14 having scored 25 goals.

On 20 September 2014, Bony was sent off in the first half of a 1–0 home defeat to Southampton.

Bony scored 35 goals in 70 appearances for the Swans and in January 2015, joined Manchester City in a £28 million deal.

However, Bony struggled for match-time at Manchester City, and following the arrival of Pep Guardiola in mid-2016, he joined Stoke City on loan for the 2016–17 season.

Bony returned to Swansea on 31 August 2017.

After his loan spell with Al-Arabi, he was released by Swansea in May 2019 to leave on 30 June.

In 2020 he signed a year and a half contract with Al-Ittihad, but in a mutual agreement with the club he left after playing ten games in the ten months with the team.