Wilfried Bony

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

Having begun his career at Issia Wazy, Bony moved to Sparta Prague in 2007, helping them to the Czech First League title in 2009–10. 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 scored 35 goals in 70 appearances for the Swans and in January 2015, joined Manchester City in a £28 million deal. However, he struggled for match-time, 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 in 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 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.

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.

Bony began his professional career at Issia Wazy 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. 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.

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. 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.