Jules Armand Kooh, the “fox in the box”

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With a style of play likened to the great Didier Drogba, Jules Armand Kooh is arguably the next big thing in Cameroon’s football.

The 1.78 center forward aged 24 is single handedly keeping Les Astres Football club de Douala’s playoffs hope in check this season.

Armand has banged in 8 goals already this campaign, a goals return that earned him the September and October player of the month award.

The latter started his career in the MTN Elite One Championship with Avion in 2019, aged 20.

That season, he slotted in perfectly in the championship, with 6 goals to his credit.

The lad was soo good, that Avion was made to lift off all the hardwork on the shoulders of Mfegue George, who is now skipper of Ghanaian juggernauts, Kumasi Asante kotoko.

Kooh was extremely impressive that another season at Avion was unlikely, when 2019 Cameroon cup winners Stade Renard, came knocking.

Stade Renard had just won the Cameroon cup and coach Souleymanou Aboubakar needed to sharpen his attacking compartment, leading to the club’s purchase of Armand Kooh.

Kooh further showed enormous potency in front of goal, scoring 11 goals in 23 games for Stade Renard in 2020.

His performances earned him a pre selection with Cameroon’s intermediate Lions ahead of the CHAN 2020, but an ankle injury later meant Kooh had to seat the tournament out.

In 2022, Jules Armand Kooh was signed by Les Astres Football club for an undisclosed fee, which easily could be the club’s record transfer, as learned by sportglitz.

In his first game of the season last term, Kooh scored a spectacular volley against Union of Douala, in the Littoral derby which ended in a stalemate (2-2).

Kooh, now 24, finished off the campaign with 9 goals and was pre selected for the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship by coach Seidou Alioum.

This season is looking to be the forward’s best campaign yet. Only halfway gone into the campaign, Kooh tops the goal scorers chart with 8 goals.

He is in contention to man the attack of the Indomitable Lions in Cote D’Ivoire next year.

Play style

Kooh does all his work off and on the ball.

He is patient, even if he does not get a lot of touches with the ball. At the same time, he constantly aware of his fellow marking defenders.

He constantly looks for gaps and empty spaces to run into, while also timing his runs perfectly to beat the offside trap.

Sometimes, if a good midfielder is making a run towards goal, Kooh runs into empty space to take his marking defender with him, making room for the player with the ball.

To cap it all, Jules Armand Kooh is always aware, patient and alert.