Éli Junior Kroupi is not only the son of Eli Kroupi, Ivorian striker who has made almost all his career in France. He only scored 11 goals in Ligue 1 but won the French Cup with FC Lorient in 2002 and the League Cup with AS Nancy-Lorraine in 2006. Éli Junior Kroupi is perhaps the new phenomenon French football. The native of Lorient is the nugget of the Merlus at 18 and has also shone in recent years in French teams U16, U17 then U19. Just that.
Fluet attacker of 1.79 m capable of technical gestures worthy of Neymar, Eli Junior Kroupi makes the display of his talent on the Ligue 2 terrains this season. It is 11 goals and 2 assists in 21 matches in all competitions this season. His latest goal is quite exceptional: a rolled strike that gave victory to the Leader's leader on the Troyes field last Friday, two minutes after his entry into play.
5 goals in Ligue 1 last season…
Junior Kroupi (as he calls himself) had already performed interesting performances during the Ligue season 1 2023-2024 (5 goals and 3 assists in 30 games), but no elite club has seen fit to recruit Last summer this prodigy which had just celebrated its passage to the majority (June 23, 2024). Bournemouth is the “cousin” club of FCL and ended up recruiting the Franco-Ivorian crack on February 3, against 12 million euros, to leave it on loan in Morbihan. The American Bill Foley being the owner of the English club and has 40% of the Breton training, Dango Ouattara and Romain Faivre have already been bought by the Cherries from the Merlus.
In Bournemouth, Kroupi is likely to have fun. He will join the surprise team of the Premier League this season (5th after 25 days) and try to find a place alongside other offensive features, Justin Kluivert (11 goals), Antoine Semenyo (7 goals) or Dango Ouattara (7 goals). If the formation of southern England, led by Andoni Iraola, continues on its momentum and ends in the top 5, it will compete in the Champions League in addition to the Premier League (England will most certainly have 5 clubs in LDC ).
