Six years ago, at 16 years and one day old, Youssoufa Moukoko became the youngest player in Bundesliga history. Since then, his career has taken a more winding path than expected: the forward, born on 20 November 2004 in Yaoundé, is about to discover Turkish football, loaned out by FC Copenhagen to Çorum FK.
Moukoko's story begins in the Briqueterie neighbourhood of Yaoundé, before his family settled in Hamburg when he was just 14. Spotted at FC Sankt Pauli, he joined Borussia Dortmund in 2016 and set one precocity record after another in the youth ranks before breaking into the first team.
With the Ruhr valley club, he finished runner-up in the Bundesliga twice, in 2022 and 2023, before reaching the Champions League final in 2024. A German international at youth level and then with the senior squad, he has never represented Cameroon, the country where he was born but left as a child.
His last two seasons have been tougher: a loan at OGC Nice failed to convince, as did his subsequent spell at FC Copenhagen. According to Danish media, the Danish club agreed to his departure with a purchase option that, according to German media, is close to €3 million.
He is now bound for Turkey, where Çorum FK are experiencing the Süper Lig for the first time in the club's history after winning promotion through the play-offs last May. Moukoko underwent his medical in Istanbul before signing on until the end of the 2026-2027 season.
At 21, the former Dortmund wonderkid is above all looking to relaunch a career slowed by several setbacks in a row, far from the Bundesliga spotlight that first introduced him to the world.
