Koffi Dakoi He was one of the last major reinforcements that San Martín brought to Peruvian football. Of all the African players who have traveled, he and Aké Loba are arguably the best remembered by fans from other teams. The Saints’ 2018 season ended without an international rating, but left the interesting performance of two completely unknown foreigners, and the local tournament ended as “short” for them. So it was that after just a year they left to play for Liga MX teams.
However, over time, the situations of Koffi Dakoi and Aké Loba became increasingly contradictory. Although he never managed to reach his superlative level in San Martín, the forward remains active in Mexico to this day. For his part, Dakoi failed to even debut in the Aztec Premier League and faced several non-football issues during his stay. What happened to the promising midfielder?
Koffi Dakoi, his time in San Martín and his return to Mexico
Unlike Aké Loba, who was traded to Monterrey from San Martín, Koffi Dakoi joined Peruvian football on loan from Tigres UANL. At the age of 17 he was spotted at the Toulon Tournament of Hopes by Jean-Christophe Cano replacing André-Pierre Gignac and that’s how he made the jump to Mexican football. Once there, he was in the Tigres branch before being loaned out to the Saints for training.
Koffi Dakoi joined San Martín in the final stages of the 2018 summer tournament. When the Apertura began, the young Ivorian established himself as the undisputed player in Carlos Bustos’ side. In the usual 4-3-2-1, Dakoi was mostly behind Jesús Pretell and Jairo Concha or Jordan Guivin. A true all-rounder, he attracted a great deal of attention for his versatility and ability to score and distribute the ball.
Franck Anomou, Aké Loba, Aboubacar Kouyaté and Koffi Dakoi, Los Africanos de la San Martín 2018. Photo: Archivo GLR
San Martín has had several highlights this season with their midfielder (‘Chucho’ Chávez, Garry Correa, Jairo Concha) so it speaks a lot for him that he was able to excel at his young age and against a lot of competition. Koffi Dakoi finished 2018 with 2,680 minutes played in 34 games and 2 goals. The following year he returned to Tigres where he joined the Under-20 team and managed to start every game he played.
What happened to Koffi Dakoi?
Koffi Dakoi was loaned out to Correcaminos del Ascenso MX for the second half of 2019 but barely played. In November he joined Ivory Coast Under-23s for the Africa Cup of Nations in that category where he started and reached the final where Elephants lost to Egypt. Things got very complicated for the young midfielder after that: he didn’t want to renew his contract with Tigres and he couldn’t leave the country either.
Koffi Dakoi finished second at the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup. Photo: CAN
At the time, part of the Mexican press speculated a lot about Dakoi’s discontinuity with the Felines. The Ivorian didn’t extend as he wanted to play in the first team and not continue in the U20 side. With this in mind, one version states that the leadership kicked him out of the clubhouse for his refusal to continue, while another version noted that he left the shelter of his own free will. That being said, the concrete thing was that Dakoi’s future was not on Mexican soil.
Faced with all this situation and the lack of protocols, Koffi Dakoi disappeared from the Peruvian football media radar outside of the reports of his eventful departure from Tigres. Today, at the age of 23, he plays for Sporting Club de Gagnoa in his country. Accessing his stats since arriving at the club in late 2020 is complicated, but he’s still going strong – not always as a starter, yes – with the ’14’ in the side that finished fourth in Ligue 1 in 2022-23 .
Koffi Dakoi with his SC de Gagnoa teammates last season. Photo: Sporting Club of Gagnoa