Bafétimbi Gomis (French pronunciation: ; born 6 August 1985) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for J1 League club Kawasaki Frontale.
Gomis played youth football with Saint-Étienne before making his professional debut for the club in 2004, also spending time on loan at Troyes in Ligue 2. In 2009, he joined Saint-Étienne's Derby du Rhone rivals Lyon for a fee of €13 million. Over five seasons at the Stade Gerland, he played 244 official matches and scored 95 goals, winning the Coupe de France and the Trophée des Champions in 2012. In 2014, he moved to Premier League club Swansea City on a free transfer. After a loan back in France at Marseille, he signed for Galatasaray, where he was top scorer as they won the Süper Lig in 2018.
Gomis made 12 appearances for the France national team from 2008 to 2013, scoring three goals. He was a member of the squad for UEFA Euro 2008.
Born in France, Gomis was also eligible to play for Senegal through his ancestry. On 8 May 2008, he said regarding his international future "I don't have to choose between the French or Senegalese teams, as I have not been called yet. The French team? It would be pretentious to ask for it, but I am not adverse to the French team."
On 18 May 2008, Gomis was called up for the provisional French UEFA Euro 2008 squad, ahead of experienced striker David Trezeguet, due to his particularly good form towards the end of Saint-Étienne's season. Gomis scored two goals in 26 minutes in a warm-up match against Ecuador on 27 May. He was the first player to score twice on his debut for the national team since Zinedine Zidane. On 28 May, he was selected in the French squad ahead of Olympique de Marseille striker Djibril Cissé. On 9 June, Gomis won his third cap by coming on as a substitute for Nicolas Anelka in the scoreless draw against Romania. On 7 October 2009, he collapsed in the training for the match against the Faroe Islands.
In 2011, after a good start of the season with Lyon, Laurent Blanc called up Gomis for UEFA Euro 2012 qualification matches against Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gomis has a medical condition, suspected to be reflex syncope, which means he is liable to faint during times of stress. This has caused him to faint during a number of matches.
He is the cousin of fellow footballers Nampalys Mendy and Alexandre Mendy.
Gomis' iconic goal celebration is inspired by Salif Keita. It is nicknamed "The Black Panther" and features in the FIFA video game series, first appearing in FIFA 17. An image of Gomis after his goal against Manchester United on 14 August 2015, captured by Getty Images Stuart Forster was nominated for football picture of the year at the Sports Journalism Awards.
2004-2009 |
2005 (Loan) |
2008-2013 |
2009-2014 |
2014-2017 |
2016-2017 (Loan) |
2017-2018 |
2018-2022 |
2022-2023 |
2022-2023 |
2023-2025 |
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