Macoumba Kandji
Kandji with FC Honka in 2018.
Personal information
Date of birth (1985-08-02) 2 August 1985
Place of birth Dakar, Senegal
Height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Position(s) Forward / Winger
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2005 Georgia Military Bulldogs
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006 Atlanta Silverbacks U23's 8 (1)
2007–2008 Atlanta Silverbacks 28 (13)
2008 → New York Red Bulls (loan) 5 (1)
2009–2010 New York Red Bulls 36 (5)
2010–2011 Colorado Rapids 27 (2)
2012 Houston Dynamo 29 (4)
2013 Kalloni 19 (6)
2013–2014 Levadiakos 12 (0)
2014 HJK 24 (6)
2015 Al-Faisaly 10 (2)
2015 HJK 5 (0)
2017 Inter Turku 25 (5)
2018 Honka 26 (16)
2019 Sanat Naft 6 (2)
2019–2020 Honka 21 (6)
2021–2022 Lahti 50 (8)
2023 SC Wiedenbrück 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16 October 2022

Macoumba "Mac" Kandji (born 2 August 1985) is a Senegalese professional footballer currently playing in the German Regionalliga West for SC Wiedenbrück.

Career

Early life and college

Kandji was born in Senegal, raised in The Gambia, and came to the United States in 2003. He attended East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was voted MVP in 2003 as the Men's All-State Team forward, and played college soccer at Georgia Military College, where he was selected in the All-Region team in 2004 and 2005, scoring 17 goals and providing six assists during the 2005 season.

During 2006, Kandji also impressed while playing for Atlanta Silverbacks U23's in the USL Premier Development League, scoring one goal and one assist in eight games.

Professional

Macoumba Kandji signing autographs during his time with the Red Bulls.

Kandji joined the senior Atlanta Silverbacks team in 2007. He made his first team debut 4 August 2007 against Charleston Battery. From then on, he began to establish himself as one of the top players of the USL. During the 2008 season Kandji appeared in 21 league matches for Atlanta, registering 11 goals and five assists. He was named to the USL-1 Weekly Best 11 on six occasions, despite playing just one game in the final six weeks of the season due to an ankle injury.

Kandji finished the 2008 season ranked third in points (27 points, 21 games), though he missed nearly a third of the season due to injury, travel restrictions, and a loan to New York Red Bulls. During his time with the Silverbacks, Kandji was the main feature of an ESPN Soccernet article highlighting some of the USL's tops stars.[1]

On 15 September 2008, Kandji signed with New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer on loan through the end of the 2008 MLS season. This initial loan deal involved Red Bulls paying Atlanta Silverbacks a fee of $25,000. If the loan was a success, then another fee of $150,000 would be paid for Kandji, making the total amount paid $175,000. He made his MLS debut against Colorado Rapids on 27 September 2008, where he recorded an assist.

Macoumba Kandji, a forward for the Houston Dynamo against Chance Myers of Sporting KC at Livestrong Sporting Park

In November 2008, the Silverbacks announced that, due to financial reasons, they would be 'sitting out' the 2009 season. This development would have made Kandji a free agent, allowing New York to pick him up on a free transfer instead of the $175,000 previously agreed. However, Silverbacks owner Boris Jerkunica transferred his rights to Carolina Railhawks, a team he had a small stake in.[2]

New York purchased his rights and signed him on a one-year deal on 14 January 2009.[3] Kandji quickly established himself as a key performer for New York. His performance on 8 June 2009 in a 4–1 victory over San Jose Earthquakes, in which Kandji scored one goal and had two assists, led to him being named MLS player of the week.[4] In his first full season with New York, Kandji appeared in 23 league matches scoring 4 goals and assisting on 5 others.

Macoumba Kandji in 2010.

On 25 July 2010 Kandji scored a goal and assisted Dane Richards on another in a 2–1 pre-season victory over Manchester City.[5] It was also rumoured that Greece's Skoda Xanthi was interested in signing Kandji.

On 14 September 2010, Kandji was traded to Colorado Rapids for Mehdi Ballouchy and an international roster spot.[6]

Kandji played an integral role in scoring the winning goal for Colorado Rapids during the 2010 MLS Cup final. His shot on goal was deflected off a defender, and though classified as an own-goal, it was his shot that resulted in the scoring opportunity. Kandji was also injured on this play; he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He underwent surgery to fix the torn ligament at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City with Doctor Riley Williams (head team physician for Kandji's former team, the New York Red Bulls).

Kandji was traded to Houston Dynamo on 8 February 2012 (to fill their void at the left wing position) in exchange for a conditional pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft.[7] At year's end, Kandji declined a contract extension from Houston in pursuit of a European contract.

He signed with Kalloni of the Greek Second Division on 28 January 2013.[8] In 19 appearances with the club, Kandji bagged six goals in 1477 minutes played. Not only did he contribute with goals, Kandji helped the club gain promotion to the first division and earn a spot in the Superleague Greece.

Although his club was promoted, Kandji announced he had changed clubs to Levadiakos F.C. of the Greek Super League (1st division) for the new Greek season 2013/2014. He signed a one-year contract.

In April 2014 Kandji signed a short-term contract with Finnish football club HJK Helsinki until August 2014 with an option to extend. On 12 April he scored a goal on his Veikkausliiga debut against KuPS. HJK qualified for the Europa League group stages 2014 with a 5–4 aggregate victory over SK Rapid Wien.

After spending a season in Saudi Arabia with Al-Faisaly, he rejoined HJK in July 2015 and said that it is "great to be back again".[9]

On 5 May 2017, Kandji returned to the Finnish Veikkausliiga, signing with FC Inter Turku on a deal until the end of July, with an option for it to be extended until the end of the season.[10]

In May 2018, Kandji joined FC Honka.[11] He made his debut for Honka in an away game against RoPS on 3 May, and played an important role as he helped Honka grab their first win of the season by scoring a goal just five minutes after he came off the bench. He was then selected as the Veikkausliiga 'Player of the Month' for June and July 2018. In the end of August Kandji suffered a calf sprain and had to sit out a few games. That clearly made a difference to Kandji's game; in the last seven games he scored just twice. Eventually he went to claim the third spot in 'Most goals scored in Veikkausliiga 2018' with 16 scored goals. However, for FC Honka the season ended in a disappointing way, when Honka was left out of the top 3 by just the goal difference.

After the 2018 season in Espoo, Kandji agreed to sign with the Iranian Sanat Naft FC for the remaining three months of the season, which played in the Persian Gulf Pro League. He spent there just the time of 11 games, which from he played 6 of them. He scored two goals, but was left as a free agent in the end of May.

On 9 August 2019, Kandji made an expected return to Honka, when he agreed to a contract covering the remaining 2019 and the entire 2020 season.

International

Kandji has not yet appeared for any national team. Both Senegal and The Gambia have offered Kandji an opportunity to play, but Kandji turned them down in hopes of one day playing for the United States.

Honours

Atlanta Silverbacks

  • USL 1 Runners Up (1): 2007

New York Red Bulls

Colorado Rapids

HJK Helsinki

Individual

  • 2007 USL Division 1 Player of the Week (Week 17)
  • 2007 USL Division 1 Goal of the Week (Week 17 – view here)
  • 2008 USL Division 1 Player of the Week (Weeks 10, 16)
  • 2008 USL Division 1 Team of the Week (Weeks 7, 10, 12, 16, 17, 22)
  • 2008 USL Division 1 Goal of the Week (Week 16 – view here)
  • 2009 MLS Player of the Week (Week 8)
  • 2018 Veikkausliiga Player of the Month (June).[12]
  • 2018 Veikkausliiga Player of the Month (July).[13]
  • Veikkausliiga Team of the Year: 2018

Career statistics

As of match played 15 May 2015
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Continental Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Atlanta Silverbacks 2007 USL First Division 7200-0050122
2008 211121-00002312
Total 2813210000503514
New York Red Bulls (loan) 2008 Major League Soccer 5100-002071
New York Red Bulls 2009 23410-0000244
2010 13100-0000131
Total 41610000020446
Colorado Rapids 2010 Major League Soccer 7000-0030100
2011 9000-5230172
Total 16000005260272
Houston Dynamo 2012 Major League Soccer 29400102050374
AEL Kalloni 2012–13 Beta Ethniki 19600---196
Levadiakos 2013–14 Superleague Greece 12000---120
HJK 2014 Veikkausliiga 2463200113-3811
Al-Faisaly 2014–15 Saudi Professional League 10200---102
HJK 2015 Veikkausliiga 50000000-50
FC Inter Turku 2017 25 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 25 5
FC Honka 2018 26 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 26 16
2019 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 2
2020 17 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 - 21 4
FC Lahti 2021 26 5 0 0 0 0 - - 26 5
2022 24 3 6 6 3 0 - 2 0 35 9
Career total 282681694018520036386

References

  1. ↑ "ESPNsoccernet - U.S. Soccer - Rodriguez: Ranking the USL's top prospects". Archived from the original on 20 September 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
  2. ↑ "Private Site". Archived from the original on 1 July 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  3. ↑ "Private Site".
  4. ↑ http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jspymd=20090511&content_id=251760&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
  5. ↑ "Richards, Kandji lead Red Bulls past Man City | Major League Soccer". Archived from the original on 28 July 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  6. ↑ "Kandji traded to Colorado". New York Red Bulls. 14 September 2010. Archived from the original on 17 September 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  7. ↑ "Rapids acquire SuperDraft pick from Houston for Kandji | Colorado Rapids". Archived from the original on 14 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "::[ Ο Μακούμπα Κάντζι στην ομάδα μας! | ΑΕΛ Καλλονής – Επίσημη ιστοσελίδα ]::". Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  9. ↑ Mac Kandji [@mackandji] (9 July 2015). "Thanks for the love! It's definitely great to be back with @hjkhelsinki I can't wait to get back to work and have some fun out there #HJK 💙" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. ↑ "Macoumba Kandji siirtyy FC Interiin". fcinter.fi (in Finnish). FC Inter Turku. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "Hongan hyökkäykseen huippuvahvistus – Macoumba Kandji saapuu Espooseen".
  12. ↑ "Honka-tähti kuukauden pelaajaksi – myös kuukauden valmentaja samasta seurasta".
  13. ↑ "Honka-tähti jälleen kuukauden pelaajaksi – kuukauden valmentaja VPS:n hurjaan lentoon siivittänyt Vuorinen".
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