Some players, including plenty of the world\u2019s very best, are enigmas, reserving part of their personality for themselves, with a different face in front of the bright spotlights and ever-present cameras.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Others are an open book, wearing their emotions on a sleeve, their life experiences brandished to the world like the crest on their chest.<\/p>\n
Watch K\u00e9vin Denkey<\/a> score one of his range of increasingly routine golazos for FC Cincinnati<\/a> \u2013 he\u2019s bagged five in their last six matches, a couple of them promising early contenders for AT&T MLS Goal of the Year, so you have plenty to pick from \u2013 and you\u2019ll see the latter: a top talent who knows it, and wants everyone else to follow suit.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cI did good in Belgium. I want to do the same, even more what I did there,\u201d Denkey, the top scorer in the Belgian top flight last season with 27 goals, told MLSsoccer.com during a one-on-one conversation from Cincy\u2019s preseason camp in Clearwater Beach, Florida. \u201cI want to score very, very many goals and to help the team.<\/p>\n \u201cI will do my job, that\u2019s for sure. But I think if the team follows me in my journey and everything I’m doing, we will be very great. Everybody is very serious, working hard, pushing the limit. Everybody will be great.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n K.D. phone home. ???????? pic.twitter.com\/eFeDF5MvtJ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 FC Cincinnati (@fccincinnati) April 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n With eight goals in his first 13 MLS matches, a phase in which he\u2019s still been honing his chemistry with fellow newcomer Evander<\/a>, both he and his team have lived up to his word. And with most of those tallies spectacular, clutch or both \u2013 his bicycle-kick winner vs. Sporting Kansas City<\/a> in late April most prominent among them \u2013 the striker has already confirmed the marquee status his then-MLS-record $16.2 million winter transfer from Cercle Brugge suggested.<\/p>\n It\u2019s propelled Cincy into a share of first place in both the Supporters\u2019 Shield and Eastern Conference standings as they visit the gleaming stage of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire clash with Atlanta United<\/a> on Matchday 15 (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cThere are not many words to describe what he did,\u201d FCC head coach Pat Noonan said after Denkey\u2019s jaw-dropping bike, which he and the club celebrated by gifting 150 real, actual bicycles to students<\/a> at an area middle school for perfect or near-perfect attendance and\/or honor roll performance.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of the best goals I\u2019ve seen in person, certainly.\u201d<\/p>\n Noonan may actually take more encouragement from Denkey\u2019s less spectacular finishes. Like the early back-post tap-in of an Evander overhead kick that pushed the Knifey Lions in front of their Hell is Real rivals, the Columbus Crew<\/a> last Saturday, paving the way to a hard-earned 1-1 draw<\/a> in hostile territory and underlining the 24-year-old\u2019s instincts and opportunism.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n 150 bikes for some amazing students at Hays-Porter School. ????????@KevinDenkey9<\/a> | #AllForCincy<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/h6lSSLV6eZ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 FC Cincinnati (@fccincinnati) May 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Both types of goals, as well as the wider toolkit he flashes every time out, can be traced to Denkey\u2019s distant childhood in Togo, one of Africa\u2019s smallest nations and among its poorest, according to the United Nations Human Development Index. The street soccer of his youth, simultaneously swaggy and hardscrabble, laid his foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cTo play in the street is different,\u201d Denkey recalled. \u201cSometimes when people come, if you dribble someone and he’s not happy, you know, don’t care. There’s no referees; you can learn faster. And sometimes it’s small spaces. You play within small spaces, and you need to know how to protect the ball. And this now today, it\u2019s helped me a lot, but I learned it there.<\/p>\n \u201cThis, you cannot learn it like this playing here,\u201d he explained, waving at the well-heeled American hotel lobby in which he was sitting, \u201cbecause it’s not the thing. But in the street, I think, is the most \u2013 how to play with your teammates also, because when it’s too tight, you cannot always keep the ball and go, go, go. You have to one-two with your teammate, to know how to be smart \u2026 You need to move the ball quick, and move also yourself, if you want the ball, to touch the maximum.\u201d<\/p>\n You could even say he\u2019s been a professional since he was grade-school age. Because even under highly austere economic circumstances, there was often money on the line in the pickup games of Lom\u00e9, Togo’s capital city.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes everybody puts money,\u201d Denkey recounted with a sly grin. \u201cWhat you have, you can give, and then make one team; we have this money, other team, they make their own money. We can have three, four teams and make tournament \u2013 and then play for our lives.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s crazy, we played like this every time.\u201d<\/p>\n Occasionally, accuracy would be tested with shooting competitions on a tiny improvised goal, maybe only two ball widths wide. When Denkey flashes composure under duress on the pitch, it\u2019s a legacy of those days.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just take a small goal like this, for one ball here, and we have to reach the goal, with money. So you put your money, everybody bring this money,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf you are like, five, three people miss, and two score. So the final is between two. Who will take all the money, man? This also, at the end, it helps for precision.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to win, you don\u2019t want to lose your money! I won money like this a lot of time, and I lose also, because sometimes there is not about precision; sometimes there is pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Denkey\u2019s raw materials would later be shaped and guided in a drastically different environment.<\/p>\n He emigrated to France on his own at age 12 in pursuit of a better life, leaving his parents in Togo to join extended family in faraway Europe. Though he dreamed of a footballing career, so do many thousands of others like him on those shores. An uncle who hosted him upon arrival in Paris was blunt about how steeply the odds were stacked against him.<\/p>\n “I told him, I want to play soccer. He said, ‘This is impossible,’\u201d Denkey recalled. \u201cThey were honest with me. Like, even my parents, they didn’t believe that I can play soccer.<\/p>\n \u201cMy uncle was my family that was here. He say, ‘You can\u2019t.’ I said, ‘I want and I will.’\u201d<\/p>\n Denkey started at a small local club in Lyon, where he\u2019d settled with an aunt, scraping together a \u20ac50 registration fee for the chance to play. Soon he caught the eye of scouts from nearby Olympique Lyonnais. He got his big break further south, however, catching on with the academy program at N\u00eemes.<\/p>\n Again Denkey left loved ones behind, this time for a dormitory, where he was often the only kid in his hall who couldn\u2019t go home to visit family on holidays and off days. He suffered from crippling bouts of loneliness. In retrospect, it may have been a blessing in disguise.<\/p>\n \u201cI was alone. I just stayed there. They left food to me, and I can just put in the micron [microwave] and eat,\u201d said Denkey. \u201cI have all the [training] center for me; I go run, take a ball, play. That’s my time \u2013 I learned how to improve, how to be good.<\/p>\n \u201cI started doing cones, like, playing with the ball when I’m alone, train every time. There was a beach not far from the center, so I go also on the beach, play on the beach. This all helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the thousands of hours of technical work, a driven, resilient psychological base was taking shape, including the realization that he needed to master the rollercoaster ride of emotions from one performance to the next.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n We’re so happy you’re here, K\u00e9vin! ???? pic.twitter.com\/6M9rJwwXIi<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Gifted goalscorer<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Street baller<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Leap of faith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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