He was born on 24th January 1984 in Nantes.

He is 1.74m or 5"9', weighing 71kg.

He was a member of the French side that won the u17 World Championships in Trinidad & Tobago in 2001.

He then played for France's under 21s, and scored the only goal in a key qualifying win over Ireland in 2004, although he didn't face any of Reading's Irish contingent in that match.

While playing for France's under 21s he lined up alongside the likes of Franck Ribery, Gael Clichy and Florent Sinama-Pongolle.

In January 2005 he pledged his international future to the Ivory Coast, the country of his parents, saying, "It's my heart which has made the decision."

He said that he received calls from Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure while making his decision about playing for the Ivory Coast.

He wore number 7 in his country's World Cup squad.

He was an unused sub in all three group games as his country finished third behind Argentina and Holland, but above Serbia & Montenegro.

He played five times in the 2006/7 African Cup Of Nations - three starts and two as a sub. This is where he was first spotted by our Chief Scout Brian McDermott.

He played a number of those African Cup Of Nations games on the right wing.

He has made 14 appearances for his country, scoring once. His debut came in 2005 in a 3-0 win over Benin.

His only Ivory Coast goal came against Switzerland in May 2006 when he scored two minutes after coming on as a sub.

His career history for Nantes is as follows:

2003/4, 25 appearances, 1 goal
2004/5, 28 appearances, 1 goal
2005/6, 29 appearances, 4 goals
2006/7, 24 appearances, 1 goal

Teammates at Nantes included Fabien Barthez, as well as one-time Reading winger Guillaume Norbert, who joined us from Arsenal under Alan Pardew but never played a first team game. He also lined up with Christian Wilhemsson, who has just joined Bolton.

He was linked with a move to Manchester City this summer, as well as Dynamo Kiev.

Famous people who share his birthday include Vic Reeves, Ade Edmondson, John Belushi, Jools Holland and the Roman Emperor Hadrian!