From some angles, Dénis Bouanga’s rise to soccer stardom might look natural, even preordained.
His father played the sport at a high level, as does his younger brother Didier, who is currently without a club but has earned minutes in Ligue 1 and lower levels on the French pyramid. His older half-brother Cédric Mansaré – who he credits with sparking his initial interest in football by taking him to games as a child – is also a professional athlete, a veteran of the French basketball leagues.
Watch Dénis glide menacingly around the pitch for LAFC, whether running at defenders on the dribble or nailing the decisive off-ball runs that have earned him so many simple-looking tap-ins, and he looks every bit the multi-million-dollar player he is. There’s pace, grace and confidence in abundance, impeccably rounded out with the swagger of a fresh cut, tattooed skin and Hollywood smile.
Catch Bouanga off the pitch, be it Venice Beach, downtown Los Angeles or Instagram, and he’s likely to be draped in designer clothing, with Louis Vuitton and Gucci particular faves. As one of the reigning MLS Cup champions’ leading ambassadors of both performance and style, he’s an apt figurehead even for a celebrity-studded organization like the Los Angeles Football Club. The Frenchman of Gabonese descent is a stylish footballer, starring for a stylish team in a stylish place.
“I like playing soccer,” Bouanga explained to MLSsoccer.com in a one-on-one conversation this week. “I like to play good soccer, beautiful soccer. I also like clothes, and to dress well outside of the field. So I think it goes together. For me, it's very important to look good on the field and outside the field.”
Brotherly love
It took a rough, unglamorous road to attain those lofty heights of suavité.
Though he set his heart on a soccer career early on, Bouanga was what many would call a late bloomer. A skinny, tricky winger who didn’t build out his muscular frame until much later, he didn’t catch on Le Mans FC, his hometown club, until Under-19 level.
There he found himself second- and third-choice behind academy products, undeservingly, in his eyes. The club’s pipeline, it seemed, had no room for him and as an admittedly rebellious kid, he occasionally acted out accordingly. This time it was a younger sibling who helped him onto the correct path.
“Since I was little, I wanted to be a professional player,” recalled Bouanga. “I wanted to win the Coupe de France, which I realize now is a cup like any other cup, but it was something I wanted. Since I was 5, 6 years old, I wanted to be professional. So I gave everything, I did my best. And it was because of my little brother that I was able to achieve my dream.”
Climbing the ladder
When it was time to leave Le Mans, Didier urged Dénis to join him at a much smaller lower-division club called AS Mulsanne-Téloché, competing in a regional league, with coaches eager to give him a platform on which to excel. What might have felt like a step backwards was quickly vindicated as both brothers earned moves to FC Lorient within a year – and again, he credits Didier for being the one Lorient originally sent a scout to evaluate.
“He could play in MLS, too,” noted Dénis of Didier with pride. “He has the level.”
Even then, having reached a Ligue 1 club, Dénis felt overlooked. He was shipped out on multiple loans to second- and third-division sides Strasbourg and Tours before finally getting an extended run of games in 2017 with Lorient, who by then had been relegated to the second tier. He kept producing goals and assists, though, and became a Ligue 1 regular with Nimes before a big move to AS Saint-Étienne in 2019.
By then Bouanga had been recruited to play for the national team of Gabon, his father’s country of birth, and was turning heads at both club and international levels. He scored 28 goals in 110 appearances over three seasons at ASSE, moving onto the radar of clubs abroad. Then, just as Bouanga seemed to have arrived, a profoundly painful relegation campaign devastated Saint-Étienne in 2021-22.
Even as Bouanga scored 9g/6a, it was a nightmarish season for everyone involved with the storied club, ending in a violent pitch invasion of angry, pyrotechnics-throwing supporters when Les Verts’ fate was sealed in a relegation playoff loss to Auxerre, eventually triggering hefty sanctions that make it even more difficult to return to Ligue 1.
“It really touched me,” Bouanga told Canal+ of the traumatic experience earlier this year. “I spent a long time thinking about it … it really hurt me to see the club like that. So after that, I really had to move on.”
Instant impact
LAFC took advantage, outpacing other suitors like Glasgow Rangers to sign Bouanga to a Designated Player deal last summer – and a matter of months later, those agonizing relegation scenes were cleansed by an MLS Cup trophy hoist at BMO Stadium.
“He's physically and mentally a monster … I'm extremely excited and proud to be his coach.”
That was Steve Cherundolo’s description of Bouanga after he scored two of LAFC’s three goals in a dramatic, last-second win over their crosstown rivals LA Galaxy in last year’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.
It was the second in a long and ongoing string of clutch performances from LAFC’s late-summer reinforcement. Bouanga’s first MLS goal, an injury-time winner in a 2-1 win at Portland, clinched their capture of the 2022 Supporters’ Shield. His El Tráfico brace pushed them into the Western Conference Final. And when the Philadelphia Union pushed the Black & Gold to the limit in an epic MLS Cup Final two weeks later, it was Bouanga who was first to score his spot kick in the penalty shootout that broke a 3-3 deadlock after 120 minutes, and ended with LAFC hoisting their first league championship.
That “monster” has continued terrorizing opposing defenses in 2023. Athletic enough to weather MLS’s speed and physicality while also thriving in his creative and tactical relationships with Carlos Vela, Timothy Tillman and their colleagues, Bouanga racked up 7g/3a in the Concacaf Champions League as his team reached the final of that tournament, plus 6g/3a in Leagues Cup. With 12g/6a in MLS action, he presently sits one back of co-leaders Luciano Acosta and Hany Mukhtar in the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race – garnering some Landon Donovan MLS MVP buzz along the way.
Matching up with Messi
Now in second place in the West table with an 11W-7L-7D record as the regular season enters its home stretch, LAFC look well-positioned for their title defense, with Bouanga hitting form in a prolific August. On Sunday they’ll welcome Lionel Messi and his suddenly fearsome Inter Miami CF to Southern California for a timely test of both sides’ credentials (10 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
Considering Bouanga has done the business in head-to-head competition with the GOAT – he scored in both of Saint-Étienne’s Ligue 1 matches vs. Messi and Paris Saint-Germain last season, even as Les Verts lost both of them 3-1 – onlookers can be confident he’ll be ready for the occasion.
“Of course, it's always a pleasure to play against the best player in the world,” Bouanga said of this weekend’s fixture. “Especially for me, I'm very happy. I'm really hoping that we’re going to beat them with LAFC, because when I played in France with Saint-Étienne’s against PSG, it was really hard.”
Not that he has any advice for anyone, Cherundolo or otherwise, about how to cope with Messi’s excellence.
“No – it's impossible. It's impossible,” he said. “I've nothing to say.”
Warm welcome
Bouanga, his wife Maella and their two young children Kaaïs and Nakïya have settled comfortably into life in Los Angeles, something he welcomes after so much movement earlier in his career, so he can relate to the good vibes Messi has enjoyed since arriving in Florida.
“He's happier in Miami, you can see the way he’s celebrating when he scores,” said Bouanga. “When you're happy in your life, you can play better on the field.
“I was welcomed really nicely when I arrived,” he added. “It made me play really, really well. I hope to continue this and even progress on my performances, and give even more to LAFC.
“My family’s settled really well, my kids are really happy. So it makes me happy too, and helps me play well. It's always good when your family's happy and supporting you in the context of playing.”
There he offers a perspective that would seem to clash with recent rumors that he might be drawn to a return to European soccer.
“My wife is used to moving a lot. I moved a lot since I started playing. You can move every six months,” said Bouanga. “As I’ve said, I would really love to stay here, because I feel really good. But who knows? Only God will know where I will go next.”
Maybe that’s easier when so many VIPs from both sides of the pond are in the house on matchdays in Exposition Park, a who’s-who of A-listers seeking a taste of the Black & Gold experience, like French rapper SDM’s recent visit to see his countryman ball out.
International dreams
With Vela’s storied career by his own estimation approaching its conclusion and many of their LAFC attacking teammates on the younger side, Bouanga has grown in many ways into the face of the club. He’s the one who will be depended on most in the games of consequence ahead. And that’s right where he’s always wanted to be.
Even with illustrious teammates like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mario Lemina, it’s a similar picture with Gabon. Bouanga had never set foot in the African nation before committing to the program ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, but has come to take deep pride in representing his heritage, which he now calls “an easy decision.”
“I was born in France, where I was raised in a French culture, but playing for Gabon takes me to different cultures. The vibe is so different when I play with Gabon,” he said. “The people over there, I feel lucky that I'm able to experience both the club experience and international play with my country. I always go to the Gabon team with a lot of pleasure.”
Like many players from the Gabonese diaspora, Bouanga racks up flight mileage on international duty. He embraces that extra wear and tear, however – and showed an extraordinary capacity to manage it in March, when he stepped off a 13-hour flight from Turkey following 90 minutes for Gabon in an African Cup of Nations qualifier victory over Sudan, and scored the game-winner off the bench in a 2-1 LAFC win over FC Dallas after reaching BMO Stadium less than an hour before kickoff.
“It's really important to represent my country. As long as I can play with them, as long as I have the energy, the strength and that my family is happy, I will represent my country,” he said this week. “I would do a tour of the world to go play with them if I have to. So as long as I can play with them, I will do it.”
World Cup vision
Les Panthères, who now have additional MLS representation in the form of FC Cincinnati striker Aaron Boupendza – who consulted with Bouanga on his June move to Cincy – have never reached a World Cup.
Yet with rising talent levels and an expanded 48-team tournament set to unfold in North America in 2026, Bouanga has allowed himself to envision being part of a squad that could make history for the equatorial nation, which is currently wracked by political instability in the wake of a military-led coup of president Ali Bongo Ondimba this week after contentious elections.
He needs only to take a spin through the nearby suburb of Inglewood, home of ‘26 venue SoFi Stadium, to fuel the vision.
“It's my biggest dream. I know it's really tough for African countries, but they're also expanding the number of teams that are going to be qualified, it’s going be [up to] 10 teams now,” said Bouanga. “So we're going to do everything we can. It would be an honor. I really hope that I can represent Gabon at the World Cup in three years.”
Ever confident, Bouanga believes his LAFC home provides an apt platform to dream big.
"I think the MLS is the championship to be," Bouanga said. "It's evolving a lot, especially in three years with the World Cup in the United States, plus Messi coming to the MLS. I think a lot of players would like to come also play for the MLS."
Featured photos in this story are by Devin L'Amoreaux.
