Jérémy Baffour Doku (born 27 May 2002) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Manchester City and the Belgium national team.
In 2020, he joined Ligue 1 club Rennes, going on to make 75 appearances and netting ten goals, before signing for Manchester City in August 2023 for €65 million.
[6] On 1 December 2019, he scored his first professional goal in the league match against KV Oostende, and four days later he also opened his account in the Belgian Cup against Royal Excel Mouscron.
Doku had an assist in each of the two legs of Europa League's knockout round play-off against Shakhtar Donetsk, but was unable to prevent his team from being eliminated from the tournament.
[23] After the match, City manager Pep Guardiola stated that he did not expect that kind of performance from Doku in his second appearance for the new club, calling him a "proper winger" and further adding "the way he played today, I don't remember something like that since a long time ago".
[24] On 4 October, Doku scored his first UEFA Champions League goal in the group game against German team RB Leipzig, rounding off a counterattack in stoppage time to convert Julián Álvarez's pass, sealing City's 3–1 win.
[31] On 13 April, Doku was voted man of the match in the 5–1 win against Luton Town, after he scored a goal, made an assist to Joško Gvardiol, and won a penalty which was converted by Erling Haaland.
[32] On 17 April, Doku entered the Champions League semifinal return leg against Real Madrid as a substitute and made the cross for Kevin De Bruyne's equalizing goal in the second half, in addition to creating several other chances.
[33] On 20 April, in the FA Cup semifinal match against Chelsea, Doku had similar impact, as once again he entered in the second half and had a major contribution in Bernardo Silva's winning goal.
[39] On 19 January 2025, Doku scored City's third goal and assisted Erling Haaland's fourth in the 6–0 win against Ipswich Town, eliciting praise from manager Pep Guardiola, who called his performance in the match "brilliant".
[44][45] In November 2022, Doku was called up by manager Roberto Martínez to the Belgium squad that would compete for the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar.
[47] After Eden Hazard's post-World Cup retirement from the Belgium national team, Doku was given a more prominent role in the squad by new manager Domenico Tedesco.
An extremely quick and explosive player with great acceleration, agility, balance and body strength,[53] Doku is most known for his elite dribbling skills, flair and trickery.
[54] His low centre of gravity, body control, unpredictable footwork and rapid change of pace has helped him become one of the world's most effective forwards in one-on-one situations.
[59] Doku also possesses excellent vision and crossing ability, completing more than 80 percent of his passes;[60] however, he has been criticised for his lack of end product,[61][62] having scored 9 league goals in his first three seasons at Rennes.
[61] Former Anderlecht and Belgium forward Paul Van Himst echoed Nasri's words in October 2023 speaking for Voetbal Krant, as he anticipated Doku will become one of the best players in the world within a year.
Reflecting on the player who he had known as his grandson's teammate from the U16 and U18 levels at Anderlecht, Van Himst praised Doku, stating: "He is terribly fast, has so many qualities, what is good for him is that he is an individualist, but now that he left for Manchester City he will learn to play in a team".
[9] After two months of working with Doku since his transfer to Manchester City from Rennes, manager Pep Guardiola expressed surprise about the player's decision-making ability, saying "He reads every action and knows what to do, it's incredible how he can change the rhythm in five metres but when he is not able to do that he is able to take good decisions".
In the post-match interview after Doku recorded four assists against Bournemouth on 4 November 2023, the former FC Barcelona coach stated that "normally there are a lot of wingers that go inside, but this guy, you don't know what he's going to do".
[77] In 2021, PSG star Kylian Mbappé said: "Recently, I was speaking with my father about a player who impressed me because of his speed, and that is Doku at Rennes", adding that "in five years as a professional, I have never seen someone demonstrate so much power from a standing start.