Twice a week, a Belgian Master Chess player makes the trek across Brugge to meet with a student of his. The tradition started four years ago but the student began playing in 2018 after he signed his first professional soccer contract.
Kévin Denkey started playing after he was gifted a chess set and found a real similarity to football and after his move to Belgian club Cercle Brugge in 2021 he enlisted the help of a Grandmaster to teach him the game. Now he brings not only his chess-playing mind to FC Cincinnati, but his world class striker abilities to The Orange and Blue.
One of the world's most sought after prospects has made the jump across the pond and joined FC Cincinnati. Denkey (den-KAY), a 23-year-old striker from Togo formerly playing for Cercle Brugge in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League, has signed with FCC after a league record transfer fee through 2028 with options for further years.
Chess is a hobby that excellently encapsulates the striker’s approach to being a professional soccer player. His entire life is pointed towards being the best he can be. He installed a home gym in Belgium when he moved there so he could train on his own when he needed to. He’s a fervent reader (not audiobook listener) because it helps strengthen his mind and expand his horizons.
He speaks four languages; English, French, Dutch and Ewe. He is also learning Spanish and Italian so he can easily communicate with any teammate he needs to and his Spanish is already conversational despite starting just a short time ago.
When he turned pro he began eating a vegetarian diet to stay in the best shape possible, and when he saw the result paying off, he pushed more towards a fully Vegan diet. When he’s not playing chess with his teacher, he is playing on an App against other players worldwide because it keeps him focused and thinking strategically.
“I'm a simple guy who loves football, who loves to win and who loves to score goals,” Denkey said in an exclusive interview. “This is the most important thing to me, I'm very ambitious, and I like to win.”
“I think there is a connection between chess and football,” Denkey continued. “I really feel like the more I play chess, the better I am on the pitch. Understanding more things, feeling the connection with other players, how everybody's moving, just like on the field. Also you need all 11 players working as one. We need to have good coordination and think fast, analyze fast, and make a decision. This is what makes me like playing chess for my football.”
While he does not admit as such, it seems like every aspect of his off the field life is pointed in a way to improve his true passion. Being a great soccer player. It is this commitment to his game where he saw a common connection with FC Cincinnati.
Denkey is not only one of the most significant signings in FCC history, but in Major League Soccer history. The reported financial numbers alone make the deal interesting, and any time a team signs a Designated Player it signals out the importance of such a piece to the roster. But the profile Denkey brings to FCC and MLS as a whole is in the upper echelon of most intriguing signings in the history of MLS as a whole.
The Togolese forward won the 2023-24 Golden Boot in Belgium and led his side to Continental Competition for the first time in over 13 years all while being the breakthrough scoring hope for his national team. He became one of the top commodities in global football for not only his scoring prowess, but his age.
The list of clubs that were vying for the striker's services, or at least investigating his potential, is as long as it is prestigious. Since his breakout season at Cercle Brugge, one of the oldest clubs in Belgium, Denkey has been publicly linked to clubs like Lille (France), Tottenham Hotspur (England), Manchester United (England), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Chelsea (England), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Ajax (Netherlands), Aston Villa (England), AS Roma (Italy) and AC Milan (Italy).
“This is a player who, in our lifetimes, (usually) goes to the Premier League, goes to the Bundesliga, goes to Spain. This is the Golden Boot winner in Belgium, he’s still only 23 years old, he’s still about to hit his prime,” MLS Insider Tom Bogert of GIVEMESPORT said of the potential signing a week before the announcement on his show SoccerWise. “It's like, ‘oh what if we try to get the best player in Belgium rather than him go to the Premier League.’”
“This is such a potentially big signing – and maybe I don’t want to go all the way to league-altering signing – but this would be huge… this dude is awesome. I got two texts from people in other MLS clubs saying ‘holy…this guy is good.”
Contextually, this is the type of prospect who has rarely, if ever, made the leap to MLS, let alone FCC. Other big name signings often fit into the category of “established star in the later half of their career,” like much of the roster built in South Florida around Lionel Messi, or a much younger player who still needs to grow into himself but has plenty of potential. Young stars like Atlanta United’s Thiago Almada or even FC Cincinnati’s signing of Brenner from Sao Paulo in 2020 fit that bill.
But never has a player quite in the mold of Kévin Denkey – with his combination of current talent, youth and potential – been brought into the league.
“This choice was natural for me,” Denkey explained on a Zoom call. The striker was in his native Togo at the time of the call and had just scored his ninth international goal in a 3-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea. “We talked for a very long time. Everyone (from FC Cincinnati) came to visit me in Brugge and they explained to me the project; and it was a big project.”
“Other clubs also have big projects, but in this scenario, it was like… it felt like they really want me and I can really help. I just had this good feeling.They trust me. So if I do well, it will be good for (the club) and for me. So for all of us it just made sense.”
“The project is amazing. To be honest, Cincinnati is not a small club. I went there, I saw a game, I saw the stadium, I saw everything, the facilities. And I said ‘this is incredible. This Is amazing.’ I wanted to go to another step in my career and I think I can have it in Cincinnati.”
“We’re thrilled to welcome Kévin to FC Cincinnati,” said General Manager Chris Albright in a press release. “He is a talented, young striker, with exceptional character. Kévin has been one of the most productive forwards in Europe over the last two years, showcasing elite physicality, finishing ability, and work ethic.”
“This is a historic transfer for our club and our league, and it’s a tremendous credit to our ownership group, which continues to invest in this club’s ambition to compete for trophies.”
Denkey’s rise to prominent international striker hasn’t come overnight, but it certainly may have flown under the radar. Born in Lomé, Togo, Denkey showed his acumen for soccer at a young age and was quickly recruited to join the academy at French club Nîmes and rose through the ranks there.
As a former French colony that gained its independence in 1960, French is the official language of Togo, making the transition a little simpler but the challenges were great.
“It was crazy. I wanted to succeed very early, so I gave everything,” Denkey shared. “I trained hard. I didn’t see my family for six years, so I wanted to make that challenge worth it. I wanted to have that first professional contract, and I made it. I made it. And when I came back, they were very proud, because they saw that I was old, I was big, and football was my job.”
Three years later he made his first team debut for the Ligue 1 side after making 48 appearances for Nîmes II as a teenager. Still though, his breakout moment did not come until an international debut.
As Denkey tells it, at 17-years-old the young forward was invited to play at a massive youth tournament in France where much of the soccer world was in attendance to watch. After playing sparingly in the first match, Denkey was selected to start in the second match and instantly made his name known; dominating the game and scoring a wonder goal in front of the stunned audience.
A rumble began to circle from those in attendance not being familiar with the Togolese youngster, and those who did not know him then certainly did now. After the match, Denkey says he was invited to come to an upcoming U19 French National Team Camp to make his international youth debut. As a French citizen now the opportunity was available to him.
But at that same tournament he was approached by the Togolese National Team Coach who invited him to play for his mother country, and proposed an opportunity to join the senior squad. Craving the opportunity to return home, play for his family, and represent his homeland, Denkey selected Togo and made his senior national team debut on September 9, 2018 at just 18 years of age.
“To play for the national team, it's a lot of pressure…when you come for your country, you come to give 200% and not for yourself, for the country,” Denkey explained. “I know a lot of players who grew up in Europe and have a lot of success. And they can choose, and they never choose Africa. I wanted to be one of them who chose African and helped with the talent. Help with all I’ve learned and all I can bring to my country. I wanted to be one of them to show you can do it…So I chose Togo, and I want to fight and try to change things here through Football if I can.”
It was shortly thereafter his stock in the club game rose. He scored four goals in 27 appearances (mostly as a substitute) for Nîmes in Ligue 1, and eventually earned himself a move to Cercle Brugge where he immediately became an impact player despite still only being 19.
Since then Denkey has burst onto the club scene and made a name for himself. In 2023-2024 he not only helped guide Cercle Brugge to the UEFA Conference League, but in the last two seasons has scored the fifth-most club goals among top European leagues; ranking alongside players like Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Robert Lewendowski.
Denkey was recently able to make a trip to Cincinnati to solidify the move before returning to Africa for his international match with Togo. He was able to complete his medicals and got a brief view of the city on his tour.
Despite the trip being so short, flying in on Saturday morning and departing Sunday afternoon, he was able to get a taste of not only the club, but the city that sold him on his new home.
“It was crazy…I saw the facilities (Mercy Health Training Center), and it was crazy. It was crazy. Honestly, in Europe we don't have it like this. Maybe (a few) clubs can have these kinds of facilities and they play in the Champions League… maybe, maybe they can have the same kind of facilities.”
“I felt like on this visit it said this is a serious, serious club. They want to win, and everything is there to win. You can see in the match, they play like champions and there is everything to win.”
Denkey was able to see a match at TQL Stadium, saying he was in attendance for the final match of the 2024 season where he saw his new club fall to NYCFC in penalty kicks. While FCC wasn’t able to continue the season, the performance on the field showed him just how he could fit in.
“I saw a lot of things. I saw the movements of the strikers. I saw the movement of players around the striker,” Denkey explained. “I can see how we need to play and the connections we can make to help reach the highest level.”
If there was a Achilles Heel for the FC Cincinnati 2024 season, it was their finishing. The story of 2024 is long and nuanced in a way that is hard to boil down, but FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said it himself in the final press conference of the season: “Just couldn't finish off plays. And I think in the end, that's kind of what hurt us in the game and in the series as a whole, but really the last couple months.”
The addition of a Golden Boot winner and one of the most sought after players in international soccer is certainly a solid start to the offseason to rectify that problem. But moreover it signals something greater. It continues to remind not only MLS, but the world round over what kind of club FC Cincinnati is, aspires to be, and just what is possible moving forward.
How long til the season starts?