Yakuba Ouattara


Billy Yakuba Ouattara is a Ghanaian-French professional basketball player for Coosur Real Betis of the Liga ACB.
Because of the unavailability of a Ghanaian national basketball team, he has been a member of the French national basketball team.

Professional career

Ouattara first began his professional career out in France with the Élan Chalon of the LNB Pro A in 2012 as a 20 year old. He played with that team for two seasons before signing a one-year deal with the ASC Denain-Voltaire PH, who were a part of the LNB Pro B at that time. During that year, he helped the team make it to the LNB Pro B Finals before ultimately losing the series to Hyères-Toulon Var Basket. On July 24, 2015, Ouattara signed with the AS Monaco Basket out in Monaco, returning to the Pro A that year. During his second season at Monaco, Ouattara was named a French Pro A All-Star and helped Monaco win the Leaders Cup Championship over the ASVEL Basket in 2017.
Oattara signed a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA on July 21, 2017, becoming the first foreign born player to sign a two-way deal with an NBA team. Under the terms of the deal, he would have planned to split time between the Brooklyn Nets and their G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, with a majority of his time being spent with the Long Island affiliate team. However, due to injury problems throughout the year, he would never get a chance to play with the Brooklyn Nets squad, having only played in one G League game with the Long Island Nets during that time. On December 17, 2017, Ouattara was waived by the Nets. On January 17, 2018, Ouattara was reacquired by the Long Island Nets.
On March 30, 2018, Ouattara signed for the remainder of the 2017–18 season with Monaco.
On July 17, 2020, he has signed with Coosur Real Betis of the Liga ACB.