“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Football as we know it hadn’t been invented when Leonardo da Vinci said those words, but if the Italian genius could somehow be transported to the present, he’d be a fan of Denis Bouanga, the greatest regular-season goal scorer on the most prolific attacking club in Major League Soccer history – a virtuoso who has gotten there with simplicity as his guide.
Bouanga is among the fastest men in the league. His first touch is almost always perfect. His right foot – which has accounted for the vast majority of his goals – is both powerful and accurate. He leverages these three weapons to simple and devastating effect. Fancy? He saves that for his goal celebrations.
On the heels of Bouanga’s record-breaking goal this past weekend – which eclipsed the 78 regular-season goals scored by his friend and former captain Carlos Vela – here is a look back at the Top 10 goals among the 79 Bouanga has netted for the Black & Gold in regular-season play
10) @ Real Salt Lake - Sept. 5, 2026 (14’)
Bouanga is at his most dangerous when he’s isolated against a defender in transition, even when there's a goalkeeper lurking in the background. This situation arises often, including 14 minutes into this year’s away match against RSL.
Defenders are taught that they have the advantage in this scenario. The attacker has a ball to control, after all, while the defender has no such worry and has help behind him in the form of a player who can use his hands. But this advantage falls apart if, say, Bouanga feints toward the byline, cuts back, and unleashes a deadly accurate right-footed curler before the defender can even turn his hips to try and block it.
9) @ Galaxy - Sept. 14, 2024 (15’)
Similar situation as above, but this was a derby in the rival’s home – and this time Bouanga chose to dribble toward the by-line against one of the league’s fastest center backs, and nutmeg the goalkeeper from an acute angle.
Et voila!
8) vs. Galaxy - Sept. 16, 2023 (24’)
Midway through a tense, scoreless first half, LAFC left back Diego Palacios curled a cross into the area that Bouanga headed acrobatically past the Galaxy keeper. It was the opening goal in a 4-2 victory, and the only header among the 122 goals Bouanga has scored so far in an LAFC shirt. LAFC had lost three straight matches coming in, but Bouanga’s aerial breakthrough that night propelled LAFC toward a strong regular-season finish and a second straight MLS Cup Final appearance.
7) vs. Austin - April 8, 2023 (57’)
Accurately striking a ball on the volley is difficult. Striking it when it’s dropping from 20 feet above your head is extremely hard. Volleying it through a scrum of players and into a goal that’s eight feet by 24 feet – as part of your first MLS hat trick? Broadcaster Jake Zivin chose the word “Unreal!”
6) @ Real Salt Lake - May 13, 2023 (35’)
The 2023 season was an especially magical one for Bouanga. He finished the year with 38 goals across all competitions, among the top totals in the world—alongside names like Haaland, Kane, and Mbappe. An early hint that 2023 would be exceptional for LAFC’s new DP came in a road match in Utah, when Carlos Vela nudged a pass toward Bouanga 30 yards from goal and watched him wind up with his left – supposedly weaker – foot.
5) vs. Portland - Aug. 22, 2026 (79’)
Bouanga often describes his playing style as “decisive” – an easy translation from his native French: décisif.
In late August of this year, with his team trailing Portland 1-0, Bouanga stood alone near the left touchline, without the ball, waiting, scanning the Timbers’ low block, solving the calculus of where the players were going and the spaces they were leaving behind. Then he received a pass from Jude Terry, and pounced. Decisively.
4) vs. St. Louis - April 27, 2025 (90’+5)
Five minutes into added time, LAFC trailed St. Louis 2-1 on a hot afternoon at BMO Stadium. Bouanga had already scored one goal. Now his team needed an equalizer, with just 90 seconds remaining in the six added minutes. Bouanga raced onto a Cengiz Ünder through ball before cutting into the penalty area, juking a pair of St. Louis defenders, and firing a right-footed shot past the frozen keeper to rescue a point for LAFC. Arguably the greatest solo goal of his illustrious career, the strike was nominated for the MLS Goal of the Year award.
3) vs. Portland - April 27, 2024 (90’+2)
LAFC trailed Portland 2-1 in the final seconds of stoppage time. “We had one last corner,” Bouanga would explain later. His leaping teammate Kei Kamara headed the corner service on frame, but Timbers goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau swatted it away. Unfortunately for the visitors, it rolled toward the most dangerous man in the building. “I told myself I’ve got one chance to get this right,” Bouanga said.
2) @ Portland - October 2, 2022 (90’+5)
Bouanga’s first goal in an LAFC shirt might still be his most important one.
Bouanga had arrived from France a few weeks earlier and was making just his sixth MLS appearance. The stakes were high: with a win, LAFC would secure the Supporters’ Shield and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
With the score tied in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Bouanga executed a move that would become his signature but at the time just seemed audacious. Dribbling slowly along the left flank, luring two Timbers defenders toward him, Bouanga cut into the penalty area like a knife, fought off one last defender, and flicked a shot past Portland’s keeper and just inside the far post. The newcomer’s daring one-v-one display secured the second major trophy in LAFC’s history, and paved the way for the third as LAFC used its top seed to claim its first MLS Cup title, one month after Bouanga scored his first goal in black and gold.
1) @ Galaxy - May 18, 225 (13’)
In his 31 years of life, and over his 400 professional appearances for club and country, Denis Bouanga may not have ever struck a ball any sweeter than he did in the 25th installment of the LAFC-Galaxy derby.
The rivals from Carson had jumped in front on a sixth-minute goal by Marco Reus. Seven minutes later, following a Galaxy giveaway and a pass from Mark Delgado, Bouanga launched a right-footed missile from 30 yards out that didn’t rise more than eight feet off the ground as it hissed past the goalie and bulged the back of the hosts’ net – to the delight of the 1,000 or so Black & Gold supporters on hand.
The goal was bold, physics-defying, impulsive, absurd. It was also simple.
It was vintage Denis Bouanga.
