POSITION: Midfielder
BIRTHDATE: 6/1/1994
HOMETOWN: Paris, France
HEIGHT: 5’9″
WEIGHT: 158
PREVIOUS TEAM: Tampa Bay Rowdies
PRONUNCIATION: JU-nyor EH-too
BIO
Junior Etou is entering his third season with Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in 2025.
A veteran midfielder with a lengthy resume spanning the USL Championship and French leagues, Etou has appeared in 58 league matches with 49 start with the Hounds. He has become a key part of the squad in a left-sided wing back/midfield role, recording three goals and six assists.
In 2024, he earned more penalty kicks for his team than any other player in the USL Championship with five, and in his first year, he scored 21 seconds into a win over the Charleston Battery to set a new record for the fastest strike in Hounds and Highmark Stadium history.
He spent the 2022 season with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, where he made 24 appearances in all competitions in a defensive midfield role. Before joining the Rowdies, Etou played in 2020 and 2021 for the Charlotte Independence, where he recorded 23 appearances and one goal with his first American club.
Etou began his career as a teenage amateur with J.A. Drancy in the French fifth division and moving on to Monts d’Or Azergues. In 2018, he broke into the professional ranks with AS Béziers in Ligue 2. In his one full season before making the move to the U.S., Etou appeared in 17 league matches and in the Coupe de France for Béziers.
