Gabriel "Gaby" Mudingayi (born 1 October 1981) is a Congolese-Belgian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Early years

Mudingayi moved to Belgium at a young age and started his career at the third division club Union Saint-Gilloise. He spent two seasons with the club before moving to Jupiler League side

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

, aged 19. Mudingayi established himself in the club's starting XI during the following campaigns, and was selected to represent

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

at both youth and senior level for the first time.

Move to Italy: Torino and Lazio

In January 2004 Mudingayi joined Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

side

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, helping the club win promotion back to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

in 2005. However, the club went bankrupt, releasing all the players as free agents. He moved to

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in August 2005. After struggling with injuries, Mudingayi scored his first and only goal for Lazio on 8 January 2006, in a 4–1 win over

Ascoli Ascoli may refer to: Places in Italy *Ascoli Satriano, a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region *Province of Ascoli Piceno, a province of the Marche region ** Ascoli Piceno, a city which is the seat of the province above ...

. However, on 22 April, in a 1–1 away draw against Juventus, his leg was broken in a tackle by Fabio Cannavaro. Mudingayi only became a regular starter in the 2006–07 campaign, under

Delio Rossi Delio Rossi (born 26 January 1960) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played as a midfielder. He was most recently in charge as head coach of Serie B club Ascoli. Playing career Rossi was born in Rimini. His playing career ...

, appearing in 28 matches.

Bologna

On 21 July 2008, Mudingayi was sold to newly promoted team

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

for €7 million, on a five-year contract. with part of the transfer receivable of Lazio was converted to the signing of

Mourad Meghni Mourad Meghni ( ar, مراد مغني; born 16 April 1984) is a former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger. He was known for his excellent technique. As a young footballer in France, his ability and Algerian ...

outright, for an additional €1.75m. Mudingayi was an ever-present figure for the ''rossoblu'' during his spell, appearing in nearly 30 matches per season.

Internazionale

On 20 July 2012,

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

announced that they had signed Mudingayi from Bologna on loan, with an option to purchase. The loan fee was €750,000. Behind

Esteban Cambiasso Esteban Matías Cambiasso Deleau (; born 18 August 1980), nicknamed ''"Cuchu"'', is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. During his career, Cambiasso won 21 official titles, the majority of which were won dur ...

, Walter Gargano and Zdravko Kuzmanović, he only appeared in nine matches during the campaign. Mudingayi also injured his Achilles tendon in January. In May 2013, after Gargano's departure, Mudingayi was signed permanently by the ''Nerazzurri'' for an additional €750,000 fee. on a two-year contract. However, he went on to appear only eight minutes during the whole

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, being released in the following year.

Elche

On 20 October 2014, Mudingayi signed a one-year deal with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

side

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Elx Club de Futbol, S.A.D.) is a professional football based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, the club competes in La Liga, holding home matches at ''Es ...

. However, he could not be registered due to the club's financial troubles, and left on 3 February of the following year.

Cesena

On 11 February 2015, he was signed by

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. ...

Pisa

In October 2016 Mudingayi was signed by Pisa. He was released on 31 January 2017.

References

External links

* *
Profile at AIC.Football.it
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mudingayi, Gaby 1981 births Footballers from Kinshasa Living people Democratic Republic of the Congo emigrants to Belgium Belgian footballers Association football midfielders Belgian Pro League players Royale Union Saint-Gilloise players K.A.A. Gent players Serie A players Serie B players Torino F.C. players S.S. Lazio players Bologna F.C. 1909 players Inter Milan players Belgian expatriate footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Belgium international footballers Belgium under-21 international footballers Black Belgian sportspeople