Youssouf Mulumbu (born 25 January 1987) is a Congolese 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 ...

. Mulumbu came through

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

. He began playing for

Paris Saint-Germain B The Paris Saint-Germain Academy, commonly known as the PSG Academy, is the youth system of both Paris Saint-Germain (men's team) and Paris Saint-Germain Féminine (women's team). Established in 1970, the academy is managed by the Associa ...

in 2004 and was promoted to the first-team in 2006. He was sent on two loan deals to

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

and

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

, respectively, ultimately signing a permanent deal with the latter. He played there several years, winning the club's player of the year award for 2011. In 2015, he moved to newly-promoted

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

, and he played for Scottish clubs Celtic and Kilmarnock between 2017 and 2021. Afterwards, he returned to Congo to play for Saint-Éloi Lupopo. Born in Kinshasa, Zaire, but growing up in France, Mulumbu represented France at various youth levels, before making his international debut in 2008 aged 21. He shortly withdrew from the national team citing a "lack of professionalism" in 2009. He returned in 2012, and helped the team finish in third place during the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

Club career

Paris Saint-Germain

Mulumbu moved to France from Zaire at young age with his family, and grew up in the town of

Épinay-sous-Sénart Épinay-sous-Sénart (, literally ''Épinay under Sénart'') is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Population Inhabitants of Épinay-sous-Sénart are known as ''Spinoliens''. Twin towns * Peacehaven * ...

, a suburb of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He began playing for the

Paris Saint-Germain Academy The Paris Saint-Germain Academy, commonly known as the PSG Academy, is the youth system of both Paris Saint-Germain (men's team) and Paris Saint-Germain Féminine (women's team). Established in 1970, the academy is managed by the Associa ...

at age 13. On 22 October 2006, he made his Ligue 1 debut under head coach

Guy Lacombe Guy Hubert Georges Lacombe (born 12 June 1955) is a French manager (association football), football manager and former professional football player, player. Playing career Lacombe was a member of the French squad that won the gold medal at the ...

, at 19 years and 10 months in a match against

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

. He signed his first professional contract with Paris Saint-Germain on 13 November 2006. During the 2007–08 season, he was on loan at

in Ligue 2, scoring once in 29 appearances.

West Bromwich Albion

It was reported by the French media on 26 January 2009 that he joined

team

on a trial basis. On 2 February 2009, the January transfer deadline day, he joined them on loan with a view to a permanent deal at the end of the season. Mulumbu's first term at The Hawthorns was interrupted by injuries and he had to wait until April to make his Premier League debut, coming on as a sub in a 2–2 draw at Portsmouth. He signed for West Brom permanently on a one-year contract for a fee of £175,000 on 10 July 2009. He was named West Brom's Player of the Year by both the club and the fans at the end of the season, and signed his third contract extension in 13 months on 25 July 2011, tying himself to the club until 2015 (with the option of an extra year). On 15 March 2014, Mulumbu scored a crucial winner for West Brom in a 2–1 victory against Swansea City at the

Liberty Stadium The Swansea.com Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Swansea.com; formerly Liberty Stadium) is an all-seated sports stadium and conferencing venue located in the Landore area of Swansea, Wales. The stadium opened in 2005 and was named the Liberty Stadium. It ...

, giving

Pepe Mel José "Pepe" Mel Pérez (born 28 February 1963) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager. He amassed Segunda División totals of 215 matches and 78 goals over eight seasons, for Real Madrid Castilla, Castell ...

his first win as head coach.

Norwich City

In June 2015, it was announced that Mulumbu would sign on a free-transfer for newly promoted

on 1 July 2015. On 3 August 2015, Norwich announced that Mulumbu suffered a broken

metatarsal The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes. Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are numbered from the me ...

in a friendly against Brentford which would require surgery and sideline him for several weeks, ruling him out of the start of the

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 ...

. He would finally make his debut on 27 October in a

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game against Everton, which Norwich lost on penalties after a 1–1 draw. He made his

debut a few days later on 31 October in a 2–1 defeat to Manchester City. However, with

Jonny Howson Jonathan Mark Howson (born 21 May 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Middlesbrough in the Championship. Howson started his professional career at Leeds United, where he made 225 appearances following his d ...

, Alexander Tettey and

Graham Dorrans Graham Dorrans (born 5 May 1987) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. He began his football career at Scottish club Livingston, before joining English club West Bromwich Albion in 2008. In the 2009–10 season, he ...

preferred in the centre of midfield, Mulumbu would ultimately be confined to only five league starts and two appearances as a substitute in the 2015–16 season, plus one appearance in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, and the season would end with Norwich relegated back to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. Mulumbu remained with Norwich for the 2016–17 season but again found his opportunities for first team action restricted. His last appearance for Norwich came on 11 February 2017 in a 5–1 win over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. On 2 May, it was announced that Mulumbu was one of seven players who would be released by Norwich when their contracts expired at the end of the season.

Kilmarnock

On 22 November 2017, it was announced that Mulumbu had signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

club Kilmarnock until the end of the 2017–18 season. Mulumbu reunited with manager

Steve Clarke ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

, who had also managed him at West Bromwich. He scored his first goal for Kilmarnock in a 1–0 win against Celtic on 3 February 2018. On 13 July 2018, Clarke said that Mulumbu had left Kilmarnock and was not expected to return to the club.

Celtic

On 31 August 2018, Mulumbu signed a two-year deal with Celtic. Mulumbu was loaned back to Kilmarnock on 31 January 2019, until the end of the 2018–19 season, and played 12 times in his second spell with the Ayrshire club. In June 2019, Mulumbu left Celtic after the club activated a break clause in his contract. Mulumbu had made three appearances for the Glasgow side.

Return to Kilmarnock

After a year out of football, Mulumbu trained with Kilmarnock during August 2020. On 28 August, he made his return to the club on a six-month deal. On 11 January 2021, Mulumbu agreed a contract extension to remain at the club until the end of the 2020–21 season. He left Kilmarnock in May 2021 to move to France.

Saint-Éloi Lupopo

On 31 July 2021, Mulumbu signed a one-year contract with Saint-Éloi Lupopo, marking his return to Congo. He left the club as his contract expired in August 2022, after finishing third in the national championship and putting in strong performances as a key player in the team.

International career

Mulumbu was formerly a member of the France under-20 and under-21 teams. He earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for Congo DR national football team against

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on 26 March 2008. In 2009, Mulumbu decided to boycott international football after he claimed his national team lacked professionalism. On 23 September 2011, he retired from international duties, quoting "numerous problems we were facing with some authorities within the DR Congo Football Federation". However, in July 2012, he decided to revoke this decision, and made himself available for the Congo DR national football team once again.

Personal life

Mulumbu was born in Kinshasa,

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

. He is a Muslim.

Honours

National

DR Congo * Africa Cup of Nations bronze: 2015

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mulumbu, Youssouf 1987 births Living people Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo international footballers French footballers France youth international footballers France under-21 international footballers French sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Democratic Republic of the Congo Muslims Association football midfielders Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Amiens SC players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Premier League players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Scotland 2013 Africa Cup of Nations players 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players FC Saint-Éloi Lupopo players Black French sportspeople