Yves Makabu-Ma-Kalambay (born 31 January 1986) is a 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 plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He most recently played for English club

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

. Ma-Kalambay has previously played for

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

, Hibernian, Swansea City and KV Mechelen. His parents are from the DR Congo, but Ma-Kalambay grew up in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Ma-Kalambay represented

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 the 2008 Summer Olympics and has since played for DR Congo at full international level.

Club career

Chelsea

Ma-Kalambay signed for

as a youth. In March 2004 after injuries to

Carlo Cudicini Carlo Cudicini (; born 6 September 1973) is a retired Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the son of the former Milan goalkeeper Fabio Cudicini, and the grandson of Ponziana defender Guglielmo Cudicini. Cudicini is currently a ...

and

Neil Sullivan Neil Sullivan (born 24 February 1970) is a professional football player and coach. He played as a goalkeeper from 1988 until 2013, playing in the Premier League for Wimbledon, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, and represented Scotland internat ...

, Ma-Kalambay found himself on the bench for a league match at Bolton Wanderers as cover for

Marco Ambrosio Marco Ambrosio (30 May 1973 in Brescia) is a former Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Ambrosio played for multiple teams in the Italian leagues from 1991 until his retirement in 2009 (most notably with Serie A sides Atalanta, Sam ...

. He went on loan to

in February 2006 to cover for the suspended Ben Foster. Watford manager

Aidy Boothroyd Adrian Neil Boothroyd (born 8 February 1971) is an English former footballer who is currently the manager of Indian Super League club Jamshedpur. At club level, he was manager of Watford from 2005 to 2008. During his time with Watford, he was r ...

suggested that he was interested in signing Ma-Kalambay in some capacity for the 2006–07 season, but this did not come to fruition. On 18 October, Ma-Kalambay made the bench for Chelsea's 1–0 Champions League group stage win against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, due to injuries to

Petr Čech Petr Čech (; born 20 May 1982) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He also plays semi-professional ice hockey as a goaltender for Chelmsford Chieftains. Described by numerous players, pundits and managers as ...

and Carlo Cudicini. After the arrival of

Magnus Hedman Magnus Carl Hedman (; born 19 March 1973) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Beginning his career with AIK in 1990, he went on play in the English Premier League, Scottish Premier League, and Italian Serie A ...

, Ma-Kalambay was relegated to fifth choice goalkeeper at Chelsea.

Hibernian

Ma-Kalambay signed for

SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

club Hibernian in June 2007. He kept a clean sheet on his competitive debut for Hibs in an Edinburgh derby win at Tynecastle against Hearts. In a 2020 interview, Ma-Kalambay revealed that he was hurt and taken aback by the level of racist abuse he received from the Hearts support on his debut, describing it as the worst he experienced throughout his career. Despite making two bad errors in a 3–3 draw with

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, Ma-Kalambay then made a penalty save in his next match, a 1–0 win over Inverness. Ma-Kalambay has received some criticism at times for his performances for Hibs, but he claimed during an interview with the '' Daily Record'' in December 2008 that he is under greater scrutiny than goalkeepers of other Scottish Premier League clubs. The newspaper surmised that this scrutiny was because of the high-profile mistakes made by his immediate predecessors in the Hibs goal,

Zbigniew Małkowski Zbigniew "Zibi" Małkowski (born 19 January 1978) is a Polish professional association football coach and a former player who played as a goalkeeper. He most recently worked as a goalkeeping coach with Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała. Club career ...

and Simon Brown. After making an error in an Edinburgh derby, Ma-Kalambay was replaced by Grzegorz Szamotulski at half-time due to a hamstring injury. He regained his place in the first team near the end of the season, putting in some impressive displays in draws against the

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

and in an Edinburgh derby win at Tynecastle, but then conceded a bizarre goal against Aberdeen on the final day of the season. Ma-Kalambay lost his place to new signing Graham Stack in the 2009–10 season. With his contract due to expire at the end of the season, Ma-Kalambay expressed a desire to open talks with Hibs about a new deal. Hibs signed

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held t ...

on the first day of the January 2010 transfer window, however, which raised further doubt over Ma-Kalambay's future at the club. This doubt was confirmed on 14 May 2010 when it was announced that Ma-Kalambay's contract would not be renewed. After his release, Ma-Kalambay claimed that he had only been dropped due to his refusal to sign a new contract. He also claimed to have received offers from clubs in England and Spain.

Swansea City

In September 2010, Ma-Kalambay went on trial with Football League Championship club Swansea City. He signed a contract with the club until the end of the 2010–11 season later that month. He played in all of Swansea's

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

and

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 ...

games that season, but left the club at the end of his contract in 2011.

KV Mechelen

In October 2011, Ma-Kalambay signed a contract until the end of the season with

Jupiler Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club KV Mechelen. He was signed because the second choice KV Mechelen goalkeeper,

Wouter Biebauw Wouter Biebauw (born 21 May 1984) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a ...

, was injured for a long time. Ma-Kalambay left the club at the end of the 2011–12 season.

Royal Antwerp

In August 2013, Ma-Kalambay signed a contract for two seasons with Belgacom League club

Royal Antwerp Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before ...

after a few weeks training in the preseason.

Wycombe Wanderers

In October 2017 Ma-Kalambay agreed to a short-term deal with

until 29 January 2018; he will wear the number 30 during his time with the club. In May 2018 it was announced that he had extended his contract for one year, to the end of the 2018–19 season. He was released by Wycombe at the end of the 2018–19 season. He subsequently retired.

International career

Ma-Kalambay was first selected by

in January 2008. He was then selected for their squad in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Ma-Kalambay played in only one match during the Olympics, when he came on as a substitute for

Logan Bailly Logan Bailly (born 27 December 1985) is a Belgian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Having started his career at Genk, Bailly has had spells at German Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach, Scottish Premiership club ...

during their 3–2 victory over

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in the quarter final. Belgium eventually finished in fourth place; Ma-Kalambay missed out on a medal due to Belgian defeats by

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Having not played in a competitive full international for Belgium, Ma-Kalambay was still eligible for selection by the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

(DR Congo), the birthplace of his father. Ma-Kalambay was selected by DR Congo for a friendly against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

in May 2010. He made his international debut as Congo lost 2–0.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma-Kalambay, Yves 1986 births Living people Footballers from Brussels Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo international footballers Belgian footballers Belgium youth international footballers Belgian people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Association football goalkeepers PSV Eindhoven players Chelsea F.C. players Watford F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players K.V. Mechelen players Royal Antwerp F.C. players ASC Oțelul Galați players Scottish Premier League players Belgian Pro League players Liga I players Belgian expatriate footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Wales Expatriate footballers in Romania Olympic footballers of Belgium Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Wales Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Black Belgian sportspeople