Arnold Mvuemba Makengo (born 28 January 1985) is a French-Congolese 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

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 ...

for

Roeselare Roeselare (; french: Roulers, ; West Flemish: ''Roeseloare'') is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. Th ...

in the Belgian First Division B.

Club career

Mvuemba was born in Alençon, Orne, France. He was signed by

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 ...

team

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

from Stade Rennais in January 2007 until May 2007, with an option to complete a permanent deal. He made his debut against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on 25 February 2007, and scored his first Premier League goal on 9 April 2007 in a 4–2 defeat to

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 ...

. On 3 July, Mvuemba signed a three-year contract with Portsmouth for an undisclosed fee. Mvuemba was part of Portsmouth's

2007–08 FA Cup The 2007–08 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON for sponsorship reasons) was the 127th season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, the FA Cup. A record 731 clubs' entries were accepted for the competition. The compet ...

-winning team. Despite not making the squad for the final he appeared in the earlier rounds. He scored against

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

but it was not enough to enable Portsmouth to remain in the competition. On 7 August 2009, Mvuemba signed a contract with

FC Lorient Football Club Lorient Bretagne Sud (; commonly referred to FC Lorient or simply Lorient) is a French association football club based in Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in we ...

after being released by Portsmouth. He was signed by

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

in summer 2012 for €3 million and €1 million variable. Mvuemba was released by Lyon at the end of the 2015–16 season.

International career

Mvuemba made one appearance for the DR Congo national team in 2005.

Style of play

Mvuemba plays in central midfield normally as a playmaker in an attacking role. He came to prominence playing in this position alongside holding midfielder

Lassana Diarra Lassana Diarra (born 10 March 1985) is a French former professional footballer. His predominant position was as a defensive midfielder but he could also play in a more advanced role and has played at right back, which he occasionally has done ...

in the

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

(U20) in July 2004. According to Liverpool and England striker

Peter Crouch Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was capped 42 times by the England national team between 2005 and 2010, scoring 22 goals for his country during that time, and ...

, who was his team mate in Portsmouth, Mvuemba was the most talented player in the squad at the time but could not perform at his best due to nerves. Crouch wrote that Mvuemba was a "genius midfield playmaker who could turn invisible at the sound of a referee's whistle".

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mvuemba, Arnold 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Alençon French men's footballers French sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent France men's under-21 international footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Stade Rennais F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players FC Lorient players Olympique Lyonnais players Umm Salal SC players K.S.V. Roeselare players Ligue 1 players Premier League players Qatar Stars League players Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Challenger Pro League players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers French expatriate men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Footballers from Normandy Black French sportspeople