FC Simba Kolwezi, better known as AS Simba, is a

Congolese Congolese or Kongolese may refer to: African peoples * Congolese people (disambiguation) * Kongo people, a Bantu ethnic group who live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo) to Luanda, Angola, primarily defined by ...

football club A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...

based in

Kolwezi Kolwezi or Kolwesi is the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, west of Likasi. It is home to an airport and a railway to Lubumbashi. Just outside of Kolwezi there is the static inverter plan ...

Lualaba Province Lualaba is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Lualaba, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, and Tanganyika provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Katanga province ...

. The most representative club of Lualaba, AS Simba is directly managed by the local government, which owns the financial and logistical activity of the team and fully covers the salary for the head coach.

History

FC Simba Kolwezi was established in 2002 and is currently playing in

Linafoot The Vodacom Ligue 1 is the top division of the Congolese Association Football Federation, the governing body of football in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was created in 1958. In 2013, the highest attendance was set in the match DC Mote ...

, the local top-tier league,Linafoot D1 : Pas de duel entre Kamikazes
/ref> since they won the 2018–19 season of the

Linafoot Ligue 2 Linafoot Ligue 2 also called Vodacom Ligue 2 (for sponsorship reasons), is an annual football competition played by Congolese amateur football clubs and organized by Congolese Association Football Federation The Congolese Association Footba ...

and won promotion to the top division of Congolese football for the first time in their history. Although the 2019-20 edition of Linafoot was suspended in March 2020 and later halted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, AS Simba managed to stay for another year in the top-tier league as they finished twelfth out of sixteen teams, with their top-scorer Rodrigue Kitwa netting six goals. For the following season, the local government decided to appoint

Julio César Gómez Julio César Gómez Matteo (8 November 1940 – 2 August 2022) was an Uruguayan basketball player who competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics. He died in Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, large ...

as the club's new head coach. Mostly known for being the co-founder of the

Ciudad Deportiva Getafe CF The Ciudad Deportiva Getafe CF is the training ground and academy base of the Spanish football club Getafe CF. It was opened in 2005. Located in Getafe near the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez and covering an area of 70,000 m², it is used for youth an ...

(training ground and academy base of the eponymous football team) and having previously worked as a

talent scout In professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scou ...

for

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

was first introduced to Congolese football when he accepted to collaborate with a local scout in a project that was directly funded by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

, selecting young players from all over the country and leading the resulting representative to an international tournament in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics ...

, which they eventually won. As a consequence, Gómez received (and refused) offers from several teams in Congo DR before accepting to take over the managerial role at AS Simba. Introducing a more technical approach to the training methods and aspiring to improve the position of the club within Congolese football, Gómez led a successful pre-season, as AS Simba won every single one of their friendly matches. However, the team endured a slow start to the new season of Linafoot, going winless in their first six matches (only two of which were draws) and getting their first victory at the seventh round, beating

JS Kinshasa Jeunesse Sportive de Kinshasa is a Congolese football club based in Kinshasa and currently playing in the Linafoot, the first level of the Congolese Congolese or Kongolese may refer to: African peoples * Congolese people (disambiguation) * Kongo ...

1-0. After fifteen games, AS Simba was placed 14th, having collected just 12 points.

Stadium

AS Simba used to play their home games at the Stade Manika in

, which could officially host 1,500 spectators. However, at the end of 2020 the club was set to complete their move to the newly-built

Dominique Dior Stadium "Dominique" is a 1963 French language popular song, written and performed by the Belgian female singer Jeannine Deckers, better known as Sœur Sourire ("Sister Smile" in French) or The Singing Nun. The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-bor ...

(entitled from a local politician that served as the governor of the Lualaba Province from 1963 to 1966), which currently has an estimated capacity of 15,000.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Committee

* Sporting director: Pierre Makandalele

References

External links

club Profile us.soccerwayclub profile on sofascoreclub profileclub profile on linafoot.com
Football clubs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo AS Simba Association football clubs established in 2002 AS Simba {{DRCongo-footyclub-stub