Cephas Malele (born 8 January 1994) is a 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 lea ...

who plays as a

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for

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club Dalian Yingbo. After starting out as a senior at FC Zürich II, he went on to play for teams in Italy, Portugal, Romania Saudi Arabia and China. Born in Angola, Malele represented Switzerland internationally at under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-19 levels.

Club career

Born in Angola, Malele moved with his family in Switzerland as a child and grew up in the youth system of

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

, also making a couple appearances for their Under-21 reserve side between 2010 and 2011. During the summer of 2011, he was signed by

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

and included into their ''Primavera'' squad. After a difficult first season due to injuries, Malele became a key player for the main ''Rosanero'' youth team throughout the first half of 2012–13 season, pairing with another rising star, Mauro Bollino, and being one of the main topscorers of the

Campionato Nazionale Primavera The Campionato Nazionale Primavera – Trofeo Giacinto Facchetti, was an Italian football youth competition. It is organised by the Lega Serie A and the participating teams that take part in Serie A and Serie B: the first edition was held in the 1 ...

. As a consequence, and also due to lack of strikers in the first team, he was asked by

Gian Piero Gasperini Gian Piero Gasperini (born 26 January 1958) is an Italian professional football manager and former professional footballer who is currently the head coach of Serie A club Roma. After starting his managerial career at Crotone, he had spells in ch ...

to join the senior side, and made his professional

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

debut on 7 January 2013, playing the final minutes of a league game against

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

. He was featured again on 19 January 2013, playing the final 15 minutes of a home game against

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

as a replacement to

Josip Iličić Josip Iličić (; born 29 January 1988) is a Slovenian professional Association footballer, footballer who plays for FC Koper, Koper. Primarily an attacking midfielder, he can also play as a winger (association football), winger or forward (assoc ...

. He was successively confirmed for the club's triumphal

2013–14 Serie B The 2013–14 Serie B (known as the Serie B Eurobet for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 of which were returning from the 2012–13 Serie B, 2012–13 season, ...

campaign, where he managed to make only three appearances as a substitute throughout the whole season. On 28 July 2014, Malele was loaned out to newly promoted

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as 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 b ...

club

Virtus Entella Virtus Entella, commonly referred to as Entella, is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . Entella will play in Serie B 2025/26 after winning ...

for the whole 2014–15 season in order to gain more first team experience. On 13 August 2021, Malele joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Tai. On 4 August 2022, Malele joined Romanian club

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

on a season-long loan. On 30 March 2023, Malele joined

club

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

. On 31 December 2024,

announced that Malele is released as a free agent.

International career

Malele has appeared for Switzerland from the under-15 level to the under-19 level.

Career statistics

Honours

Palermo *

: 2013–14 Shanghai Shenhua *

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

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Chinese FA Super Cup The Chinese FA Super Cup (), formerly named Chinese Football Super Cup (), is a Chinese football super cup competition that takes place every year before the start of the new season. It is contested between the champions of the previous Chinese Su ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Individual *

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

Team of the Season:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malele, Cephas 1994 births Living people People from Buco-Zau Naturalised citizens of Switzerland Swiss people of Angolan descent Men's association football forwards Swiss men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players Liga Portugal 2 players Liga I players Saudi Pro League players Chinese Super League players Palermo FC players Virtus Entella players FC Trapani 1905 players Atlético Clube de Portugal players Leixões S.C. players Varzim S.C. players F.C. Arouca players U.D. Oliveirense players FC Argeș Pitești players Al-Tai FC players CFR Cluj players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Dalian Yingbo F.C. players Switzerland men's youth international footballers Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in China Swiss expatriate sportspeople in China 21st-century Swiss sportsmen