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 le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

club

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in ...

. After starting out as a senior at FC Zürich II, he went on to appear 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 Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

, 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 ( , ; scn, Palermu , 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 ...

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 Mauro Bollino (born 31 December 1994) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Trapani. Club career On 1 August 2021, he joined Audace Cerignola in Serie D. On 14 October 2021, his contract was terminated by mutu ...

, 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 th ...

. 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 football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of Italian side Atalanta. Playing career Gasperini entered the Juventus youth system at the age of 9; during his stay ...

to join the senior side, and made his professional

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

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

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

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

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

as a replacement to

Josip Iličić Josip Iličić (; born 29 January 1988) is a Slovenian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Slovenian PrvaLiga club Maribor. Iličić began his professional career with Slovenian club Bonifika, later also playing for Interblock a ...

. 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 season, 4 of which were p ...

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 (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, 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 ...

club

Virtus Entella Virtus Entella, commonly referred to as Entella, is an Italian professional football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . History 1914: Foundation The club was founded in 1914 as Foot-Ball Club ...

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 ), is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vas ...

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

club

International career

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

Honours

Palermo *

: 2013–14 Individual *

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

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 b ...

References

External links

* 1994 births Living people People from Cabinda Province 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 SSD 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 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 {{Switzerland-footy-forward-stub