Moïse Emmanuel Mbende (born 3 March 1996) is a Cameroonian

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

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Italian

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega ...

club Monterosi Tuscia. He began his football career in the youth system of

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional foot ...

before spending the 2015–16 season with English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

(second-tier) club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

, but played no first-team football for either. He then returned to Germany, where he spent two years with

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

club

Chemnitzer FC Chemnitzer Fußballclub e.V. is a German association football club based in Chemnitz, Saxony. The club competes in Regionalliga Nordost, the fourth tier of German football. The roots of the club go back to its establishment as Chemnitzer BC 1 ...

before signing for

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 ...

of the Dutch

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as th ...

. A year later, he moved on to Catania, joined

Viterbese The Viterbese or it, Asino Viterbese, italic=no is a breed of donkey from Lazio in central Italy. It is particularly associated with the town and province of Viterbo from which it takes its name, and with the Monti della Tolfa and the town ...

in 2020, and then signed for Monterosi Tuscia in 2021. In international football, Mbende has represented his native Cameroon at under-20 level.

Club career

Mbende was born in

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the comm ...

, Cameroon, and came to Germany in 2006. The family settled in Bochum, where he began his football career with SC Weitmar 45. He was spotted by

and recruited into their youth system at the under-13 level. He went on to play for two seasons in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Leagu ...

, but left the club at the end of the 2014–15 season. After trials in the Netherlands with

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

club

PEC Zwolle PEC Zwolle is a Dutch football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2021–22 season. They have played in the Eredivisie for a tot ...

and

MVV Maastricht Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging Maastricht (), commonly known as MVV Maastricht (, ) or simply as MVV, is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently compete in the Eers ...

of the

, and in England with

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

clubs

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

, and

, Mbende signed for the latter club in September 2015 until the end of the season. He was a regular member of Birmingham's under-21 team playing in the

Professional Development League The Professional Development League is a system of youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player Performance ...

, and was a member of the Birmingham reserve team that lost the 2016

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a Association football, football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest County Football Association, county cup comp ...

final to

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

champions

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Lea ...

, but did not break through to the first team. He was offered a one-year contract, with an option for another year, in April 2016, and manager

Gary Rowett Gary Rowett (born 6 March 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is currently manager of Championship club Millwall. As a player, he was a defender, and played in the Premier League for Everton, Derby Coun ...

expected him either to challenge the existing first-team centre-backs or to go out on loan to a lower-division club. However, he turned down the contract offer, preferring to return to Germany to study and to play for

club

, with whom he signed a two-year deal; Birmingham included a "significant" sell-on clause in the deal. Mbende began his Chemnitz career on the bench, but made his senior debut in their fourth match of the

2016–17 3. Liga The 2016–17 3. Liga was the ninth season of the 3. Liga. Fixtures for the 2016–17 season were announced on 6 July 2016. Teams A total of 20 teams contested the league, including 14 sides from the 2015–16 3. Liga. Dynamo Dresden and Erzgebi ...

season, away to

VfR Aalen Verein für Rasenspiele 1921 Aalen e.V., known simply as VfR Aalen, is a German football club based in Aalen, Baden-Württemberg. The football team is part of a larger sports club which also offers its members gymnastics, table tennis, and chee ...

on 14 August 2016. He replaced Marc Endres after 80 minutes with his team 2–0 ahead, but the hosts scored two minutes later, and deep into stoppage time, Mbende's headed clearance fell to Gerrit Wegkamp who volleyed it home from distance to secure a draw. Injuries among the regular defenders brought Mbende his first start, away to

1. FC Magdeburg 1. FC Magdeburg is a German association football club based in the city of Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 and spent all but one season in East Germany top flight, the DDR-Oberliga, winning three championships and seven cup titles. It ...

on 22 October, in which he faced one of the league's leading scorers, the equally physical Christian Beck. Mbende had the better of the encounter: Beck scored once, but Chemnitz achieved their first away win of the season, by four goals to two. Mbende joined

of the Dutch

(second tier) in May 2018. He left the club at the end of the 2018–19 season. On 8 August 2019, Mbende signed a two-year contract with Italian

club Catania. He made 23 appearances in all competitions in 2019–20, helping Catania reach the play-offs in which they were eliminated in the second round, but was allowed to leave at the end of the season. Mbende joined another Serie C club,

, on 31 August 2020 on a two-year deal. He scored four goals from 28 league matches in his first season, but despite the club president's insistence that Mbende would not leave unless they received an offer they could not refuse, he was released by mutual consent on 25 August, after the 2021–22 season had already begun. The next day, he signed a multi-year contract with Monterosi Tuscia, newly promoted to Serie C.

International career

Mbende represented Cameroon at youth level. He played for their under-20 team in the

2015 African U-20 Championship qualification The qualification phase of the 2015 African U-20 Championship decided the participating teams of the final tournament. A total of eight teams will play in the final tournament, to be hosted by Senegal. Qualification ties were played on a home-and ...

process.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mbende, Emmanuel 1996 births Living people Footballers from Douala Cameroonian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Cameroon men's youth international footballers Borussia Dortmund players Birmingham City F.C. players Chemnitzer FC players SC Cambuur players Catania FC players US Viterbese 1908 players Monterosi Tuscia FC players 3. Liga players Eerste Divisie players Serie C players Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy