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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Macedonian First League The Macedonian First Football League (), also called Macedonian First League, 1. MFL, and Prva Liga, is the highest professional football competition in Macedonia. It is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of t ...

club

Gostivar Gostivar ( ; sq-definite, Gostivari) is a city in North Macedonia, located in the upper Polog valley region. It is the seat of one of the larger municipalities in the country with a population of 59,770, and the town also covers . Gostivar has ...

. He began his football career in the youth system of

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

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 sys ...

(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. The team compete in the ...

, 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 193 ...

before signing for

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

of the Dutch

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

. A year later, he moved on to

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

, joined Viterbese in 2020, and spent three years with Monterosi Tuscia before joining Gostivar in 2024. 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 (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...

, Cameroon, and came to Germany in 2006. The family settled in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

, 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 under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

, 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 a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

PEC Zwolle Prins Hendrik Ende Desespereert Nimmer Combinatie Zwolle, commonly known as PEC Zwolle, is a Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They have played in the Ered ...

and

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

of the

, and in England with

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

clubs

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

, 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 Football in England, English youth association football, football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Th ...

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

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a regional 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, count ...

final to

National League North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National League (English footb ...

champions

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

, 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 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 season, away to

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

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 Football club (association football), club based in Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 from the football department of the Sports club (East Germany), sports club ''SC Magdeburg'' and has bee ...

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

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, 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 ...

club

. 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, Viterbese, 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, where he spent three years before the team were relegated in 2024. Mbende joined

of the

on 29 June 2024.

International career

Mbende represented Cameroon at youth level. He played for their under-20 team in the 2015 African U-20 Championship qualification process.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mbende, Emmanuel 1996 births Living people Footballers from Douala Cameroonian men's footballers 21st-century Cameroonian sportsmen 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 KF Gostivari players 3. Liga players Eerste Divisie players Serie C players Macedonian First Football League 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 Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in North Macedonia Expatriate men's footballers in North Macedonia