Gaël Nesterovich Bella Ondoua (born 4 November 1995), more known as Gaël Ondoua, is a

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

ian 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

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

club

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

and the Cameroon national team.

Career

Club

In April 2014, Ondoua moved from

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (, ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three occasions; the Soviet Cup twice; and the Russian Cup (football), Russian Cup a record ...

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

. He made his professional debut on 24 September 2014 for CSKA Moscow in a Russian Cup game against Khimik Dzerzhinsk. In January 2015, Ondoua went on trial with Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk of the

Russian Football National League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

. At the end of December 2017, it was reported that Ondoua had signed with

Zorya Luhansk FC Zorya Luhansk ( ) is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk was based in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine. However, due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the team currently plays its games at Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhzhia. The modern club as a ...

. On 12 March, however, he posted on his

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account that due circumstances beyond his contract he would not be a Zorya Luhansk player. On 27 July 2018, Ondoua signed with the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club Anzhi Makhachkala. On 2 July 2019, he signed with Swiss club

on a two-year contract plus an option year. On 26 August 2021, Ondoua joined German club

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

, signing a two-year contract. On 21 July 2023, Ondoua returned to

. On 8 August, with Servette due to take on Scottish club

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

qualifying round, he was denied a visa to enter the United Kingdom.

International career

Ondoua debuted with the Cameroon national team in a 1–0 2022 World Cup qualification loss to

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

on 25 March 2022. He was part of Cameroon's squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

where he made headlines after wearing the

Russian flag The national flag of the Russian Federation (, ) is a tricolour of three equal horizontal bands: white on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. The design was first introduced by Tsar Peter the Great in 1693, and in 1705 it was ...

on his boots amidst the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Personal life

Ondoua grew up in Russia, where his father was a diplomat. He is fluent in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and holds Russian citizenship.

Career statistics

Honours

Servette FC *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

: 2023–24

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ondoua, Gael 1995 births Living people Cameroonian men's footballers Cameroon men's international footballers Footballers from Yaoundé Men's association football midfielders PFC CSKA Moscow players Vejle Boldklub players FC Anzhi Makhachkala players FC Zorya Luhansk players Servette FC players Hannover 96 players Danish 1st Division players Russian Premier League players Swiss Super League players 2. Bundesliga players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany