Joris Kayembe Ditu (born 8 August 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 as a winger plays for

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

club

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

. Born in Belgium and formerly a Belgium international in a pair of friendly matches, he plays for the DR Congo national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in Brussels, Kayembe started his youth career in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

with R.S.D. Jette then

FC Brussels Racing White Daring Molenbeek Brussels Football Club, often simply referred to as RWDM Brussels, F.C. Brussels or simply Brussels, was a Belgian professional association football club based in the municipality of Molenbeek, in the Brussels, Bru ...

and

Standard Liége Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

Porto

In 2013, he signed for

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

. Along with some other players of the team, Kayembe was called to the first-team squad to face

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

. After a very good first season with the B squad he finally made his debut on 4 May 2014, coming as a 46th-minute substitute for Tozé.

Loan to Arouca

Kayembe started the 2014–15 season with Porto's first team but appeared mainly in B squad. In January 2015, he was loaned to

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a professional Association football, football club based in the Porto metropolitan area. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,600-seat capac ...

Loan to Rio Ave

On 31 July 2015, Kayembe was loaned to fellow

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

team Rio Ave F.C.

Nantes

Under one of the terms of the contract allowing Sérgio Conceição to leave

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes, commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Naunnt''), is a French professional association football, football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 Ap ...

and join the Portuguese club bench, Joris Kayembe was transferred free of charge to FC Nantes on June 14, 2017. Kayembe is suffering from injuries and fights very few games with the Canaries.

Charleroi

On January 17, 2020, he signed a two-year contract with

Charleroi SC Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League. Their current ...

to revive himself. In his first 5 months with the Zebras, Kayembe made some interesting appearances. For the 2020-2021 season, yet left winger, Kayembe starts the championship as a left-back holder following the departure of

Núrio Fortuna Núrio Domingos Matias Fortuna (born 24 March 1995) is an Angolan professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Super League Greece club Volos, on loan from Gent, and the Angola national team. Club career Braga Fortuna was born in Luanda ...

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent ( Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, ...

Genk

In May 2023, he left Charleroi for the

where he signed a contract for three years with an additional season as an option.

International career

Kayembe was born in Belgium and is of Congolese descent. Kayembe debuted with the

Belgium national football team The Belgium national football team has represented Belgium in men's international Association football, football since Évence Coppée Trophy, their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in E ...

in a 1–1 friendly draw with

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

on 8 October 2020. In 2023, Kayembe switched his international allegiance to the

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. On 27 December 2023, he was selected from the list of 24 Congolese players selected by Sébastien Desabre to compete in the

2023 Africa Cup of Nations The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, known in short as the 2023 AFCON or CAN 2023 and for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 34th edition of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations tournam ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links