Jorthy Mokio (born 29 February 2008) is a Belgian 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

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

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

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

and the Belgium national team. He is regarded as one of the most talented defenders of his generation.

Club career

K.A.A. Gent

Mokio joined the Gent youth academy from KFC Merelbeke in 2021. On 4 October 2023, he debuted 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 ...

in a match against

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, becoming the youngest Gent player ever to participate in the competition. Widely regarded as a top defensive prospect, he attracted interest from major European clubs. On his 16th birthday, 29 February 2024, he became eligible to play for the senior team. He made his senior debut for Gent in the

Belgian Pro League 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 ...

on 29 March 2024, starting in a 5–1 win against

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

. He made four appearances for the first team towards the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

AFC Ajax

On 24 June 2024, having turned down offers from other clubs including reportedly

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Mokio joined Dutch club

on a free transfer, signing a contract until June 2027. He initially started with the reserve team,

Jong Ajax Jong Ajax (; ), also referred to as Ajax II or Ajax 2, is a Dutch association football team. It is based in Amsterdam and competes in the Dutch Eerste Divisie. Jong Ajax is the only reserve team to have won a title in Dutch professional foot ...

, making his

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 ...

debut on 12 August 2024 against

Jong PSV Jong PSV is a Dutch football team based in Eindhoven. It is the reserve team of PSV Eindhoven and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2013–14 season. History Until 2013, Jong PSV played in the Beloften Eredivisie, a league exclusively fo ...

. He quickly established himself as a regular for Jong Ajax, scoring twice in 17 appearances during the first half of the

, sometimes playing as a

. Mokio made his competitive debut for the Ajax first team on 29 August 2024, coming on as a substitute against

Jagiellonia Białystok Jagiellonia Białystok () is a Polish professional football club based in Białystok that plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of Polish football. The club was founded in 1920 by soldiers in the 42nd Infantry Regiment Reserve Battalion in Bi ...

in the UEFA Europa League play-off round. In doing so, at 16 years and 182 days, he became the youngest non-Dutch player ever to debut for Ajax. His integration into the first team under manager Francesco Farioli accelerated in the new year. He made his

debut starting at left-back against

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

on 9 February 2025; at 16 years and 346 days, he became the second-youngest player to start a league match for Ajax, only three days older than

Clarence Seedorf Clarence Clyde Seedorf (; born 1 April 1976) is a Dutch former professional Association football, football manager and player. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest midfielders of all time. He is currently working primarily remotely as ...

. Four days later, on 13 February, Mokio made his first European start against Union Saint-Gilloise in the Europa League knockout round play-offs and scored his first senior goal with a volley in Ajax's 2–0 victory. This goal made him the youngest ever scorer in a UEFA Europa League knockout stage match (16 years, 350 days).

International career

Born in Belgium, Mokio is of Congolese descent. He has represented Belgium at U15, U16 and U17 levels. In September 2024, Mokio made his debut for the Belgium U21 team in a 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Kazakhstan, scoring in a 3-1 victory. On 20 March 2025, Mokio made his senior debut for the Belgium national team, coming on as a substitute in a

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

play-off match against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Aged 17 years and 19 days, he became one of the youngest players ever to represent Belgium at senior level.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mokio, Jorthy 2008 births Living people Footballers from Ghent Belgian men's footballers Belgium men's international footballers Belgium men's youth international footballers Belgian sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders K.A.A. Gent players AFC Ajax players Jong Ajax players Belgian Pro League players Eerste Divisie players Belgian National Division 1 players Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands 21st-century Belgian sportsmen