Lago Junior Wakalible (born 31 December 1990), known as Junior, is an Ivorian 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 winger for Spanish club Racing de Santander.

Club career

Numancia

Born in

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...

, Junior began his football career at the ''Centre de Formation Joël Tiéhi'', a school founded by former player Joël Tiéhi. He made his senior debut with Issia Wazy in 2007, scoring at an excellent rate. On 31 January 2009, Junior moved to Spain and signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in , holding home games at '' Nuevo Estadio Los Pajaritos''. Besides football it ...

. He made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

debut on 18 April, playing ten minutes in a 3–0 away loss against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

. He only appeared in four more matches until the end of the season, all as a substitute, and the

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populatio ...

team were relegated as 19th. Junior joined SD Eibar on 27 August 2010, in a

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 ...

-long loan. Two days later, he scored twice on his official debut for the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

club, a 2–1 home win over CF Palencia.

Gimnàstic and Mirandés

On 13 July 2013, after a further two

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

campaigns with Numancia, Junior remained in the country and signed for

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

from division three. On 22 July 2015, after achieving promotion, he moved to CD Mirandés of the second tier.

Mallorca

On 28 January 2016, Junior agreed to a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

300,000 deal at second-division

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

. After suffering relegation at the end of the 2016–17 campaign he went on to help the side to earn two consecutive promotions, netting a career-best 11 goals in 2018–19. Junior subsequently lost his importance in the squad. In December 2021, he was loaned to SD Huesca. On 11 January 2023, Junior terminated his contract by mutual consent.

Later career

Immediately after leaving Mallorca, Junior joined

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

on a free transfer, signing until June 2024 with an option for another year. On 15 June 2023, having been

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

, he moved to fellow second-tier club Racing de Santander on a two-year contract.

International career

Junior won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Ivory Coast national team on 13 October 2020 at the age of nearly 30, replacing Gervinho late into the 1–0 friendly defeat to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

, Netherlands.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Junior, Lago 1990 births Living people 21st-century Ivorian sportsmen Ivorian men's footballers Footballers from Abidjan Men's association football wingers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CD Numancia players SD Eibar footballers Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers CD Mirandés footballers RCD Mallorca players SD Huesca footballers Málaga CF players Racing de Santander players Ivory Coast men's international footballers Ivorian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Spain