Matthieu Luka Epolo (born 15 January 2005) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

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 ...

. Epolo first became known to international football audiences for keeping six clean sheets in his first eight games of the

2024–25 Belgian Pro League The 2024–25 Belgian Pro League (officially known as the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) is the 122nd season of top-tier football in Belgium. Teams K Beerschot VA, Beerschot and F.C.V. Dender E.H., Dender EH were promoted respectiv ...

season, making him the most successful goalkeeper for shutouts in the top-20 ranked European leagues.

Club career

Epolo began playing football at KVK Wemmel and later

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 ...

. Epolo came through the youth academy of

RSC Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Div ...

, moving to

at the age of 14 in June 2019. He made his professional debut on 26 August 2022 in the shirt of SL16 FC, the newly-launched Standard reserve team playing in the second-flight Challenger Pro League for the 2022–23 season. He started SL16's third match of the season against FCV Dender EH, and ultimately shared game-time with SL16's other main goalkeeper Tom Poitoux, who played 19 games to Epolo's 18. On 25 January 2023, shortly after his 18th birthday and with him being the third goalkeeper for the first team, Epolo extended his contract. Epolo was promoted to the first-team for the

2023–24 Belgian Pro League The 2023–24 Belgian Pro League (officially known as the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 121st season of top-tier football in Belgium. Club Brugge were crowned champions for the 19th time in their history having come back ...

season, and played the final five games of Standard's campaign, due to both transfer speculation and an injury for first-choice goalkeeper Arnaud Bodart. He made his league debut on 27 April 2024 against

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium. With more than 41,500 inhabitants, it is on ...

, promoted by manager Ivan Leko, amid reports that regular goalkeeper Bodart would leave at the end of the season. He enjoyed a 1–1 draw at home to

on his debut, with 20-year-old Mattéo Godfroid on the bench as Bodart was injured, according to Leko. Fewer than 10,000 fans saw his debut at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne due to a boycott of American owners

777 Partners 777 Partners is an American private investment company based in Miami. Founded in 2015, it acquired several soccer clubs, such as Genoa CFC in Italy, Standard Liège in Belgium, Red Star FC in France, CR Vasco da Gama in Brazil, and Hertha BSC ...

, a situation Epolo said was understandable. Leko said that Epolo would start the remaining games of the season. Further transfer speculation saw Bodart kept out of the first-team at the start of the following 2024–25 season, with Epolo starting as regular first-choice goalkeeper as a 19-year-old. Epolo kept clean sheets in Standard's first three games of the season against Racing Genk,

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

and

KV Mechelen Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen (), often called KV Mechelen (, KVM) or simply by their former French name Malinois /ˌmalɪˈnwɑː/, is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp (pr ...

to give them an unbeaten start. Epolo went on to keep six clean sheets in his first eight league games of the season with Standard conceding only three goals in that time, scoring four to climb to the top half of the table. This run of clean sheets early in the season put Epolo top of the Belgian Pro League's official clean sheet table, with the best clean sheets record in Europe's top-20 ranked leagues, inspiring Standard to the best defensive record in the Pro League.

International career

Epolo was called up to the Belgium under-17 team for the 2022 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Israel. He played all three games in a group-stage elimination.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Epolo, Matthieu 2005 births Living people Belgian men's footballers Standard Liège players Belgian Pro League players Belgian National Division 1 players Challenger Pro League players Men's association football goalkeepers Belgium men's youth international footballers Black Belgian sportspeople 21st-century Belgian sportsmen Belgian sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent