Melvin Zinga (born 16 March 2002) is a French 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 club

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

Club career

On 11 July 2020, Zinga signed for

for a transfer fee of €200,000. On 18 November 2023, he made his senior debut for the club in a 2–0 win over Houilles AC in the seventh round of the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

. Replacing Yahia Fofana during his absence due to 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 ...

, Zinga played in his first match against a professional side on 6 January 2024, a 1–0 loss away to Brest in the Coupe de France round of 64.

International career

Born in France, Zinga is of partial Republic of the Congo and Malagasy descent and has French, Congolese and Malagasy nationalities. He was a France youth international. He won

Lafarge Foot Avenir Lafarge Foot Avenir, also known as the Tournoi de Limoges, is a football competition contested by men's under-18 national teams. It has been held annually since 2007 in Limoges, France. Winners Past editions 2007 2008 2009 2010 ...

in 2019 and the

Maurice Revello Tournament The Maurice Revello Tournament (officially French: the ''Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello''), previously known as the Toulon Tournament, is a football tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams comp ...

in 2022 with the under-18 and under-20 teams respectively. In August 2024, Zinga was called up to the Republic of the Congo national team.

Player profile

Zinga has earned the nickname "''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

''" among his teammates for his tendency to make daring challenges. In 2023, Angers goalkeeping coach Olivier Tingry said that he is "dynamic, tonic, and rather skillful with his feet", adding that "he is good on his line and has a good vision of the game". In 2019, Zinga stated that he was a fan of Spanish club

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 ...

, and that his football role model was

Marc-André ter Stegen Marc-André ter Stegen (; born 30 April 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the German national team and captains La Liga club Barcelona. Considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world, he is known for ...

Honours

France U18 *

: 2019 France U20 *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

References

External links

Melvin Zinga
at

Angers SCO Angers Sporting Club de l'Ouest, commonly referred to as Angers SCO (), is a French professional football club based in Angers in Pays de la Loire in western France. The club was founded in 1919 and plays in Ligue 1, the first division of Foot ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zinga, Melvin 2002 births Living people French men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers from Seine-Maritime Le Havre AC players Angers SCO players Championnat National 3 players Championnat National 2 players Ligue 2 players France men's youth international footballers French sportspeople of Republic of the Congo descent 21st-century French sportsmen