Ryan Mmaee A'Nwambeben Kabir (; born 1 November 1997) 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 plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

. Born in Belgium, he represents

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

internationally. Mmaee began his professional career in 2015 with

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 ...

, making his debut at the age of 17. Disagreements with the club management saw him loaned out to

Waasland-Beveren Sportkring Beveren (SK Beveren) is a Belgian professional association football club based in Beveren, East Flanders. The club is affiliated with the founded number 4068 and has yellow and blue as its colours. The team was founded in 1936 in H ...

and Danish side AGF. He moved to Cyprus in 2019 joining

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou () is a Cyprus, Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL Limassol also maintains a AEL Limassol B.C., men's and AEL Limassol B.C. (women), women's basketball teams, a wom ...

. After scoring 17 goals in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

he earned a move to Hungarian champions

Ferencváros Ferencváros (, ) is the 9th district of Budapest (), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The developmen ...

in July 2021. He spent two seasons with Ferencváros, winning back-to-back league titles and a

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup (, ), officially known as MOL Magyar Kupa for sponsorship reasons, is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association'','' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of ...

before signing for English side

in July 2023.

Club career

Early life and career

Mmaee was born in

Geraardsbergen Geraardsbergen (; ) is a city and municipality located in the Denderstreek and in the Flemish Ardennes, the hilly southern part of the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Geraardsbergen proper and the follo ...

, Belgium to a Cameroonian father Nwambebeg Mmaee, and a Moroccan mother Fatima. After his birth, his family moved to

Sint-Pieters-Leeuw Sint-Pieters-Leeuw (; , ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the towns of Oudenaken, Ruisbroek, Sint-Laureins-Berchem, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw proper and Vlezenbeek. Si ...

. At school, he studied mathematical sciences at the Royal Athenaeum in Halle. It was in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw that Mmaee began playing football, with the amateur club KV Zuun. A year later, he enrolled in the academy of

RWDM Brussels RWDM Brussels is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, a municipality of Brussels. The team competes in the Challenger Pro League, the second tier of the Belgian football league system. The ...

. In 2010, he joined

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, ...

. Three years later, he joined

with his brother

Samy Mmaee Samy Mmaee A Nwambeben (; born 8 September 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. Born in Belgium, he represents Morocco at international level. Club career Mmaee's first club was KV Zuun ...

Standard Liège

Mmaee made his

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 ...

debut on 21 May 2015, at the age of 17 against Gent replacing Mehdi Carcela after 82 minutes in a 2–0 away defeat. Mmaee and his brother, Samy signed professional three-year contracts with Standard in August 2015. In the 2015–16 season he made seven appearances as Standard finished in seventh position. After playing in a few matches at the start of 2016–17, Mmaee was dropped from the first team back to the u-23s after he had an argument with manager Aleksandar Janković and an altercation with the physical trainer. Mmaee later explained what happened— "At 19, we want to play every game. When you don't play, you are disappointed, and your reactions are not always appropriate. I was young, I was learning on the job, I made mistakes when, I think, the club did not trust young people enough. I was upset in training because I was not selected in the group, I let it be known, and there were bound to be consequences. I thought it was all going to happen naturally. I was playing with the Belgian national team as a youth, I was upgraded to Standard, I thought it was going to happen so quickly in the professional world. It was not I don't care, but naivety". He briefly returned to the first-team at the end of the season but after signing a contract extension he was loaned out to

with an option to buy. Mmaee played in 20 matches in 2017–18, scoring only once as Waasland-Beveren finished in 12th place and they decided against the purchase option and he returned to Standard. On 31 August 2018, Mmaee joined

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

side

AGF Aarhus Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ) is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country where gymnastics and fencing were featured as its main sports. How ...

on loan for the 2018–19 season. He made 12 appearances, scoring three goals all of which came in the

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

. Mmaee stated that he did not enjoy his time in Denmark—"My teammates were nice, but the people in Denmark were quite cold. When we arrived at the club in the morning, we didn't shake hands, and when I was driving and let a pedestrian cross the road, there was no small gesture of thanks."

AEL Limassol

After leaving Standard Liège, Mmaee signed a three-year contract with

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

side

on 10 September 2019. He scored eight goals in 24 appearances in 2019–20 until the league was suspended on 15 May 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In

, Mmaee scored 17 goals as AEL Limassol finished in third place.

Ferencváros

Mmaee signed for Hungarian

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

champions

in May 2021, linking up with his brother Samy. He scored on his debut for Fradi, on 6 July 2021 in a 3–0 win over Kosovan side

Prishtina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdom. The heritage of th ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

first qualifying round. He also scored twice in the next round against Žalgiris. He made his league debut on 31 July 2021, scoring a penalty in a 2–1 defeat to

Kisvárda Kisvárda (; , ) is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary near the border of Slovakia and Ukraine. It is the 3rd largest town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg after Nyíregyháza and Mátészalka ...

. Ferencváros progressed past

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

to make it to the Champions League play-off round but they were defeated 6–4 on aggregate by Young Boys, dropping down to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. They were unable to get out of the group containing

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

and

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

, finishing bottom after managing one victory. Mmaee ended the 2021–22 season with 19 goals from 37 matches as Ferencváros won the title with four games left. They won a double after beating

Paks Paks is a small town in Tolna (county), Tolna county, in the south of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube River, 100 km south of Budapest. Paks as a former agricultural settlement is now the home of the only Hungarian Paks Nuclear Pow ...

3–0 in the Magyar Kupa final. In

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Mmaee scored 12 goals in 31 appearances as Ferencváros again won the league title.

Stoke City

On 28 July 2023, Mmaee joined English

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

side

for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract. He scored his first goal for Stoke on 29 August 2023 in a 6–1 win against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

in the

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. He scored his first Championship goal on 21 October 2023 in a 2–1 win against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

. In February 2024 he was made to train with the under-21 squad by head coach

Steven Schumacher Steven Thomas Schumacher (born 30 April 1984) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who is currently head coach of club Bolton Wanderers. He graduated from the youth sides at Everton, and during his playing caree ...

for disciplinary reasons. Mmaee returned to the first-team in March vowing to 'prove a point'. However his season was ended prematurely due to injury. After struggling for game time at Stoke, Mmaee joined

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

side

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

on loan for the 2024–25 season. His time at Rapid was disrupted by injuries and after failing to make an appearance he returned to Stoke in February 2025.

International career

Mmaee is of Cameroonian and Moroccan descent, having a father from Cameroon and a mother from Morocco. As such, he was eligible to represent either Belgium, Cameroon or Morocco at senior level. He made his debut for the senior Morocco national team in a 2–0 win against

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

Personal life

Mmaee's brothers, Samy, Camil and

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

are also a professional footballers. In May 2021 he was involved in a car accident in

Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...

, Cyprus crashing into a car dealership and had to be extracted from his vehicle by emergency workers.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Ferencváros *

: 2021–22,

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mmaee, Ryan 1997 births Living people Moroccan men's footballers Belgian men's footballers Morocco men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Belgium men's youth international footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Black Belgian sportspeople 21st-century Belgian sportsmen Standard Liège players S.K. Beveren players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players AEL Limassol players Ferencvárosi TC footballers Stoke City F.C. players Belgian Pro League players Danish Superliga players Cypriot First Division players Moroccan expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Belgian people of Cameroonian descent Belgian sportspeople of Moroccan descent Moroccan people of Cameroonian descent Moroccan people of Belgian descent Sportspeople of Cameroonian descent 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players Sportspeople from Geraardsbergen Footballers from East Flanders English Football League players 21st-century Moroccan sportsmen Expatriate men's footballers in England