Zola Matumona (born 26 November 1981) is a

Congolese Congolese or Kongolese may refer to: African peoples * Congolese people (disambiguation) * Kongo people, a Bantu ethnic group who live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo) to Luanda, Angola, primarily defined by ...

former 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 played as a

left winger 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. ...

Club career

Early career

Matumona arrived at the

AS Vita Club Association Sportive Vita Club, more commonly known as AS Vita Club, AS V. Club or simply Vita Club, is a Congolese professional football club based in Kinshasa. History AS Vita Club was founded in 1935 by Honoré Essabe under the name of ''Rena ...

of Kinshasa, one of the biggest clubs in the DR Congo, after spending a season at Styles of Congo, a second division club. He quickly became the darling of the fans club green and black that call him "Room" in reference to his game comparable to the German player,

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Karl-Heinz "Kalle" Rummenigge (; born 25 September 1955) is a German football executive and former professional player. Considered as one of the best players of his generation and one of the greatest German footballers ever, he was also the longt ...

. He spent five seasons, won a championship of the Congo, several league titles Kinshasa, he participated in the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

and the

CAF Cup The CAF Cup was an annual competition organised by the CAF for domestic leagues runners-up of member associations who have not qualified to one of the two pre-existing CAF international club competitions the African Cup of Champions Clubs or t ...

with his club. He also wins the award for best player of Congo several times before leaving the club.

Brussels

Matumona landed at

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 ...

in 2007 for a sum of

€ 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 ...

60,000. Matumona walked out of FC Brussels on 2 November 2007 after he accused club chairman Johan Vermeersch of making racist remarks towards him during a crisis meeting at the struggling club. Vermeersch was reported to have told Matumona to "think about other things than trees and bananas". The incident also prompted the club's main sponsor, Korean car manufacturer

Kia Kia Corporation (, formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry (京城精密工業) and Kia Motors Corporation) is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second larges ...

, to withdraw their sponsorship of the Belgian side. But he terminated his contract unilaterally with the club following the racist remarks against him by the President. According to the player's lawyer, Johan Vermeersch had rebuked Matumona and had explained that he "was not in his country and had to forget trees and bananas" in the presence of staff and other players. The lawyer confirms his statements but said it was "a joke". Although on 7 November Matumona agreed to return to FC Brussels after talks with Vermeesch, Kia still refused to renew their contract with the club. He eventually resumed his contract binding him to the club until 2009 after a meeting with the president who publicly apologized for his remarks. Matumona later attracted interest from England. After visa problems initially delayed his trial with

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

, he trained with the club during the 2007–08 season and joined their July 2008 pre-season tour, where he impressed manager

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps f ...

in a 3–1 victory over Czech side

FC Viktoria Plzeň Football Club Viktoria Plzeň () is a Czech professional Association football, football club based in Plzeň. It plays in the Czech First League, the top division of football in the country. As runner-up in the 1970–71 Czechoslovak Cup, the c ...

Mons

Matumona subsequently committed to

Mons Mons commonly refers to: * Mons, Belgium, a city in Belgium * Mons pubis (mons Venus or mons veneris), in mammalian anatomy, the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone * Mons (planetary nomenclature), a sizable extraterrestrial mountain * Batt ...

, a second division club where the coach Rudi Cossey decided to incorporate it within its nucleus for the 2009–10 season.

International career

Matumona made his international debut on 20 August 2002 vs

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

in a 1–1 draw. He scored his first international goal on 5 June 2005 vs

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

when

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. won 4–0.

Career statistics

International

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Stade des Martyrs The Pentacost Martyrs Stadium (French language, French: ''Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecôte'') (formerly known as Stade Kamanyola), or commonly referred to as the Stade des Martyrs, is a List of national stadiums, national multi-purpose stadium ...

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...

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2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America ...

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Konkola Stadium Konkola Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Chililabombwe, Zambia. Built in the 1950s, it is currently used mostly for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball ...

Chililabombwe Chililabombwe (formerly named Bancroft) is a small town in Copperbelt Province, Zambia. It is located near the Democratic Republic of the Congo border. The name Chililabombwe means 'place of the croaking frog' in the local language of Lamba. The ...

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Independence Stadium Independence Stadium may also refer to: * Independence Stadium (Bakau) in Gambia * Independence Stadium (Namibia) in Windhoek * Independence Stadium (South Africa) in Mthatha, a List of football stadiums in South Africa, football stadium in South A ...

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

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2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oc ...

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El Hadj Hassan Gouled Aptidon Stadium The El Hadj Hassan Gouled Aptidon Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Djibouti City, Djibouti. It is currently reserved mostly for football matches. The stadium has a capacity of hosting up to 20,000http://www.udj-djibouti.com/dji/index.php?option=co ...

Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and Jibuti in early Western texts) is the capital city of the Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti. It is located in the coastal Djibouti Region on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti has a population of around 780,000 ...

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Cairo International Stadium The Cairo International Stadium (), formerly known as Nasser Stadium, is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. The architect of the stadium is the German Werner March, who designed the Olympiastadion (Berli ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

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2012 African Cup of Nations qualification 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

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References

{{Reflist

External links

* {{NFT, 11775 {{Navboxes , title= DR Congo squads , bg = #007fff , fg = #f7d618 , bordercolor = #ce1021 , list1= {{DR Congo squad 2006 Africa Cup of Nations {{DR Congo squad 2013 Africa Cup of Nations {{DEFAULTSORT:Matumona, Zola 1981 births Living people Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers Men's association football wingers 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2013 Africa Cup of Nations players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players AS Vita Club players R.W.D.M. Brussels F.C. players C.D. Primeiro de Agosto players R.A.E.C. Mons (1910) players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Angola Expatriate men's footballers in Angola Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo sportsmen