Blaise Lelo Mbele (born 10 August 1987) is a Congolese former professional footballer who played as a striker. Lelo played for different professional clubs such as South African club Orlando Pirates and Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal FC.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Blaise Lelo Mbele | ||
| Date of birth | 10 August 1987 | ||
| Place of birth | Kalemie, Zaire[1] | ||
| Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2003–2004 | AS Vita Club | 32 | (19) |
| 2004–2005 | Zulu Royals | 29 | (7) |
| 2005–2007 | Orlando Pirates | 31 | (7) |
| 2007 | CS Sfaxien | ||
| 2007–2008 | Al-Hilal | 7 | (2) |
| 2008–2009 | Espérance | 1 | (0) |
| 2009–2010 | Al-Hilal Omdurman | ||
| 2010–2011 | Al-Nasr Benghazi | ||
| 2011 | Al-Nasr | ||
| 2011 | Şanlıurfaspor | ||
| 2011–2012 | Selangor FA | 0 | (0) |
| 2012–2014 | MC Alger | 5 | (0) |
| 2012–2013 | → CA Batna (loan) | 4 | (0) |
| 2014–2015 | Petro Atlético | 4 | (0) |
| 2015–2016 | DC Motema Pembe | 15 | (8) |
| 2016–2017 | Baf Ülkü Yurdu | 15 | (2) |
| 2017 | Gokulam Kerala | 3 | (0) |
| 2018 | Al-Ahli | ||
| International career | |||
| 2004–2013 | DR Congo | 13 | (1) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Club career edit
Mbele helped CS Sfaxien win the CAF Confederation Cup.
On 29 November 2007, Mbele signed with Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia for a fee of $25000 per month to the player and $1.2M to his former club.[citation needed]
He made his Saudi Premier League debut for Al Hilal in a 1–0 away win over Al Watani on 5 December 2007. His first goal for Al Hilal came in a 2–0 victory against Al Ittifaq on 10 December 2007.
In 2008, he joined Tunisian side Espérance.
In January 2009, Mbele signed with Sudanese club Al-Hilal for $1 million deal on a three-year contract. The player's agent cited the financial strength and success of the Al-Hilal to be the favoring deciding factors that made Mbele choose the Sudanese club. He did not have a good season with Al Hilal so Al Nasr of Libya choose to buy him.[2]
On 12 July 2011, Mbele signed with Kuwaiti club Al Naser.[3] On 28 July 2011, Al Naser terminated their contract with Mbele after he ruptured a muscle.[4]
After being a free agent for four months, he eventually joined the Malaysian club, Selangor FA in a two-year contract alongside Lebanese international, Ramez Dayoub.[5][6] However, due to his injury, Lelo did not manage to play for any games with Selangor and later was released by the Football Association of Selangor.[7]
On 13 August 2012, Mbele signed for Algerian club MC Alger for a two-year contract.[8]
Bahrain became his fifteenth footballing country when he joined Al-Ahli Club.[1][9]
In 2017, Mbele moved to India after signing with newly formed I-League club Gokulam Kerala.[10]
International career edit
Mbele was a member of the DR Congo national team at the 2006 African Nations Cup, which progressed to the quarter-finals, where it were eliminated by Egypt, which won the tournament.
References edit
- ^ a b c Lelo Mbele at National-Football-Teams.com
- ^ "Lelo-Mbele in the money again". kickoff.com. 3 March 2009. Archived from the original on 9 April 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
- ^ "الصفحة غير موجودة – Alraimedia.com". alraimedia.com (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ^ "العدواني لـ الأنباء النصر يفسخ عقد الكونغولي أمبيولي". alanba.com.kw (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
- ^ "Mbele, Dayoub perkuat Gergasi Merah" (in Malay). 6 December 2011. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
- ^ "Merah Kuning ambil risiko" (in Malay). 7 January 2012. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012.
- ^ "Selangor give Congo flop the axe". Football Every Day. The Star. Malaysia. 20 January 2012. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
- ^ "MCA : Blaise Lelo Mbele débarque à Alger". competition.dz. 14 August 2012. Archived from the original on 16 August 2012.
- ^ "TBT: Blaise Lelo Mbele, Pirates' DRC Magician". Soccer Laduma.co.za. 28 November 2019. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
- ^ Kundu, Abhishek (23 January 2017). "I-League 2018-19: Gokulam FC rope in Haitian midfielder Fabien Vorbe". sportskeeda.com. Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2021.