Aaron Leya Iseka (born 15 November 1997) 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 le ...

who plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for Turkish club Adanaspor on loan from

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

. He made his professional debut at

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

, and also represented

Zulte Waregem Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem (), commonly known as Zulte Waregem or by their nickname Essevee (), is a Belgian professional football club based in Waregem, West Flanders. Zulte Waregem plays in the Belgian First Division A. Their highest finish a ...

in the

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

. He featured for several years in the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

with

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

and

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

, and also played second-tier football in England and Turkey.

Club career

Anderlecht

Leya Iseka is a youth exponent from

. In the

2013–14 UEFA Youth League The 2013–14 UEFA Youth League was the first season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. It was contested by the under-19 youth teams of the 32 clubs qualified for the group stage of the 2013–14 ...

, aged 15 in an under-19 tournament, he scored four goals in six games of a group-stage elimination, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

on 3 October in a 4–2 home win over

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

. The following season, he scored nine times in seven UEFA Youth League games, second only to Chelsea's

Dominic Solanke Dominic Ayodele Solanke-Mitchell (born 14 September 1997), known as Dominic Solanke, is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for side AFC Bournemouth. Solanke started his career with Chelsea, making his first-team debut in ...

. This included another hat-trick on 18 March 2015 in a 5–0 home win over

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

in the quarter-finals. That same month, he was given his first professional contract, for five years. He made his first team debut on 3 December 2014, in a Belgian Cup 7th-round game against

K.R.C. Mechelen K.R.C. Mechelen is a football in Belgium, Belgian association football club from Mechelen in the Antwerp (province), Antwerp province. It is a long-time rival of KV Mechelen. The club's best position ever is a second place in the Belgian First Di ...

, replacing

Cyriac Gohi Bi Zoro Cyriac Sede (born 15 August 1990), known mononymously as Cyriac, is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a forward. Club career In March 2004, Cyriac joined ASEC Mimosas. He was a topscorer of Côte d'Ivoire Premier Divi ...

after 75 minutes in a 4–1 home win. He scored his first goal on 21 January 2015 in the second leg of the quarter-finals, a 4–2 (7–2 aggregate) win over

. On 22 March he was an unused substitute in the 2015 Belgian Cup Final, a 2–1 loss to

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 29,062.

at the

King Baudouin Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in v ...

. He made nine appearances that season in the

, the first being on 18 January when he replaced Andy Najar for the last six minutes of a 3–0 win over

Lierse S.K. Koninklijke Lierse Sportkring (), often simply known as Lierse, was a Belgian professional football club from the city of Lier in the Antwerp province. Lierse have won four championship titles and two Belgian Cups. Lierse was one of the six Be ...

at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium.

Loans

On 23 July 2016, Leya Iseka joined

on a season-long loan, a month after his brother

Michy Batshuayi Michy Batshuayi-Atunga (born 2 October 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Belgium national team. Batshuayi began his professional career at Standard Liège in 2011, scorin ...

had left the club. However, he returned to Belgium at the start of January 2017 to find a new club he could be loaned out to, after Marseille announced they would not keep him; he was expected to join

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...

but nothing came of it. He did not score in nine total matches for ''OM'', but did feature and score more frequently for the reserves in CFA ( fourth tier). Leya Iseka was loaned to fellow top-flight team Zulte-Waregem for the season on 21 June 2017. On 22 July, he made his debut in the

2017 Belgian Super Cup The 2017 Belgian Super Cup was a football match that took place on 22 July 2017 between Anderlecht, winners of the 2016–17 Belgian First Division A and Zulte Waregem, winners of the 2016–17 Belgian Cup. For the first time in Belgian football, a ...

, a 2–1 loss to his parent club, replacing

Nill De Pauw Nill De Pauw (, born 6 January 1990) is a Congolese professional footballer who plays as a winger. A former youth international for Belgium, De Pauw represents the DR Congo national team. International career De Pauw was born in the Democratic ...

for the final 11 minutes. He scored his first goal in a professional league on 5 August, a penalty in a 2–0 home win over Sint-Truidense. In the club's

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

campaign, he scored twice in five matches, including a late winner in a 3–2 victory over

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

at the

Regenboogstadion The Elindus Arena, formerly named the Regenboogstadion, () is a stadium in Waregem, Belgium. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home ground of S.V. Zulte-Waregem. ''Regenboogstadion'' is Dutch language, ...

Toulouse

On 29 June 2018, Iseka returned to Ligue 1, joining

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

for four seasons. He made his debut on 10 August in the season opener away to his former club Marseille, playing the full 90 minutes of a 4–0 loss at the

Stade Vélodrome The Stade Vélodrome (; oc, Estadi Velodròm, ), known as the Orange Vélodrome for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, ...

. Nine days later he scored his first goal for the club to open a 2–1 win over

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

at the

Stadium de Toulouse Stadium de Toulouse is the largest multi-purpose stadium in Toulouse, France. It is currently used mostly for football matches, mainly those of the Toulouse Football Club, as well as rugby matches for Stade Toulousain in the European Rugby Champ ...

. On 30 September, he was sent off in the first half of a 1–1 draw at

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

for dissent, and suspended for three matches. On 29 October 2020, Leya Iseka was loaned to fellow top-flight team

for the season.

Barnsley

Iseka signed for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

on 2 August 2021 on a four-year deal, for an undisclosed fee. He scored three goals in 37 games in his first season, which ended in relegation. Having played only once at the start of the new campaign under manager Michael Duff, who criticised his attitude to training, he joined Adanaspor in the

TFF First League The TFF 1. Lig, officially known as Spor Toto 1. Lig for sponsorship reasons, is the second level of the Turkish football league system. The league was founded in 2001 as the ''Turkish Second League Category A'' after the reorganization of the ...

on 8 September 2022.

Personal life

Leya Iseka is the younger brother of Belgian international striker

, but bears the surname of their mother rather than their father. Aged 12, he suffered from Osgood–Schlatter disease, which affects the knee in adolescence, and had to take a break from football for several months.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leya Iseka, Aaron 1997 births Footballers from Brussels Belgian people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Black Belgian sportspeople Living people Belgian footballers Belgium under-21 international footballers Association football forwards R.S.C. Anderlecht players Olympique de Marseille players S.V. Zulte Waregem players Toulouse FC players FC Metz players Barnsley F.C. players Adanaspor footballers Belgian Pro League players Ligue 1 players Championnat National 2 players Ligue 2 players English Football League players TFF First League players Belgian expatriate footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Belgian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey