Basaula Lemba (born 3 March 1965) is a Congolese retired

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 played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Almost his entire professional career was spent in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, mainly with

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

Club career

Born in

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

, Lemba arrived in Portugal at the age of 21, signing with

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, commonly known as Vitória de Guimarães, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top-flight of football in Portugal. Vitória de Guimarães have finished t ...

from

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

but having absolutely no impact in his first season – seven matches. He spent the following three campaigns also in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

, representing O Elvas C.A.D. and C.F. Estrela da Amadora. Basaula – called by his first name whilst in Portugal – re-joined Vitória in 1990, becoming an important midfield element at the Minho club and sharing teams with countryman N'Dinga Mbote during his spell. In January 1995 he left for another side in the country,

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

, switching to F.C. Tirsense shortly after. After one year in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

with

Moreirense F.C. Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

he moved to the lower leagues, representing two teams in the fourth level until his retirement at the age of 35.

International career

Lemba played for

at the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and 1994 editions of the

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

, with both tournaments ending in quarter-final exits.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemba, Basaula 1965 births Living people Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Association football midfielders AS Vita Club players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Vitória S.C. players O Elvas C.A.D. players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players C.F. Os Belenenses players F.C. Tirsense players Moreirense F.C. players União Montemor players Democratic Republic of the Congo international footballers 1988 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players 1994 African Cup of Nations players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people