Clinton Mua N'Jie (born 15 August 1993) is a Cameroonian 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 ...

who plays for

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club

Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as Demir Grup Sivasspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish sports club based in Sivas. The primary department of the club is men's football. Formed in 1967, its football department competes in Süper Lig, as of 201 ...

and the Cameroon national team. He is known for his pace and dribbling skills. He started his career with

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, going up all the way from the youth program to the B squad and ultimately in the club's top tier squad in the French Ligue 1, before moving to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

of the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, and then back to Ligue 1 side

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 Fra ...

before moving to his current club. N'Jie made his senior international debut for Cameroon in 2014 and represented the nation at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

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, winning the 2017 tournament and finishing third in the 2021 tournament.

Club career

Lyon

N'Jie arrived at

during the summer of 2011. He joined the under-19 squad and quickly progressed to the reserve squad along with

Anthony Martial Anthony Jordan Martial (; born 5 December 1995) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester United and the France national team. After playing youth football for Les Ulis, Martial began his ...

and

Nabil Fekir Nabil Fekir (born 18 July 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for La Liga club Real Betis and the France national team. An academy graduate of Lyon, he was promoted to the senior squad in July 2013. F ...

, playing in the French 4th division. He played his first professional match during the 2012–13 season against Stade de Reims in a 3–0 win. N'Jie scored his first professional goal against

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; german: Jungbunzlau) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 42,000 inhabitants. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region and a major centre of the Czech automotive in ...

in the third qualifying round of the

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Europa League Final was ...

, helping his team to a 2–1 victory. On 13 August, he scored his first Ligue 1 goal in a 4–0 victory against

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

. Earlier that day, he signed a three-year contract extension with Lyon through to 2019. Having been shortlisted for the 2014 CAF Most Promising Talent of the Year, N'Jie lost out to

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 ...

and

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

midfielder

Yacine Brahimi Yacine Nasreddine Brahimi (born 8 February 1990) is a professional footballer who plays for and captains the Qatari club Al-Gharafa and the Algeria national team. He plays as an attacking midfielder and a winger and is described as "technical ...

. He finished his first full season at Lyon with eight goals and seven assists in 33 appearances, despite only starting half of his 30 league games, as he was the third piece of the Lyon attacking line, with

and

Alexandre Lacazette Alexandre Lacazette (born 28 May 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for and is the captain of club Lyon. He plays mainly as a striker but has also been deployed as a second striker and wide forward. Lacazette ...

. N'Jie also finished the season with a 73% shot-on-target ratio, second to only to

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

, who ended the campaign on 74%.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 15 August 2015, English side

announced that the club had reached an agreement for the signing of N'Jie from Lyon, subject to international clearance and a work permit. N'Jie agreed to a five-year contract with a reported transfer fee of €12 million (£8.3 million). N'Jie made his Spurs debut on 17 September in a

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 ...

group stage match against Qarabağ, coming on as a substitute for

Andros Townsend Andros Darryl Townsend (born 16 July 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Everton. A graduate of the Tottenham Hotspur academy, Townsend was initially loaned out to several League One and then Champions ...

. On 10 December 2015, he tore his

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint in humans and other primates. Its primary function is to resist outwar ...

(MCL) after a challenge by

Jérémy Toulalan Jérémy Toulalan (born 10 September 1983) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, but was also utilized as a central defender. He is best known for his humble demeanor, simple distribution, good techniqu ...

during a Europa League group stage match against

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. He had to undergo knee surgery for the MCL tear and was expected to out of action for at least 1–2 months, and possibly longer. Working with injured teammate

Jan Vertonghen Jan Bert Lieve Vertonghen (born 24 April 1987) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays for Belgian club Anderlecht and the Belgium national team. Mainly a central defender, he can also play as a left-back. Vertonghen began his senior car ...

during his recovery, N'Jie eventually made his return on 8 May 2016 in a Premier League match against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, in what would be his final appearance of the season. N'Jie made 8 appearances (all of them as a substitute) for Tottenham in the Premier League, his longest a 79-minute affair when he replaced the injured

Nacer Chadli Nacer Chadli (born 2 August 1989) is a Belgian professional footballer who currently plays as a winger for Belgian First Division A club K.V.C. Westerlo on loan from Turkish Super Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir and the Belgium national footbal ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. In addition, N'Jie made 5 appearances, starting in 2 of them, in Tottenham's Europa League campaign, and did not score a goal in all competitions.

Marseille

On 31 August 2016, N'Jie returned to Ligue 1, joining

on a season-long loan deal. Marseille had a €7 million option to buy him at the end of the loan, and

Georges-Kévin Nkoudou Georges-Kévin Nkoudou Mbida (; born 13 February 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Süper Lig club Beşiktaş. Born in France, he represents the Cameroon national team. Club career France He made his Ligue 1 debut ...

headed to

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

on a permanent move in the opposite direction. On 11 September, he made his debut as a substitute for William Vainqueur in the 68th minute away to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, and he scored his first goal two weeks later to equalise in a 2–1 home win against Nantes. On 16 July 2017, N'Jie made his move to Marseille permanent, signing for an undisclosed fee. On 6 August, in the season opener against

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, he came on at half time for injured captain

Dimitri Payet Dimitri Payet (; born 29 March 1987) is a French professional footballer who plays for Ligue 1 club Marseille. A set-piece specialist, known for his accurate, bending free kicks, he primarily plays as an attacking midfielder, and is described a ...

and scored two goals in a 3–0 win. On 17 September, he scored both the goals in the away win over

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

. On 3 May 2018, he played in the Europa League semi-finals away to FC Red Bull Salzburg as Marseille played out a 2–1 away loss but a 3–2 aggregate win to secure a place in the

2018 UEFA Europa League Final The 2018 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, the 47th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Eu ...

Dynamo Moscow

On 25 July 2019, N'Jie signed a four-year contract with

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

club

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

. He scored his first goal for Dynamo on 27 October 2019, a late winner in a 1–0 victory over

PFC CSKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (russian: link=yes, Профессиональный футбольный клуб – ЦСКА, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English: ...

. N'Jie left Dynamo by mutual consent on 5 July 2022.

Sivasspor

On 29 July 2022, N'Jie signed with Sivasspor on a two-year contract.

International career

N'Jie scored 44 minutes into his

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

debut against the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

on 6 September 2014, and followed this up four days later by scoring twice in a 4–1 victory over Ivory Coast at the

Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Yaoundé, Cameroon. It is used mostly for football matches and it also has athletics facilities. It was built in 1972. The stadium has been renovated in 2016 ahead of the African Women Cup ...

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

, Cameroon. He was named in the squad for the

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...

and played in one group stage match, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute in a 1–0 loss to Ivory Coast. He won the

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

. On Thursday, 3 February 2022, Clinton N'Jie would miss the last penalty against Egypt that would ultimately put Cameroon out of the

2021 Africa Cup of Nations The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2021 or CAN 2021), known as the TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's foo ...

and help Egypt secure a spot in the final against Senegal.

Style of play

N'Jie is a pacy forward who likes to play on the shoulder of the last defender, just off the front man. He can also play off the wing, and as dribbling is a key attribute of his game, he likes to take on players when given the chance. He frequently draws comparisons to Cameroon's all-time leading scorer and compatriot

Samuel Eto'o Samuel Eto'o Fils (; born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian football administrator and former player who is the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation from 11 December 2021. In his prime, Eto'o was regarded by pundits as one of ...

, with this comparison being asserted by Lyon chairman

Jean-Michel Aulas Jean-Michel Antoine Aulas (born 22 March 1949) is a French businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Cegid (Compagnie Européenne de Gestion par l'Informatique Décentralisée) and serves as the owner and president of French football club Olym ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Score and result list Cameroon's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Lyon * Coupe de la Ligue runner-up: 2013–14 Marseille *

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. ...

runner-up: 2017–18

International

Cameroon * Africa Cup of Nations:

* Africa Cup of Nations third place:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:N'Jie, Clinton 1993 births Living people People from Buea Cameroonian footballers Olympique Lyonnais players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Olympique de Marseille players FC Dynamo Moscow players Sivasspor footballers Ligue 1 players Premier League players Russian Premier League players Süper Lig players Cameroon international footballers Association football forwards Cameroonian expatriate footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Russia Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Turkey Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players N'Jie 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players