Elias Kachunga (born 22 April 1992) is a 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 for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Born in Germany, Kachunga represents the DR Congo national team.

Early and personal life

Born in Haan, Germany, Kachunga has a Congolese father and a German mother.

Club career

Kachunga spent his early career in Germany with

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The cl ...

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

and

SC Paderborn Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest successes since the turn of the mille ...

. Following Paderborn's relegation, he moved to FC Ingolstadt 04 in June 2015. He was the club's record signing, at a transfer fee of €1.7 million. He signed a season-long loan deal with an option to buy at the end with English Championship club Huddersfield Town in June 2016. He made his debut for them on 6 August 2016, scoring the first goal in a 2–1 win over

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. On 22 March 2017, Huddersfield paid Ingolstadt £1.1 million to turn Kachunga's loan deal into a permanent transfer. In December 2017 he was ruled-out for three months due to injury. He was released by Huddersfield at the end of the 2019–20 season. On 2 September 2020, he was signed by

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

on a free transfer. He made his debut coming off the bench against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

on the opening day of the season. He scored his first goal for Wednesday in a 2-0

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

win against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on 15 September 2020. On 20 May 2021, it was announced that he would leave Sheffield Wednesday at the end of the season, following the expiry of his contract. On 6 August 2021, he signed for

. He made his debut a day later as a late substitute against Milton Keynes Dons and provided an assist for

Alex Baptiste Alexander Aaron John Baptiste (born 31 January 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for League of Ireland First Division side Waterford. Club career Mansfield Town Born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire ...

in the 95th minute, rescuing a point for Bolton in a 3–3 draw. His first Bolton goal came on 7 November in a 2–2 draw against Stockport County in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. On 2 April, he started in the 2023 EFL Trophy Final. He scored the third goal, with the Final against

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

eventually ending with a 4–0 Bolton win.

International career

Kachunga has represented Germany at all youth age levels from under-17 through to under-21. He debuted for the senior DR Congo national team in a friendly 2–1 loss to

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

on 26 March 2017.

Career statistics

Honours

;Huddersfield Town *

EFL Championship play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , t ...

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 ser ...

;Bolton Wanderers *

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kachunga, Elias 1992 births Living people People from Haan Sportspeople from Düsseldorf (region) Democratic Republic of the Congo people of German descent German sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo through descent Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers German footballers Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia Association football forwards Democratic Republic of the Congo international footballers Germany youth international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Premier League players English Football League players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Borussia Mönchengladbach II players VfL Osnabrück players Hertha BSC II players Hertha BSC players SC Paderborn 07 players FC Ingolstadt 04 players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate footballers German expatriate footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in England German expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England