Enock Mwepu (born 1 January 1998) is a Zambian former 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 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 ...

. Having begun his career in his native Zambia, Mwepu signed for Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg in 2017 before moving

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

in 2021. Mwepu represented and captained the Zambia national team. On 10 October 2022, he was forced to retire following the discovery of a hereditary heart condition.

Club career

Early career

Mwepu's career began with Kafue Celtic in Lusaka before being identified with the 2013 Airtel Rising Stars. During the 2015–16 season, Mwepu had little game time with Power Dynamos football club of Copperbelt; this precipitated into a move to NAPSA Stars at the end of the 2016 season.

Salzburg and loan to Liefering

In June 2017, Mwepu joined Red Bull Salzburg and was loaned out to Salzburg's feeder club Liefering who play in

Austrian Football First League The Austrian Football Second League (german: 2. Liga) is the second-highest professional division in Austrian football. It was formerly called the First League (''Erste Liga''), from 2002 to 2018. The division currently contains 16 teams, and t ...

. During the 2019–20 season, Mwepu established himself amongst Salzburg's starting eleven. He made his debut in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

during a 4–3 loss to

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 popul ...

at Anfield. On 18 December 2019, Mwepu extended his contract with Salzburg until summer 2024.

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 6 July 2021, he joined

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 Foo ...

side

on a four-year contract, for an undisclosed fee. He scored in a 3–1 pre-season friendly win at

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

on 31 July. He made his competitive ''Albion'' debut on 14 August in the opening game of the 2021–22 season away at

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

where he was replaced by

Adam Lallana Adam David Lallana ( ; born 10 May 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club Brighton & Hove Albion. Lallana began his youth career with AFC Bournemouth before transferring to Southampton in 200 ...

at half time of the eventual 2–1 victory at Turf Moor. On 24 August, Mwepu assisted Jakub Moder's first ''Albion'' goal in the second round EFL Cup away fixture at

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 ...

where ''Albion'' won 2–0. He scored his first goal for ''The Seagulls'' on 27 October, putting them back level to 2–2 in an eventual penalty shootout loss – in which his penalty was saved – away at Leicester City in the EFL Cup. Three days later, he scored his first league goal for the Sussex side, inspiring Brighton's come back with a stunning 25–yard strike in an eventual 2–2 away draw against

. Mwepu had a slow start to 2022 and in general to his time in Sussex due to injury and illness, thus had limited playing time. On his first start since his return from injury Mwepu scored and made an assist for Trossard's opener in the 2–1 away win at

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 9 April, to help Brighton end their seven match run without a victory.

Graham Potter Graham Stephen Potter (born 20 May 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of club Chelsea. In a 13-year playing career, Potter, who played as a left-back, made 307 appearances in the ...

spoke that Mwepu has a "slight injury in his groin which probably means that will be him for the rest of the season," after picking up the knock during the 3–0 away victory at

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

on 30 April. His debut season with ''The Seagulls'' was marred by injuries though he had made a positive impact and at the club's end of season awards Mwepu won Goal of the Season for his strike at Liverpool in October. Mwepu managed to recover in time to appear as a substitute in the last game of the season, a 3–1 home victory over

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

, with Brighton achieving their highest top flight finish in ninth place. On 10 October 2022, Mwepu retired from professional football at the age of 24 after being diagnosed with a rare hereditary heart condition.

International career

In 2014 Mwepu was part of the Zambia national under-17 team that represented the country at the

2015 African U-17 Championship The 2015 African U-17 Championship was the 11th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below. The tournament took place in Niamey, Niger, and ...

, where Zambia played

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesNigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

from group A. Mwepu is known for his versatility in the field of play as demonstrated at the 2017 Under-20

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 ...

in Zambia, where he scored a goal and was among the best substitutes of the tournament. Mwepu scored his first international goal for

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

in an AFCON Qualifier against

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

on 2 September 2017 at the

National Heroes Stadium Heroes National Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Lusaka, Lusaka Province, Zambia. It is currently used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of the Zambia national football team. The stadium holds 60,000 spectators. It op ...

in Lusaka, a match which Zambia won 3–1.

Coaching career

After retiring from professional football due to his heart condition, Brighton announced on 30 December that Mwepu had been appointed to serve in the role of under-9s coach in their academy from January 2023.

Personal life

His younger brother Francisco Mwepu is also a professional footballer. In January 2023, it was confirmed that Mwepu was in hospital in Zambia after a suspected heart attack, coming just a few months after being forced to retire from football due to a hereditary heart condition. Brighton announced he was receiving precautionary checks as a result.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Zambia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mwepu goal''.

Honours

Red Bull Salzburg *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20,

2020–21 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 ...

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

: 2018–19, 2019–20,

Zambia U20 *

Africa U-20 Cup of Nations The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations also called TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsoring reason (previously known as the African Youth Championship or the African U-20 Championship) is the main international youth football competition ...

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 ...

* COSAFA U-20 Cup:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Individual * Austrian Bundesliga Team of the Year:

Goal of the Season: 2021–22

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mwepu, Enock 1998 births Living people Footballers from Lusaka Zambian men's footballers Zambia men's youth international footballers Zambia men's under-20 international footballers Zambia men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders NAPSA Stars F.C. players Austrian Football Bundesliga players FC Red Bull Salzburg players 2. Liga (Austria) players FC Liefering players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Premier League players Zambian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in England Zambian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Zambian expatriate sportspeople in England Association football coaches Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. non-playing staff