Igor Engonga Noval (born 4 January 1995), simply known as Igor, is a Spanish-born Equatorial Guinean 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 Liga Nacional club Futuro Kings FC and the Equatorial Guinea national team. Mainly a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, he can also play as a

central 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 ...

Club career

Born in

Santander, Cantabria Santander () is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. It is a port city located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao with a population of 172,000 (2017). It is believed to ...

, Engonga graduated from

Gimnástica de Torrelavega Real Sociedad Gimnástica de Torrelavega is a Spanish football team based in Torrelavega, in the autonomous community of Cantabria. Founded on 28 September 1907 it is the oldest football club in the region, and currently plays in Tercera Divisi ...

's youth setup. He made his senior debuts in the 2012–13 campaign, being relegated from

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

. On 13 December 2013 Engonga joined

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues ...

, being assigned to the ''Juvenil'' squad. On 7 August 2014 he joined third-tier

CD Tropezón Club Deportivo Tropezón is a football team based in Tanos, Torrelavega in the autonomous community of Cantabria. Founded in 1983, it plays in the Segunda División RFEF – Group 2. Its stadium is '' Santa Ana'' with a capacity of 1,500 seats ...

, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long loan deal. On 31 July 2015, Engonga moved to

Club Portugalete Club Portugalete is a Spanish football team based in Portugalete, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1909, it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 4, holding home games at ''Estadio La Florida'', with a capacity of 5 ...

also in the third division. The following 16 July, he signed for

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

club

UD Almería B Unión Deportiva Almería "B" is a Spanish football team based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 2001, it is the reserve team of UD Almería and currently plays in Tercera Federación – Group 9, holding home game ...

. In August 2019, Engonga joined Greek Super League Two club Doxa Drama FC.

International career

Engonga's paternal grandfather, Vicente Engonga Nguema, was born in Bisabat,

Kié-Ntem Kié-Ntem is a province of Equatorial Guinea. Its capital is Ebebiyín. Kié-Ntem borders the following country subdivisions: * South Region, Cameroon - north *Woleu-Ntem Province, Gabon - east * Wele-Nzas, Equatorial Guinea - south * Centro Su ...

, making him eligible to both Equatorial Guinea and Spain. On 7 January 2015 Engonga made his full international debut, coming on as a substitute in a 1–1 friendly draw against

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

. A day later, he was included in Esteban Becker's 23-man list 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 ...

, but did not play at the tournament, in which his country finished fourth on home soil. Engonga scored his first goal for Equatorial Guinea on 6 June 2015, the only goal in the 17th minute to win an away friendly against

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

International goals

Personal life

Igor is the son of former Equatorial Guinea national coach Óscar Engonga and the nephew of former Spanish international footballer

Vicente Engonga Vicente Engonga Maté (born 20 October 1965) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played mainly as a central midfielder but occasionally as a sweeper. He played for six clubs in his career, having his longest and most successful sp ...

Statistics

International

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Engonga, Igor 1995 births Living people Citizens of Equatorial Guinea through descent Equatoguinean footballers Association football central defenders Super League Greece 2 players Doxa Drama F.C. players Futuro Kings FC players Equatorial Guinea international footballers 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players Equatoguinean sportspeople of Spanish descent Equatoguinean expatriate footballers Equatoguinean expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece Spanish footballers Footballers from Santander, Spain Segunda División B players CD Tropezón players Gimnástica de Torrelavega footballers Tercera División players UD Almería B players Spanish sportspeople of Equatoguinean descent Spanish expatriate footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Club Portugalete players