Irvin Charly Jose Cardona (born 8 August 1997) is a French 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 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 ...

or winger for

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

club

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

, on loan from club

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

Club career

Monaco

Cardona made his professional debut on 2 February 2017 in the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

Round of 32 against

FC Chambly Football Club Chambly Oise, commonly known as Chambly, is a French football club based in Chambly in the Hauts-de-France region. Their home stadium is the Stade des Marais in the town, and they compete in the Championnat National 2, the fourth ...

. He replaced

Pierre-Daniel N'Guinda Pierre-Daniel N'Guinda N'Diffon (born 18 June 1996) is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for French club Le Mans. Club career N'Guinda made his professional debut on 2 February 2017 in the Coupe de France round of ...

after 78 minutes in a 5–4 away win. He made his

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

debut ten days later coming on for

Radamel Falcao Radamel Falcao García Zárate (born 10 February 1986) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Rayo Vallecano and often captains the Colombia national team. Nicknamed "''El Tigre''" (Spanish for ''The Tige ...

to play the last 9 minutes of a 5–0 home thrashing of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

Cercle Brugge (loan)

On 18 July 2017, Cardona extended his Monaco contract until 2021 and was immediately loaned to the club's Belgian satellite club

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season, having previously spent several years in the Belgian Second Divisio ...

for the following season. Although he missed a couple of weeks by an injury, he still was a major key player in the team that became champion of the

2017–18 Belgian First Division B The 2017–18 season of the Belgian First Division B began in August 2017 and ended in April 2018. It was the second season of the First Division B following a change in league format from the old Belgian Second Division. The fixtures were announ ...

. He scored an important penalty in the last minute in the champion's game against Beerschot-Wilrijk. He was voted second best player in the league, after teammate

Xavier Mercier Xavier Jacques Mercier (born 25 July 1989) is a French professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for RWDM. He has previously represented Lesquin, Guingamp (for whom he made seven appearances in Ligue 2), Beauvais, KV Kortr ...

Brest

On 12 August 2019, Cardona signed with Ligue 1 promotees

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

. On 13 September 2020, he scored an acrobatic volley goal in a 2–0 away win over

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 ...

which was described as a " Puskás Award contender."

Augsburg

On 18 January 2023, Cardona signed a contract with German club

until 30 June 2027.

Saint-Étienne (loan)

On 3 January 2024, Cardona returned to France, joining

club

on loan with an option-to-buy.

Personal life

Born in France, Cardona is of Maltese descent.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Monaco *

: 2016–17 Cercle Brugge *

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

: 2017–18

References

External links

* * * 1997 births Living people French people of Maltese descent French men's footballers Footballers from Nîmes Men's association football forwards France men's youth international footballers Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National 3 players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players AS Monaco FC players Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players Stade Brestois 29 players FC Augsburg players FC Augsburg II players AS Saint-Étienne players French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany {{France-footy-forward-1990s-stub