Jonathan Yula Okita (born 5 October 1996) is a Congolese 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 winger for Swiss club

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

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

Club career

Okita made his

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

debut for

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

on 17 April 2016 in a game against

Royal Excel Mouscron Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging between ...

NEC

On 24 August 2018, Okita signed a four-year contract with

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

club

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion fr ...

. Three days later, he made his debut for the club in the 2–1 away win over

Jong FC Utrecht Jong FC Utrecht (U23) is a Dutch football team, based in Utrecht. It is the reserve team of FC Utrecht and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2016–17 Eerste Divisie season. Current squad On loan Staff ...

. On 8 September, he scored his first goal for the club in the 3–2 away win against

Roda JC Kerkrade Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade (; Ripuarian: ), also known as Roda JC Kerkrade () or commonly Roda JC or Roda, is a Dutch professional football club based in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisie. ...

. In his first season, he impressed with NEC, scoring 15 goals and providing 13 assists in 41 appearances. The following season, Okita struggled with his form, but still managed to score six goals and provide seven assists in 28 games. He was set to leave the club in the summer of 2020, but partly due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

he stayed at the

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

-based club. As new head coach

Rogier Meijer Rogier Meijer (born 5 September 1981) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player, who is the head coach of Eredivisie club NEC. As a player, Meijer appeared his entire professional career for De Graafschap as a midfielder. In Ma ...

took over the reigns, Okita was again utilised in his attacking formation. On 23 May 2021, Okita won promotion to the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

with NEC by beating

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

2–1 in the final of the play-offs. Okita, who had once again gone through a mediocre season with four goals and four assists in 33 games, lived up in the play-offs. With four goals in three play-off games, including the matchwinner against NAC, he was a key player in the club's promotion. On 23 June 2022, Okita signed a three-year contract with

in Switzerland.

International career

Born in Germany, Okita is of Congolese descent. He debuted with the DR Congo national team in a 1–0

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tour ...

loss to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

on 10 October 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Okita, Jonathan Living people 1995 births Footballers from Cologne Men's association football forwards Citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo through descent Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers German men's footballers German sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Challenger Pro League players Belgian Pro League players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Royale Union Tubize-Braine players Standard Liège players K.S.V. Roeselare players Royale Union Saint-Gilloise players MVV Maastricht players NEC Nijmegen players FC Zürich players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland