Jordan Rolly Botaka (born 24 June 1993) 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 ...

. He represents DR Congo at international level. He formerly played for Club Brugge, Belenenses (on loan),

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The mun ...

, Gent, Charleroi and Fortuna Sittard. He has been nicknamed 'The Wizard' due to his quick feet, trickery and skill with the ball.

Career

Botaka was born in Kinshasa, the son of Congolese parents, Botaka started his career at Dutch side Westlandia and ADO Den Haag, before his parents moved to Antwerp where Botaka joined the academies of Anderlecht,

Beveren Beveren () is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders which comprises the towns of Beveren, Doel, Haasdonk, Kallo, Kieldrecht, Melsele, Verrebroek and Vrasene. The port of the Waasland (Dutch: ''Waaslandhaven'') is in Beveren ...

and

KSC Lokeren Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (; often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren) was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but ce ...

. He also has a Dutch passport.

Club Brugge

Following vague interest by Newcastle United, Botaka joined Club Brugge from Lokeren on 23 January 2012, a 2 and half year contract. Botaka spent the whole year at the club, playing in the club's reserve. To help gain first team experience, Botaka joined Portuguese Belenenses on loan in 2013, where Mitchell van der Gaag was Manager. The club also stipulated an option to buy Botaka on a permanent deal. However, due to an administrative error, Botaka could not play official matches for the club.

Excelsior

After his spell in Portugal, Botaka was released to Club Brugge and joined

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

on trial but due to Feyenoord's close links with feeder club

, Botaka went on trial for the side in June 2013. After impressing the club's management during his four weeks trial there, he joined the then

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 t ...

side Excelsior on 27 July 2013. Botaka made his Excelsior debut in the opening game of the season on 2 August 2013, where he started the whole game, in a 2–2 draw against

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport is a professional association football club based in the city of Helmond, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. The club was founded on 27 June 1967, as ...

. He then scored his first goals for the side on 6 October 2013, in a 3–1 win over Jong Ajax. After missing out one game, due to illness, he returned from injury and then scored again on 25 October 2013, in a 3–1 win over FC Eindhoven. After ending his three months goal drought, Botaka went on a goal-scoring spree between 14 February 2014 and 7 March 2014 against FC Eindhoven (twice),

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, followin ...

, Achilles '29 and

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; li, Fortuna Zitterd ) is a football club in Sittard, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger ...

. Shortly after, Botaka extended his contract with the club on 17 March 2014. In first season at the club during the 2013–14 season, the club was managed by head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson and then Marinus Dijkhuizen and went on to score 10 goals in 36 league games to earn Excelsior's promotion to Eredivisie after finishing 3rd and earning promotion via the Eerste Divisie playoffs. Amid to a transfer move to

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

in the summer transfer window, Botaka ended the speculation when he signed a two-year contract with the club, keeping him until 2016. At the start of the 2014–15 season, Botaka made his Eredivisie debut in the opening game of the season, in a 1–1 draw against NAC Breda. This was followed up by scoring in a 3–2 win over Go Ahead Eagles on 17 August 2014. Two months later, on 30 October 2014, he scored in the third round of the KNVB Beker, in a 3–0 win over WKE Emmen. At the end of the season 2014–15 season, Botaka made 33 appearances in

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 ...

scoring 1 goal and helped keep Excelsior in the Eredivisie, having missed one match over a thigh injury. In the summer transfer window of 2015, Botaka continued to be linked with a move away from Excelsior, with Swiss side

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Pl ...

interested in signing him. However, Botaka was not interested in a move to Sion and stayed there in the final months at Excelsior. Amid to the transfer move, Botaka made four appearances for the side.

Leeds United

On transfer deadline day 1 September 2015, Botaka signed for English club

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

on a two-year deal, with a club option for a further two years; the transfer fee was undisclosed but reported to be around £1 million. He was given the number 20 shirt for the 2015/16 season. On 27 September, Botaka made his Leeds United debut, starting for Leeds in a 3–0 loss against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. After originally becoming a bit part player at Leeds under new Head Coach Steve Evans, where Evans has questioned Botaka's work-rate, Botaka had impressed in training and came back into the team towards the end of the season with Evans saying that Leeds 'have a real player here' speaking of Botaka. On 24 April 2016, after gaining an assist for

Stuart Dallas Stuart Dallas (born 19 April 1991) is a Northern Irish professional Association football, footballer who plays for Premier League club Leeds United F.C., Leeds United and the Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland national team ...

in a 2–2 draw against Hull, on his return to form, Botaka credited his performances on to wanting to prove Evans earlier season criticism wrong. Ahead of the 2016–17 season, Botaka found his first team opportunity limited following the new management of

Garry Monk Garry Alan Monk (born 6 March 1979) is an English football manager and former professional player who played as a centre back, and was most recently the manager of Championship club Sheffield Wednesday. His managerial career includes spells at ...

. As a result, he was subjected to be linked with a move away from Leeds United. Botaka was released at the end of the 2016/17 season, following his loan at Charlton Athletic.

Charlton Athletic (loan)

On 11 August 2016, Botaka joined

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

on a season long loan. Botaka made his Charlton Athletic debut, coming on as a second-half substitute for Ricky Holmes, in a 1–1 draw against

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

on 13 August 2016. During a 1–0 loss 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 1 October 2016, he was subjected of boos from Charlton Athletic after coming on as a late substitute, with Manager

Russell Slade Russell Mark Slade (born 10 October 1960) is an English professional football manager, who was most recently managerial consultant of League Two club Stevenage. Having had an extended career at reserve team level, Slade entered professional ...

described it as “slightly disrespectful”. Although Botaka was out over an injury and international commitment by the end of the year, he then got his first start, playing the whole game, in a 0–0 draw against

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

on 10 December 2016. It wasn't until on 18 February 2017 when he scored in a 3–3 draw against Rochdale. He scored again on 4 March 2017, in a 2–1 loss against Northampton Town. Although he subsequently spent the most of the season on the substitute bench, Botaka went on to make a total of 29 appearances and scored 2 times.

Sint Truiden

After being released by Leeds United, Botaka returned to Belgium, signing for

, signing a three-year contract on 26 June 2017 before the start of the 2017–18 season. He previously went on trial with the side four years prior to the move. Botaka made his Sint Truiden debut in the opening game of the season, coming on as a second-half substitute for Samuel Asamoah, in a 3–2 win over

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

. In the third round of the Beker Van Belgie against Leuven on 19 September 2017, he scored his first goal for the club, in a 4–2 win.

Gent

After three season with Sint-Truiden, Botaka was signed by

in May 2020 on a four-year deal. In January 2021, he was sent on loan to Charleroi with an option to buy. Upon his return from loan, he was not registered by Gent on their squads for either Belgian First Division A or

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on thei ...

. He reportedly had talks during the summer of 2021 with Turkish clubs BB Erzurumspor and

Konyaspor Konyaspor Kulübü (, Konya Sports Club) is a Turkish professional football club based in Konya. They are better known as Konyaspor. In 1922 Konyaspor were founded with the name Konya Gençlerbirliği and have played at their current home stadium ...

, but the transfer did not happen and he remained on Gent's books. On 28 January 2022, he was loaned to

in the Netherlands until the end of the season. On 15 August 2022, Botaka was loaned to

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested b ...

club

Hapoel Jerusalem Hapoel Jerusalem is a sport organization in Jerusalem as a local branch of the Hapoel movement. The branch was established in the 1920s and represents the city in more sports than any other sport organization in Jerusalem. Today, the club's leadi ...

. He made his first appearance on August 20 in a league fixture against Hapoel Hadera F.C., in which he scored a goal in a 1-1 draw.

International career

After representing Netherlands U19 at international level in 2012, Bokata was selected by Dutch coach Wim Van Zwam for the DR Congo national team and Botaka accepted the call up to the country of his birth, making his debut for Congo against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

on 28 March 2015. On 9 June 2015, Botaka scored for DR Congo (and his first goal) in a 1–1 draw against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. On 12 October 2015, Botaka scored his second goal for DR Congo in a 2–1 victory against

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

, after scoring a rebound from Yannick Bolasie's shot. The following year, Botaka scored two more goals against

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 ...

and . Botaka was named in the

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

squad for DR Congo during the tournament in January 2017.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list DR Congo's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Botaka goal.''

References

External links