Joseph Elanga Fils (born 2 May 1979) is a Cameroonian 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 ...

who played as a defender. Starting off his career in Cameroon in the late 1990s, he went on to play professionally in Greece, Sweden, and Denmark before retiring in 2012. A full international between 1998 and 2002, he won 17

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Cameroon national team and represented his country at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

Elanga was born in

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

, Cameroon. After leaving the country in 1998 Elanga started his European career in Greece playing for PAOK and

Apollon Kalamarias Apollon Kalamarias (Greek: Απόλλων Καλαμαριάς) is a Greek sport's club from Thessaloniki founded in 1926. The club is named after Apollo, the mythical Greek god and its colors are red and black. History When thousands of Pontic ...

Malmö FF

After a year in each club Elanga left Greece in 2000 to transfer to Swedish club

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association ...

. He stayed at the club for six seasons, playing 130 league games and winning the Swedish championship in 2004.

Denmark

In 2005 Elanga left for Denmark and Brøndby IF. After a couple of tough seasons he went on loan at fellow Danish club AC Horsens. His contract with Brøndby ended in 2009 and Elanga became a free agent.

Return to Malmö and retirement

In early 2010, Elanga announced that he would be training with his old team

for a week, a few weeks later he signed a new contract with Malmö and returned to the club after four years. For the 2010 season Elanga had very limited playtime as he was only the second choice for the left back position behind Ricardinho, however he did get the chance to play for a couple of games in the beginning of the season when Ricardinho was injured and a few other games. In the end he played enough games to win his second Allsvenskan title with the club. Elanga's contract was not renewed and he moved to his family in

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them th ...

to find a new club to play for. On 9 January 2012, he announced his decision to end his playing career to focus on studying for a

UEFA Pro Licence UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, mandates several coaching licences for professional managers, each valid for coaching at a certain level. These include the UEFA Pro Licence, the UEFA A Licence, and the UEFA B Licence. They are is ...

and become a

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

International career

Elanga represented Cameroon national team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but did not play as Cameroon was eliminated after the group stage. He won a total of 17 caps for his country.

Personal life

Joseph Elanga is the father of

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

international Anthony Elanga who plays for Manchester United.

Honours

Malmö FF * Allsvenskan: 2004, 2010

Footnotes

External links

Joseph Elanga at Malmö FF
*
Danish league stats
at hvemvandt.dk * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elanga, Joseph Living people 1979 births Sportspeople from Yaoundé Association football defenders Association football wingers Cameroonian footballers Cameroon international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players PAOK FC players Apollon Pontou FC players Malmö FF players Brøndby IF players AC Horsens players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Danish Superliga players Cameroonian expatriate footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Sweden Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark