Joseph Marie Minala (born 24 August 1996) is a Cameroonian 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

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 ...

for

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as BOV Premier League for sponsorship reasons with Bank of Valletta (colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Football Associa ...

club

Sliema Wanderers Sliema Wanderers Football Club, nicknamed "tax-Xelin" ( of the shilling), is a professional Maltese football club. It is the most successful team in Malta and hails from the seaside town of Sliema. It currently plays in the Maltese Premier Leag ...

Club career

Early career

Minala began playing for amateur club Vigor Perconti and attracted the attention of

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, who gave him a two-month trial. He was spotted by

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

scouts in 2013, while representing the region of Lazio in the Trofeo delle Regioni. He joined Lazio in the summer of 2013. In early 2014, Minala then made news when his age was publicly disputed by multiple parties. Both Lazio and the player denied the claims.Joseph Minala: Lazio respond to false age claims of teenager

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

, 13 February 2014 In May 2014, the

Italian FA The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

completed their investigation into the claims, confirming the accuracy of his given age and announcing that no disciplinary action would be taken against him or Lazio.

Lazio

Minala broke into Lazio's senior team on 16 March 2014, when he was an unused substitute in the match against

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

. He then made his full

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

debut on 6 April, replacing

Senad Lulić Senad Lulić (; born 18 January 1986) is a Bosnian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Lulić started his professional career at Chur 97, before joining Bellinzona in 2006. Two years later, he switched to Grasshoppers. I ...

for the last 13 minutes of a 2–0 home win against

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

. On 25 August 2014 Minala was loaned to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

side

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

for the 2014–15 season. On 13 December, as a 73rd-minute substitute for Marco Augusto Romizi, he scored his first career goal, the last-minute decider in an away victory over

Cittadella Cittadella ( vec, Sitadeła) is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around ...

. He scored two more goals, and was also sent off twice. Minala was again loaned to a Serie B team, Latina, on 6 July 2015. He made his debut on 9 August, starting in a 4–1 home defeat to

Lega Pro The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

team

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

in the first round of the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

. He scored his first goal for the team on 27 October, equalising in a 2–1 loss to

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A (in the 1972–73 and 1974–75 seas ...

at the Stadio Domenico Francioni. In January 2016, he rejoined Bari. On 21 January 2017, Minala joined Serie B side

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

on loan with an option to buy. Two years later, he returned to the same club on loan for the rest of the season. Minala signed with

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

club

Qingdao Huanghai Qingdao Football Club () was a professional Chinese football club that participated in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team was based in Qingdao and their home stadium was the Qingdao Gu ...

on loan on 28 February 2020, until the end of the year.

Lucchese

On 26 October 2021, Minala signed for

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

team Lucchese until the end of the season.

Olbia

On 23 August 2022, Minala joined

Olbia Olbia (, ; sc, Terranoa; sdn, Tarranoa) is a city and commune of 60,346 inhabitants (May 2018) in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called ''Olbia'' in the Roman age, ...

on a one-year contract. On 6 January 2023, Minala's contract with Olbia was terminated by mutual consent.

Liepāja

On 3 March 2023, Minala signed for

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is Op ...

club

FK Liepāja FK Liepāja/Mogo is a Latvian football club, founded in 2014. The club is based at the Daugava Stadium in Liepāja. FK Liepāja plays in the Latvian Higher League. In their first season they finished 4th in the 2014 Latvian Higher League. Hi ...

Sliema Wanderers

In the summer of 2023, Minala joined

side

International career

Minala played for Cameroon at under-23 level in their unsuccessful

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

campaign for the

2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations was the 2nd edition of the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, the quadrennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the men's under-23 natio ...

. He scored against Sierra Leone in a 1–1 draw on 30 May 2015, but Cameroon were eliminated in the second round on away goals.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Minala, Joseph 1996 births Living people Footballers from Yaoundé Cameroonian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Serie A players Serie B players Chinese Super League players Serie C players Latvian Higher League players Maltese Premier League players SS Lazio players SSC Bari players Latina Calcio 1932 players US Salernitana 1919 players Lucchese 1905 players Qingdao F.C. players Olbia Calcio 1905 players Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in Latvia Expatriate men's footballers in Malta Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in China Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Malta Age controversies Cameroon men's youth international footballers