Matondo-Merveille Papela (born 18 January 2001) is a German

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 plays as a

central 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

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top ...

Club career

Papela made his professional debut for

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

on 3 January 2021, coming on as a substitute in the 89th minute for Phillipp Mwene against Bayern Munich. The away match finished as a 5–2 loss. On 24 August 2022, Papela joined SV Sandhausen on a season-long loan.

International career

Born in Germany, Papela is of Congolese descent. He has appeared for the Germany under-15 to under-18 and under-20 national teams. He was included in the Germany U17 team for the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in England. He made three appearances in the tournament, in which Germany were eliminated in the group stage.

References

External links

* * * * 2001 births Living people Footballers from Mainz German men's footballers Germany men's youth international footballers German sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Men's association football midfielders 1. FSV Mainz 05 II players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players SV Sandhausen players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players {{Germany-footy-midfielder-2000s-stub