Meschak Elia (born 6 August 1997) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

club Young Boys and the DR Congo national team.

Club career

In July 2019 it was announced that Elia would sign for

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 ...

club

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

. He, however, disappeared and allegedly falsified his year of birth, which resulted in a 12-month ban by the

Congolese Association Football Federation The Congolese Association Football Federation (french: Fédération Congolaise de Football-Association, FECOFA) is the governing body of Football (soccer), football in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was founded in 1919 and affiliated t ...

. In February 2020,

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

"provisionally cleared" Elia to play again and he signed for

side

BSC Young Boys BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, reac ...

International career

International goals

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

Honours

TP Mazembe *

CAF Super Cup The CAF Super Cup (also known as African Super Cup or for sponsorship reasons TotalEnergies CAF Super Cup) is an annual African association football competition contested between the winners of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football club competition established in 2004 from a merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners' Cup and organi ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Linafoot The Vodacom Ligue 1 is the top division of the Congolese Association Football Federation, the governing body of football (soccer), football in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was created in 1958. In 2013, the highest attendance was set i ...

: 2015–16, 2016-17 Young Boys *

: 2019–20 *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

: 2019–20 DR Congo *

African Nations Championship The African Nations Championship (french: Championnat d'Afrique des Nations; abbreviated as CHAN), known as the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a biennial African national association football tourname ...

References

External links

* 1997 births Living people Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Association football forwards Democratic Republic of the Congo international footballers 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Swiss Super League players CS Don Bosco players TP Mazembe players BSC Young Boys players Democratic Republic of the Congo A' international footballers 2016 African Nations Championship players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland {{DRCongo-footy-bio-stub