Nicodème Kabamba Wa Kabengu (born 29 July 1936) is a Congolese former

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

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 ...

. He grew up in

Jadotville Likasi (formerly official names: Jadotville ( French) and Jadotstad (Dutch)) is a city in Haut-Katanga Province, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Demographics Likasi has a population of around 635,000 (2015). During the 1990 ...

, where he received the nickname "Serpent de Rail" after the just-completed rail line between Jadotville and

Kolwezi Kolwezi or Kolwesi is the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, west of Likasi. It is home to an airport and a railway to Lubumbashi. Just outside of Kolwezi there is the static inverter plant ...

. Kabamba played for

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

in Belgium from 1959 to 1963. Kabamba represented Congo-Kinshasa at the 1968 African Cup of Nations in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, where he scored two goals (both coming in the match versus

Congo-Brazzaville The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

) in three group matches. He did not play in the semi-final or final as the national team won the continental title for the first time. At the time of the 1968 tournament, Kabamba was playing for

CS Imana Cercle Sportif Imana, known as CS Imana for short, is a football club in Matadi, Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo ...

References

1936 births Living people People from Likasi Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Men's association football midfielders Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers 1968 African Cup of Nations players Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Standard Liège players Belgian Pro League players Belgian Congo people Daring Club Motema Pembe players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium {{DRCongo-footy-bio-stub