Jules Olivier Ntcham (born 9 February 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

. Born in France, he represents the Cameroon national team. Ntcham was born in Longjumeau, a southern suburb of Paris, and played for numerous youth clubs in and around Paris before joining youth academies at Paris FC and Le Havre. In 2012, at the age of 16, Ntcham joined

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

's Elite Development Squad for £730,000. Developing under City's Football Development Executive Patrick Vieira, Ntcham's potential was noticed by club manager Manuel Pellegrini, who included him on City's pre-season tour of

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in 2015. After signing a professional contract with City, Ntcham was loaned out for a two season spell at Genoa in Italy's Serie A, with an option to buy later. In July 2017, Ntcham signed for Scottish Premiership side

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

on a four-year permanent deal. He signed a contract extension with the Glasgow club in November 2018, extending his stay until 2022. In February 2021, Ntcham was loaned out to

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

club Marseille. Ntcham joined Swansea City in September 2021. Internationally, Ntcham has represented France at numerous levels, most recently the France national under-21 football team at the

2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2019) was the 22nd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (25th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football ch ...

Club career

Manchester City

Ntcham signed for

in 2012, joining from French club Le Havre for a fee in the region of €1m, after refusing to sign a professional contract at the club. In July 2015, he signed a five-year deal with Manchester City, before joining Italian side Genoa on a two-year loan.

Loan to Genoa

On 28 August 2015, Serie A side Genoa signed Ntcham on a two-year loan with an option to buy. He made his debut for the club on 23 August 2015, in a 1–0 defeat to

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

. His second match was marked with a 2–0 win against Hellas Verona. Ntcham's first goal for Genoa came in the opening game of his second season, during a 3–1 win over

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 ...

on 21 August 2016. He scored his second goal on 26 February 2017, in stoppage time, rescuing a 1–1 draw with Bologna.

Celtic

On 12 July 2017, Ntcham signed a four-year contract with

. He scored his first goal for Celtic in a 1–0 win against

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

on 11 August 2017. On 9 November 2018, at the age of 22, he signed a new four-year contract to keep him at Celtic until the year 2022. Ntcham scored the winning goal against Lazio in the Europa League on 7 November 2019, giving Celtic a historic 2–1 victory as their first ever win in Italy.

Loan to Marseille

On 1 February 2021, Ntcham joined French side Marseille on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season. Manager André Villas-Boas, who had informed the Marseille board that he didn't want the player, offered his resignation the following day in response to Ntcham joining and was suspended as manager a few hours later for publicly criticising the club's board. On 10 February 2021, he made his debut for Marseille as a substitute for

Valentin Rongier Valentin Rongier (born 7 December 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Marseille, which he captains. Club career Nantes Born in Mâcon, Rongier joined Nantes' youth academy in 2001. He made his Lig ...

in a 2–0 away win over AJ Auxerre in the Coupe de France. On 10 February 2021, he made his league debut as a substitute for

Michaël Cuisance Michaël Bruno Dominique Cuisance (born 16 August 1999) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club U.C. Sampdoria, Sampdoria, on loan from Serie B club Venezia F.C., Venezia. He has also represen ...

in a 0–0 away draw against Bordeaux.

Swansea City

On 1 September 2021, Ntcham joined Championship club

on a free transfer. He scored his first goal for Swansea in a 3–3 draw with Luton Town on 18 September 2021.

International career

Ntcham was born in France to parents of Cameroonian descent. He was a youth international for France at various levels. In November 2019, he was placed on standby for Cameroon's

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

qualifiers against

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

and

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. He debuted with the Cameroon national team in a friendly 2–0 loss to Uzbekistan on 23 September 2022.

Career statistics

Honours

Celtic * Scottish Premiership: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 * Scottish Cup: 2017–18, 2018–19 * Scottish League Cup: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ntcham, Olivier 1996 births Living people People from Longjumeau Footballers from Essonne Cameroonian footballers Cameroon international footballers French footballers France youth international footballers France under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Manchester City F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Olympique de Marseille players Serie A players Scottish Professional Football League players Ligue 1 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Cameroonian expatriate footballers French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Wales Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Scotland French expatriate sportspeople in Wales French expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Black French sportspeople French sportspeople of Cameroonian descent Swansea City A.F.C. players