Richard Mapuata N'Kiambi Esola (born 27 February 1965) is a Congolese former 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 ...

who played as a forward. He represented the Zaire national team at international level.

Club career

Born in Kinshasa, Mapuata began his career with Cercle Sportif Imana. He moved to play in the

Belgian Pro League 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 tea ...

at the age of 20, signing with

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 ...

. One year later, he joined Primeira Liga side

Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

for two seasons. While with Belenenses, Mapuata scored the goal in a famous

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

victory against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. He finished his playing career in the Swiss first division, playing for

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Swi ...

and

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local br ...

International career

Mapuata played for

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

at the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Personal life

His son, Cédric, is a retired professional footballer.

References

External links

* * 1965 births Living people Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Footballers from Kinshasa Men's association football forwards Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers 1988 African Cup of Nations players Primeira Liga players Standard Liège players C.F. Os Belenenses players AC Bellinzona players FC Aarau players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland {{DRCongo-footy-bio-stub