Rio Antonio Zoba Mavuba (born 8 March 1984) is a French 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

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 works as assistant manager at Bordeaux II. He spent most of his professional career with

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

and

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, winning the 2011 national championship with the latter. A France international since 2004, Mavuba represented the country at the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

Early years

Mavuba's father was Mavuba Mafuila, a footballer who appeared at the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

with

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, ...

, while his mother was an Angolan national. He was born on board a boat in

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...

during the period of the

Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...

, and later stated that his birth certificate did not have a nationality on it, reading only "born at sea"; he received

French nationality French nationality law is historically based on the principles of ''jus soli'' (Latin for "right of soil") and ''jus sanguinis'', according to Ernest Renan's definition, in opposition to the German definition of nationality, ''jus sanguinis'' ( ...

in September 2004. Mavuba's mother died when he was two, and his father when he was 12 years old. He launched himself into football to help deal with his grief.

Club career

Bordeaux

Mavuba played youth football with

. He made his

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

debut on 10 January 2004 in a 2–1 away win against

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

and, under recently appointed manager Michel Pavon, became an immediate first-choice. From the 2004–05 season until the end of his spell, Mavuba never appeared in less than 32 league matches.

Villarreal and Lille

On 3 July 2007, Mavuba signed a five-year contract with

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

worth €7 million, as the Spanish side had lost Alessio Tacchinardi who returned to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

following a loan. He found it hard to break into the first team, only totalling 219 minutes in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

, and in late January 2008 joined

on loan until the end of the season. The transfer was made subsequently permanent in summer 2008, with the player penning a four-year contract for a reported fee of €7 million. He appeared in 46 matches between the league and the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

in his third year, helping ''Les Dogues'' win both competitions, the former after a 57-year wait. Mavuba suffered a knee injury midway through the 2012–13 season, being sidelined for more than three months. On 22 December 2013, the

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

scored his first goal of the new campaign, helping to a 2–2 draw at

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

and being involved in a scuffle with

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

, with both players being booked late into the first half. On 26 May 2015, Mavuba signed a new four-year deal with Lille.

Later career

On 21 July 2017, 33-year-old Mavuba agreed to a three-year contract with Czech club

Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

. He returned to his adopted homeland on 14 September 2018, signing with

Championnat National 3 The Championnat National 3, commonly referred to as simply National 3 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur 2, is a football league competition. The league serves as the fifth division of the French football league system behind ...

amateurs . Mavuba was appointed manager of his last team in April 2019. In October 2020, he became assistant coach at Bordeaux's reserves.

International career

In 2004, Mavuba was asked to play for the DR Congo national team, but he turned it down. From the 2004

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

to the 2006 UEFA European Championship, he acted as captain to the French under-21s. Mavuba won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the senior side on 18 August 2004, in a 1–1 friendly draw with

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

. From 2008 to 2011, he did not make one single appearance. Mavuba was selected by coach

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been manager of the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, E ...

for his

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

squad. He made his debut in the competition on 15 June, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Yohan Cabaye Yohan Cabaye (; born 14 January 1986) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Cabaye began his football career playing for hometown club US Tourcoing at the age of six. After seven years developing in the club's ...

in a 3–0 group stage win against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

Honours

Bordeaux *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

: 2006–07 Lille *

: 2010–11 *

: 2010–11

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mavuba, Rio 1984 births Living people People born at sea French people of Angolan descent Black French sportspeople French sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent French sportspeople of Republic of the Congo descent French footballers Association football midfielders Ligue 1 players Championnat National 3 players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Lille OSC players La Liga players Villarreal CF players Czech First League players AC Sparta Prague players France under-21 international footballers France international footballers 2014 FIFA World Cup players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in the Czech Republic French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic