Zico Tumba (born 29 April 1977) 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 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 ...

in France and the Netherlands. He gained three caps for the DR Congo national team.

Club career

Born in Kinshasa,

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, Tumba came to

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 146,734 (2018). Its metropolitan area (''aire d'attract ...

, France with his father at age 11. He progressed through the youth academy of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

alongside players such as

Robert Pires Robert Emmanuel Pires (born 29 October 1973) is a French football coach and former professional player. Pires played for French clubs Metz and Marseille prior to his time with Arsenal, where he won two FA Cups and two Premier League titles inclu ...

and

Louis Saha Louis Laurent Saha (born 8 August 1978) is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker. Saha was capped 20 times for the France national team and scored four goals. A former scholar at the Clairefontaine football academy, h ...

. In the 1996–97 season, Tumba made his debut in Ligue 1. He left for

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

on loan in his second season at senior level, where he had a successful season and scored 12 times in 39 games. His performances with Mulhouse earned him a move to the Netherlands, where he would initially play for De Graafschap for 3 seasons. Tumba played regularly and played 59 games and scored 10 times. In 2001, Tumba left for

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

, where he made 74 appearances and scored 11 goals. After the 2003–04 season, Tumba decided to retire from professional football at the age of 27. In an interview in De Gelderlander he said: "Professional football is bad. The people who are in it are not honest and there is no respect. It's all about money. Today you are good and tomorrow everyone throws you away. That's not my world. I don't miss anything. I have a new life and I'm much happier with that." Tumba moved to France and started playing football with the amateurs of Sète 34. There, he won promotion to the second division, but chose to leave for

USL Dunkerque Union Sportive du Littoral de Dunkerque is a French football club based in the commune of Dunkirk. It will compete in the Championnat National in the 2022–23 season. Their kit colours are white and blue, and they play their home matches at th ...

as he did not want to play at the professional level again. From 2006 to 2008, he played for CS Avion in the

Régional 1 The Régional 1 (previously known as ''Division d'Honneur'') is the common generic name for the highest level football league competitions run by each of the 13 Regional Leagues in France. Together, these league competitions serve as the sixt ...

, the sixth level of French football.

International career

Tumba gained 3 caps for the DR Congo national team in which he scored 1 goal.

After football

Tumba owned his own shop with African articles in

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

. In March 2014, he became assistant coach of Le Touquet AC as well as coaching the women's team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tumba, Zico 1977 births Living people FC Metz players FC Mulhouse players De Graafschap players NEC Nijmegen players FC Sète 34 players USL Dunkerque players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Eredivisie players Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers Men's association football forwards CS Avion players Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in France Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands