René Salomon Olembé-Olembé (born 8 December 1980) is a Cameroonian 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 le ...

who played as a

left 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 ...

Club career

Olembé started his career with

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, where he contributed 30 appearances as his side won

2000–01 French Division 1 The 2000–01 Ligue 1 season (then called Division 1) was the 63rd since its establishment. FC Nantes won the French Association Football League for the eighth time with 68 points. Participating teams * Auxerre * Bastia * Bordeaux * Guingamp ...

. He also played in the victorious

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Coupe de France finals and the

1999 Trophée des Champions The 1999 Trophée des Champions was a football match held at Stade de la Licorne, Amiens on 24 July 1999, that saw 1999 Coupe de France winners FC Nantes defeat 1998–99 Division 1 champions FC Girondins de Bordeaux 1–0. Match details ...

. He then transferred to

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

in 2002. While at Marseille he spent a season on loan at English Premiership strugglers

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

and a season at Qatari club

Al Rayyan Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...

. After leaving Marseille permanently in 2007, Olembé spent the summer on trial at Premiership newcomers

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

, where he scored in a friendly match against

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

. However, he was not offered a contract by Derby and, on 4 September, he was snapped up by

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

manager

Chris Hutchings Christopher Hutchings (born 5 July 1957) is an English former footballer and manager. He played for a number of clubs including Chelsea and played more than 100 games for Brighton & Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town. He has managed in the Premie ...

on a one-year initial contract. He was signed as a replacement for the recently departed

Leighton Baines Leighton John Baines (born 11 December 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a left back. He is currently U-18s manager at Everton. Baines started his career with Wigan Athletic, and was part of the team that won th ...

, but only made eight appearances for the Lancashire club. In April 2008, it was revealed that Olembé would transfer to Turkish club

Kayserispor Kayseri Spor Kulübü, commonly known as Kayserispor, is a Turkish professional football club based in Kayseri. They play their home matches at the Kadir Has Stadium in red and yellow kits. The team has won one Turkish Cup in 2008 and also fini ...

. In January 2010, in the winter break of his second season in the

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

, Olembé transferred to Greek side

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

, but spent only a few months with the club before joining English Championship team

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

on trial in March. He played in a reserve game against

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 ...

but was substituted at half-time.

International career

Olembé made his debut for the Cameroon national team in 1997, and made a total of 64 appearances for his country. He represented Cameroon at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

and the

2004 African Cup of Nations The 2004 African Cup of Nations, known as the NOKIA African Cup of Nations, Tunisia 2004 for sponsorship reasons (also referred to as AFCON 2004 or CAN 2004) is the 24th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's footb ...

Career statistics

''Cameroon score shown first''

Honours

Marseille *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

References

External links

*
BBC: World Cup 2002
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olembe, Salomon 1980 births Living people Footballers from Yaoundé Association football midfielders Cameroonian footballers Cameroon international footballers FC Nantes players Olympique de Marseille players Leeds United F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Kayserispor footballers Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players Al-Rayyan SC players Ligue 1 players Premier League players Süper Lig players Qatar Stars League players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players 2004 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Qatar Cameroonian expatriate footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in England Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in France Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar