Béni Jean-Luc Nkololo (born 6 November 1996) is a French 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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

club

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

. Nkololo was born in France and played for

Stade Brestois 29 Stade Brestois 29, commonly known as Stade Brestois or simply Brest,''Stade Brest'', used by some English-speaking media outlets and journalists, is not a grammatically correct name for the club. is a French professional football club based in ...

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

and a number of clubs in the

Championnat National The Championnat National (), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, is the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, the Championnat National operates on a system of ...

before moving to Australia to play for

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

in 2021.

Early life

Nkololo was born in

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

, France, to Zairean parents born in

Léopoldville Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-growing megacities, with an estimated population of 17 million ...

. He acquired

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

on 28 January 2004, through the collective effect of his parents'

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

Club career

In July 2020, Nkololo signed with

side

US Concarneau Union Sportive Concarnoise, better known as US Concarneau or just Concarneau, is a football club based in Concarneau, France. As of the 2024–25 season, it competes in the Championnat National, the third tier of French football. The team plays i ...

. In August 2021, Nkololo signed with Australian side

. He scored on debut for the Mariners in a win over

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktow ...

in the

2021 FFA Cup The 2021 FFA Cup was the eighth season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. Thirty-two teams contested the competition proper from the round of 32, including 10 of the 12 A-League teams (with two teams ...

on 13 November 2021. Nkololo was part of the Central Coast Mariners'

A-League Men A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as ...

Championship winning team in 2022-23, scoring the sixth of the side's goals in the

2023 A-League Men Grand Final The 2023 A-League Men Grand Final was the 18th A-League Men Grand Final, the championship-deciding match of the Australian A-League Men, and the culmination of the 2022–23 season. The match was played on 3 June 2023 at CommBank Stadium in Parr ...

. In August 2023, Nkololo was granted a release by the Mariners on compassionate grounds to join a club in Saudi Arabia. He left the Mariners having scored seventeen goals over two seasons. On 4 July 2024, Nkololo joined Romanian side

Personal life

Nkololo is the brother of Jordan Nkololo.

Honours

Central Coast Mariners *

Championship:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Australia Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national association football, soccer single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Fo ...

runner-up:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

CFR Cluj *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

: 2024–25

References

External links

* * 1996 births Living people Footballers from Ille-et-Vilaine Naturalized citizens of France French men's footballers Men's association football wingers Stade Brestois 29 players US Avranches players Tours FC players Lyon-La Duchère players US Concarneau players Central Coast Mariners FC players Al-Orobah FC players CFR Cluj players Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Championnat National 3 players A-League Men players Saudi First Division League players Liga I players French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Black French sportspeople French sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia French expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Romania French expatriate sportspeople in Romania 21st-century French sportsmen {{France-footy-midfielder-1990s-stub