François M'Pelé (born 13 July 1947) 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 lea ...

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) ** Smal ...

. In 2006, he was selected by

CAF CAF or caf may refer to: Armed forces *Canadian Armed Forces (Canadian Forces), the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy *Canadian Air Force, now the Royal Canadian Air Force *Republic of China Air Force, the air force of the Republic of China (Tai ...

as one of the best 200 African football players of the last 50 years.

Career

M'Pelé played professional football in

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

with

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that 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'') ...

and

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 ...

. He played for PSG from 1973 to 1979, and as of 2014, was the club's eighth-highest goalscorer with 95 in all competitions. M'Pelé was also PSG's all-time leading goalscorer in the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

with 28 goals, until

Kylian Mbappé Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for club Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid and Captain (association football), captains ...

surpassed him in January 2024.

References

External links

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Profile
1947 births Living people Footballers from Brazzaville Men's association football forwards Africa Cup of Nations–winning players Republic of the Congo men's footballers Republic of the Congo men's international footballers 1972 African Cup of Nations players 1974 African Cup of Nations players 1978 African Cup of Nations players Ligue 1 players AC Ajaccio players Paris Saint-Germain FC players RC Lens players Stade Rennais FC players Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in France {{RCongo-footy-bio-stub