Richard Mapuata N'Kiambi Esola (born 27 February 1965) is a Congolese former professional footballer who played as a forward. He represented the Zaire national team at international level.

Club career

Born in

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...

, Mapuata began his career with Cercle Sportif Imana. He moved to play in the

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

at the age of 20, signing with

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

. One year later, he joined

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

side Os Belenenses for two seasons. While with Belenenses, Mapuata scored the goal in a famous

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

victory against

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. He finished his playing career in the Swiss first division, playing for AC Bellinzona and FC Aarau.

International career

Mapuata played for Zaire at the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Personal life

His son, Cédric, is a retired professional footballer. His other son, Richaross Grüninger, is the star of the SFT Tigers Lugano, known for his skills from three points.

References

External links

* * 1965 births Living people Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Footballers from Kinshasa Men's association football forwards Democratic Republic of the Congo men's international footballers 1988 African Cup of Nations players Primeira Liga players Standard Liège players C.F. Os Belenenses players AC Bellinzona players FC Aarau players Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland {{DRCongo-footy-bio-stub