Mbo Mpenza
Jérôme Mbo Mpenza ( born December 4, 1976 in Kinshasa ) is a retired Belgian footballer. Mpenza played in the position of striker.
Career
Association
The older brother of Emile Mpenza began his professional career at the then second division club KV Kortrijk. There he stood between 1993 and 1996 under contract, before he moved into the top league in the summer to Excelsior Mouscron. For this he gave his debut in the top Belgian league in the season 1996 / 97th He became instantly well, was a regular player and caught the attention of the Belgian top clubs. After only one year at Excelsior, he joined the top club Standard Liege. With him he achieved in 1999 the final of the Belgian Cup, had to admit defeat with 1:3 Lierse SK give. After two successful years he left the Reds and moved to January 2000, the first Portuguese football league to Sporting Lisbon. However, it did not prevail here and so it was that he moved to the first Turkish league in player exchange for half a year to Galatasaray. In the winter of 2001/02 season, he moved back to Belgium, back to his hometown club Mouscron, where he found his old form. From 2004 to 2008 he played with the Belgian giants RSC Anderlecht. With them he won the 2004, 2006 and 2007, the Belgian Championship and the 2008 Belgian Cup. After winning the Cup, the striker moved in July 2008 to the Greek club AE Larisa. Even when change was known that Mpenza was struggling with a persistent injury. After half a year without an assignment, he decided on the end of his active professional career.
National
Mpenza played 56 caps for Belgium, scoring three goals. He participated in the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup. During the World Cup '98 in France, he came off the bench in all three group matches of his team. Although the Belgians lost not a game, but missed just three points to progress to the next round. At the European Championships two years later, in their own country, not Mpenza came to Luc Nilis, Branko Strupar and his brother Emile Mpenza over and came so only a brief appearance against Italy. Again, the choice kicker failed in the first round. At the 2002 World Cup he came to more missions again and was behind Wesley Sonck the number 2 in the storm of Belgium.