The Zaire-born refugee Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch
How White Hart Lane stood still and silent as Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch
The Zaire-born refugee moved to England at the age of 11 unable to speak English, but showed the strength we associate with him now to flourish at school and in football
Fabrice Muamba: from war-torn Zaire to the Premier League
Goal.com looks at the midfielder's career, from fleeing Africa, to arriving in England in 1999 and to excelling in his education on and off the pitch, and beyond
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When Fabrice Muamba and his family fled the guerilla war in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) for England in 1999, he was thought to have escaped not only death but poverty and an uncertain future - like many other Africans who fled war zones in Rwanda, Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D'Ivoire with older family members to start a new life in the West. In 2008 Muamba told The Daily Mail: "It was very, very tough. I saw the war. I saw people die. I grew up with it. It was scary.
"I didn't live far from the gunshots and the sound of them going off. It was difficult to get used to, especially hearing guns at night. It did have an effect on me.
"It stopped us going out to play football because we were scared we would get killed. One or two of my friends were hurt, one or two of them have since died."
Muamba’s father, Marcel, had been forced to escape the DR Congo in 1994 because he was an adviser to feared dictator President Mobutu Sese Seko.
With anti-Mobutu forces pursuing him, Muamba’s father sought refuge in England. After five years, he was granted asylum which allowed his remaining family members to join him.
Although none of Muamba's family could speak a word of English when they arrived, his parents never regretted their decision to renounce their roots; they had given their son a chance to flourish, and he excelled both academically and at football.
In 2002 at the age of 14, Muamba joined his boyhood club, Arsenal, as a schoolboy. He impressed immediately and within six months had, as a naturalised British citizen, represented his country at Under-16 level, making his debut against Wales on November 1, 2002.
Rising up through the ranks at club and international levels, Muamba graduated to the Arsenal Academy in 2004 while advancing to Under-17, then Under-18 level for England.
A few months after turning 17, he put pen to paper on his first professional contract with Arsenal. Just two weeks later he was representing the Gunners in front of 47,366 people at the Stadium of Light where he helped Arsenal to a 3-0 League Cup third-round win over Sunderland.
Post-match, when questioned on how he had felt as he warmed-up, he said: "The boss [Arsene Wenger] smiled and just told me to enjoy the game and do what I was good at."
What Muamba was "good at” was defending. More specifically: positioning, tackling, anticipation and passing.
Indeed, Muamba once mused about the art of tackling, stating: “Tackling is just about timing. If you've got your timing right, all you have to do is touch the ball.
“Some of the players that go in for tackles are doing it to show they are the hardest man on the pitch. But it's not about being hard. It's about being able to get the ball, and that's it.
“Nowadays some people just can't tackle, let's put it that way. Simple as that.”
Muamba modelled himself on Patrick Vieira and adopted the defensive midfield position as his own. It was the ultimate compliment to be compared with the legendary Frenchman during his time in north London, with the Gunners' official website once stating: “There is no getting away from the fact that the two players have so much in common in their style of play, with and without the ball.”
 Read more about Muamba here |
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Muamba said of Vieira: "I didn’t really have any heroes when I was growing up in Congo, I didn’t know much about football.
“But when I came to Arsenal I started to look at Patrick Vieira,
because I thought this guy has great vision for the game, I can learn
from him."
To continue his progression, Muamba was sent on loan to Championship
side Birmingham City the following season, along with fellow Arsenal
starlets Sebastian Larsson and Nicklas Bendtner.
Muamba went on to make 41 appearances for the Blues under Steve Bruce
during the 2006-07 season, as Birmingham finished second and achieved
promotion to the Premier League.
He became a firm favourite with the St Andrew's faithful and was
rewarded by being named as the club's Young Player of the Year at the
end of the season.
However, it was not just on the pitch where Muamba was succeeding.
"There's more to me than just kicking a ball,” the then 19-year-old told The Sunday Mercury in 2007.
It was something of an understatement.
After gaining A-levels in Maths (with an A grade), French and English
from Kelmscott School in Walthamstow - because he "found them to be
easiest" - the teenager set his sights on a Maths degree at the Open
University.
"I always wanted to study. I like to read different books mainly on everyday life, autobiographies and stuff like that.
"Studying was always important to me because you have to have
something that may come in useful after football. I'm looking to get
some qualifications behind me because I think that's good.”
Following the end of the 2006-07 season, instead of moving back to
his parent club in London, Birmingham had a £4 million bid accepted for
the England Under-19 captain, and on May 11, 2007, Muamba signed a
three-year deal at St Andrew's. He went on to play in all-but-one of
Birmingham’s 38 games as they missed out on Premier League survival by a
single point.
DR Congo came calling a month later with an invitation to represent them at senior level. He declined.
Muamba's parents warded off officials of the African country's
football federation when they came to persuade the Kinshasa-born
midfielder to go back home and play for the land of his ancestors.
"This is his new land and he's fine here," a family member had
retorted.
And one week into the new season, on August 21, 2008, Muamba was
awarded his first cap at England Under-21 level, coming on as a
second-half substitute as England drew 1-1 with Romania at Ashton Gate.
Muamba went on to become a regular under Stuart Peace, making 33 appearances for the Under-21s, winning 20 of them.
Another milestone was reached on March 12, 2008, as Muamba scored his
first ever professional goal in Birmingham’s 4-2 defeat by Portsmouth
at Fratton Park.
He pounced to volley home from close range when Liam Ridgewell flicked on a Larsson corner.
However, the summer of 2008 signalled the end of his time at
Birmingham, as manager Alex McLeish accepted an offer of £5m - rising to
£5.75m - from Bolton Wanderers.
| Muamba has got great strengths - his closing down and winning the ball is probably as good as anybody in the Premier League.
- Former Bolton manager Gary Megson
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On June 16, 2008, Muamba penned a four-year deal with the Trotters.
Gary Megson thrust him straight into the starting line-up and he was an
ever-present in the side as Bolton improved on a 16th-placed finish the
season before to finish 13th.
Muamba continued to flourish at the Reebok Stadium. Indeed, last
weekend’s 2-1 victory over QPR marked the midfielder’s 200th league
appearance - a highly impressive statistic for a 23-year-old.
Back in 2009, then manager Megson declared of Muamba: “He has got
great strengths - his closing down and winning the ball is probably as
good as anybody in the Premier League.
"If you want someone to sit in front of your back four, you are not going to get much better.”
With the installation of Owen Coyle as the new manager two months
later, and the subsequent shift to a more creative tactical game, Muamba
was able to exploit his passing skill. This led to his being named The Bolton News Player of the Year in May 2010.
Three months later Muamba signed a four-year deal at the club, committing himself to Bolton until 2014.
But on March 17 2012, Muamba, while jogging back towards his own goal
in an FA Cup quarter-final against Tottenham, collapsed. For seven
minutes the midfielder was treated on the pitch, given CPR and the use
of a defibrillator before being carried off on a stretcher.
Boss Coyle and club captain Kevin Davies travelled in the ambulance
with him to the hospital where, according to the official Bolton
website, he remains in a "critical" condition.
Fans remained inside White Hart Lane where the 650 Bolton fans
chanted their midfielder’s name. The 36,000-strong Tottenham support
applauded before giving more power to the vocals by joining in with the
tribute.
One consistent thread in Muamba's story has been the desire to learn and better himself.
Whether it be completing his A-levels while playing professional
football, the adaptation to a relegation-threatened side after being
promoted the season before, a progression through the international
hierarchy or gunning for a senior call-up, Muamba is always looking for
that next step up.
Former manager Steve Bruce once described him as a “monster” on the pitch, before revealing that he reads the Bible regularly.
"Religion is an important part of my family,” Muamba told The Sunday Mercury in 2007. “My mum and dad taught us to go to church and how to deal with setbacks in your life.
"It's always influenced me. I read the Bible every morning and pray
before I go out on the pitch. I don't just read it because of my family -
there are good stories in there and mentally it's good for me."
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| 21 Feb 2012: © Reuters
The Levante forward will join up with the 24-man squad next week for the first round, first leg qualifier in Banjul on Feb. 29. Yebda, who previously had spells at Benfica, Portsmouth and Napoli, ruptured knee ligaments in training for La Liga side Granada on Saturday and was expected to be sidelined for several months, Spain's sporting press said. Algeria's squad includes first-time call-ups for striker Mohamed Chalali of Aberdeen, defender Liassine Cadamuro-Bentaiba of Real Sociedad and former France under-21 international Sofiane Feghouli of Valencia. |
| Kaiserslautern sign Algeria defender Yahia |   |
DPA ©
Kaiserslautern have signed Algeria defender Anthar Yahia until 2015 on a free transfer, the relegation-threatened German Bundesliga club said on Wednesday.
Yahia, 29, has 91 Bundesliga games during his time at VfL Bochum from 2007 until 2011. He last played for Saudi Arabian club Al-Nasr but was released there recently.
"If a players of his quality is available on a free transfer you have to sign him. He knows the fight against relegation from Bochum, speaks German and knows the league," said Kaiserslautern chairman Stefan Kuntz.
| AC Milan buy Mesbah, move on-loan players around | |
DPA ©
 Djamel Mesbah |
Lecce on Wednesday announced the sale of the 27-year-old Algerian and the return to Milan of Sierra Leone midfielder Rodney Strasser, 21, after a loan period.
The Serie A tailenders also obtained the joint-ownership of David Speziale, a 17-year-old striker from the Devils' youth team who is to join Lecce in the next season.
Also rejoining Milan is German midfielder Alexander Merkel, 19. The club's website said he is back on loan from co-owners Genoa, where he played since the start of the season.
| Cameroon suspend captain Eto'o for 15 matches | |
© Reuters
 Cameroons Samuel Eto |
"Samuel Eto'o, in his role as captain, incited his team mates to refuse to travel to Algeria," the Cameroon football federation (Fecafoot) said on its website (www.fecafootonline.com).
"(The disciplinary council) therefore decides that (he) is suspended for 15 matches from the men's senior national team."
Cameroon's players went on strike in November, forcing the abandonment of the friendly in Algiers, saying they had not received money promised for their appearance in a four-nation tournament in Morocco the previous weekend.
The federation said 30-year-old Eto'o, four-times African Footballer of the Year, could not explain why the players refused to turn out for the national team after Algeria and the Cameroon sports ministry offered a way out of the crisis.
The Algerian football federation had promised to give the Cameroon team 30,000 euros ($39,100) on arrival in Algiers while the ministry despatched 15 million CFA francs ($29,800) for the squad the day before the match was scheduled to take place.
The federation said Eto'o was disrespectful to the sports ministry and the federation, while Ajax Amsterdam midfielder Enoh, 25, "lacked respect for the vice-president of Fecafoot".
I
LAST STRAW
Eto'o, who hit the headlines when he signed for Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala from Inter Milan for a record salary in August, said the latest crisis was the last straw, the federation statement added.
It said Eto'o accused the soccer authorities of incompetence, dishonesty and injustice towards the players who they treated like "kids".
The loss of Eto'o is a huge blow to Cameroon's hopes of qualifying for the 2013 African Nations Cup and 2014 World Cup.
The Nations Cup qualifiers begin on Feb. 28 with a first-round match against Guinea Bissau. Cameroon's first World Cup qualifier will be in June against Democratic Republic of Congo.
Cameroon surprisingly failed to qualify for next year's Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and new coach Denis Lavagne has just started rebuilding his squad.
In a separate case, Cameroon's Tottenham Hotspur left back Benoit Assou-Ekotto was fined one million CFA francs for failing to join the squad in Marrakesh for the four-nation tournament.
The players have 10 days to appeal.
| Ameobi strikes late to snatch draw for Newcastle | |
© Reuters
 Newcastle United's Shola Ameobi (L) celebrates scoring |
Six yellow cards were shown in the first half-hour as rash challenges flew and tempers flared and Sunderland's 24th-minute goal was in keeping with that atmosphere.
Newcastle defender Mike Williamson pulled Sunderland's Michael Turner by the shirt and referee Mike Dean pointed to the spot with on-loan striker Nicklas Bendtner then striking the penalty into the bottom left corner.
Tension spilled over among backroom staff too with Newcastle's goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman sent to the stands after an altercation in the tunnel at halftime, television reports on ESPN said.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men in the 58th minute when Stephane Sessegnon swung his elbow into the chest of Cheick Tiote, who took a couple of seconds to fall to the ground clutching his face.
Newcastle waited until the first minute of stoppage time to make their man advantage count with Ameobi stabbing the ball into the right-hand corner to snatch a point for his sixth-placed team against their bitter local rivals.
Later in the day, champions Manchester United aim to narrow the gap on leaders Manchester City when they travel to third-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
City went five points clear on Saturday with a 2-0 win at home to relegation candidates Bolton Wanderers. They have 66 points from 27 games, while United are on 61 and Spurs on 53.
At the other end of the table, Wolverhampton Wanderers - who are above the drop zone on goal difference only - were playing 13th-placed Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
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12:08The Senegal striker made a big impression on his arrival at the Sports Direct Arena, but problems with the language and a different style of play are slowing his progress -
10:10Despite relentless pressure from United, the Ivorian is sure his side can win the Premier League and sees the return of the Argentine forward as a major boost to their chances -
07:34The striker's deal is set to expire at the end of the season, but with options limited in attack, Stamford Bridge bosses may be wise to keep the 34-year-old for another term
Thursday, 15 March 2012
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20:43The man who brought the event to South Africa in 2010 is concerned by reports that preparations in Brazil are behind schedule, both in terms of stadia and infrastructure
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
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05:59The Argentine has launched a scathing attack at the former Atletico Madrid and Valencia coach as well as Spanish newspaper Marca following his goalkeeper's lengthy ban
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
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12:00The West Asian nation may be experiencing all sorts of problems at present, but its Under-23 football team has defied the odds and could qualify for London 2012 on Wednesday -
10:20A diplomatic row between the west African nation and the European country has adversely affected the trainer, whose job seems to be nearing its conclusion
Monday, 12 March 2012
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09:15In Pictures: Didier Drogba hosts third charity ball with familiar Premier League faces in attendanceThe Chelsea striker entertained his guests at the Dorchester Hotel in London, even treating them to a special guest DJ set from Shaun Wright-Phillips and Djibril Cisse
Sunday, 11 March 2012
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16:07The Egyptian FA has called off the domestic league and replaced it with a tournament due to a shortage of available match dates in the wake of the Port Said tragedy
Saturday, 10 March 2012
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11:48The Ivory Coast international is not reading too much into his side's slender two-point advantage as the Premier League looks set to go down to the wire between the rivals -
09:16The former Nigeria skipper and Bolton midfielder stated that he hasn’t yet made his mind up whether to play in India’s PLS or not
Friday, 9 March 2012
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19:18The 22-year-old, who has represented France at all junior levels, has agreed to play for the Indomitable Lions after years of spurning persuasions from the team
Sunday, 4 March 2012
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11:31The Mali international scored a terrific goal in what was his first start since November as the Blaugrana reduced their deficit to leaders Real Madrid to seven points
Thursday, 1 March 2012
07:34
The Medeama player gave the
west Africans a reprieve on their first major outing after a
disappointing finish at the recent Afcon
| Utaka sends Montpellier top with win over Bordeaux | |
© Reuters
 John Utaka of Montpellier |
The Nigerian striker headed the winner 10 minutes from time to put Montpellier on 53 points from 25 matches, two ahead of Paris St Germain, who visit Olympique Lyon later on Saturday (2000 GMT).
Both teams created several clear chances but Montpellier finally made the breakthrough when Utaka scored from a Marco Estrada corner as the hosts piled on the pressure.
Bordeaux, who were unbeaten in Ligue 1 this year, came close in the first half when their Poland forward Ludovic Obraniak curled a shot against the post just before the break.
St Etienne stayed fourth on 43 points following a 0-0 draw at second bottom AJ Auxerre who moved up one place.
| Espanyol spice up attack with Coutinho and Uche | |
© Reuters
 Uche |
Brazil youth international Coutinho, 19, moves from Inter Milan on loan until the end of the season, and Nigeria international Uche, 29, signed a one-and-a-half year deal to move from Swiss side Neuchatel Xamax.
"I want to help the team get into the Champions League," Coutinho told reporters when he arrived in Barcelona. "I want to get playing time ahead of the Olympic Games in London."
Espanyol, UEFA Cup finalists in 2007, are fifth in La Liga and only kept out of the Champions League places on goal difference by fourth-placed Levante.
| Nigerian defender Taiwo joins QPR on loan | |
© Reuters
 Nigerian defender Taye Taiwo |
Hughes said the 26-year-old AC Milan left-back, who arrived in Serie A from Olympique Marseille last year, had been on his radar for some time.
"To get him now is a fantastic coup and a real statement of intent that we can attract the quality of player that he is. I am looking forward to working with him," he told the club website (www.qpr.co.uk).
Taiwo said he was looking forward to the challenge of the Premier League.
"It has always been a dream of mine to play in this league," he said. "Wherever you go in the world, people always talk about the Premier League and it will be nice to play in a country that speaks the same language as me."
QPR, who returned to the top flight this season after a 15-year absence, are 16th in the 20-team Premier League and two points clear of the relegation zone.
Former Wales boss Hughes was appointed manager this month after Neil Warnock was sacked following a run of poor performances
 | African Confederation Cup 2012 |
Stade de la Réunification
CAF Champions League 2012 
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