Hérita N'Kongolo Ilunga (born 25 February 1982 in
KinshasaKinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
) is a
CongoThe Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
lese footballer who plays for
Doncaster RoversDoncaster Rovers Football Club is an English football club, based at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The team currently competes in the Football League Championship, after being promoted via the League One play-offs in 2008, and have remained there since.The club was founded in...
in the Npower Championship, on loan from
West Ham UnitedWest Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...
.
Early career
Aged 13, Ilunga started training with
Amiens SCAmiens Sporting Club is a French association football club based in Amiens. The club was formed in 1901 and currently play in Ligue 2, the second level of French football. The club plays its home matches at the Stade de la Licorne located within the city...
, staying with the Somme-based club for four years before moving to Stade Rennais.
Ilunga moved to
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, aged 20, where he joined
EspanyolReial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona is a sports club based in Barcelona, Spain. It is best known for its football team. Espanyol currently play in the Estadi Cornellà-El Prat with seats for 40,500 spectators. It was inaugurated on 2 August 2009...
. In
BarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, the left-back featured exclusively for
Espanyol's BReial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona B, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Barcelona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1981, it is the reserve team of RCD Espanyol and plays in Tercera División, holding home matches at Ciutat Esportiva de Sant Adrià, with a...
team in the Spanish Third Division, but he still did enough to catch the eye of AS St Etienne coach
Frederic AntonettiFrédéric Antonetti is a football manager, currently managing Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais.-Manager:-References:...
, who took him back to
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, initially on loan, in 2003.
Ilunga spent four seasons at the
Stade Geoffroy-GuichardStade Geoffroy-Guichard is a multi-purpose stadium in Saint-Étienne, France. It is used primarily for football matches, and tournaments such as the 1984 European Football Championship, the Football World Cup 1998 and the Confederations Cup 2003. It is also used for rugby union, and was a venue at...
, making 135 appearances for
Les Verts and winning the club's player of the season award. The summer of 2007 saw Ilunga move to Toulouse, who had qualified for the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League. The defender appeared at
AnfieldAnfield is an association football stadium in the district of Anfield, Liverpool, England, with a seating capacity of 45,522. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 and was originally the home of Everton F.C. from 1884 to 1892, before they moved to Goodison Park...
as Toulouse lost 5–0 on aggregate to
LiverpoolLiverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
at the third qualifying round stage.
Toulouse dropped into the
UEFA CupThe UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
, with Ilunga making six appearances as
Le Tef beat CSKA Sofia on away goals before falling at the group stage. Toulouse also endured a difficult campaign in
Ligue 1Ligue 1 , is the French professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division of the French football league system. Ligue 1 is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the other being Ligue 2....
, only avoiding relegation on the final day of the season by beating
ValenciennesValenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
2–1.
West Ham United
On 2 September 2008, Premier League club
West Ham UnitedWest Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...
signed Ilunga on
loanIn sports, a loan involves a particular player being allowed to temporarily play for a club other than the one he is currently contracted to. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to all season-long....
for the 2008–09 season.
Ilunga made his Hammers debut away at
West Bromwich AlbionWest Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...
on 13 September, and quickly established himself as the club's first-choice left-back, after the sale of
George McCartneyGeorge McCartney is a Northern Irish footballer who plays for West Ham United on loan from Sunderland. He began his youth career at Sunderland, moving to West Ham before returning to Sunderland at the start of Roy Keane's time at charge...
to Sunderland. Ilunga scored his first goal for the club in the 3–0 home
FA CupThe Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
win against
BarnsleyBarnsley Football Club are a professional English football club based in the town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Nicknamed the Tykes, they were founded in 1887 under the name Barnsley St. Peter's...
on 3 January 2009, and scored again in a later round against Middlesbrough.
On 15 April 2009, Ilunga agreed to turn his loan move into a permanent four-year contract with West Ham. The deal completed, Ilunga joined on permanent terms when the 2009 summer transfer window opened.
Doncaster Rovers
On 4 October 2011, he joined Doncaster Rovers on a three month loan. He made his debut on 14 October 2011 in a 3–0 home defeat against
Leeds UnitedLeeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
.
International career
Ilunga was part of the Congolese 2004 African Nations Cup team, who finished bottom of their group in the first round of competition, thus failing to secure qualification for the quarter-finals.
Ilunga helped DR Congo reach the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations in Egypt in 2006. The Leopards beat Togo and drew with Angola before being eliminated by the host nation in the last-eight.
Ilunga scored his first goal for his country in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Egypt in Cairo on 1 June 2008, but it was not enough to prevent the DR Congo being eliminated from the competition at the second qualifying round stage.
International goals
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
| 1. |
1 June 2008 |
Cairo International StadiumCairo International Stadium or "Stad El-Qahira El-Dawly", is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. It is the Arab World's second largest . It is the foremost Olympic-standard facility befitting the role of Cairo, Egypt as the center of events in the region...
, CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
|
|
1–0 |
1–2 |
2010 World Cup qualifier |
Appearances in major competitions
| Year | |Category | |Goals | 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Africa. 51 teams took part , competing for 5 World Cup places.The qualification was composed of two Rounds...
| Senior |
5 |
0 |
0 |
Did not Qualify |
| 2008 |
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification The Confederation of African Football section of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification saw teams compete for five berths in the final tournament in South Africa...
|
Senior |
4 |
0 |
0 |
Did not Qualify |
External links