{"id":396121,"date":"2026-01-08T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396121\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:00:08","slug":"drc-lumumba-statue-fan-at-afcon-meets-algerias-soccer-team-after-player-mocked-him-over-his-gesture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396121\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC ‘Lumumba’ statue fan at AFCON meets Algeria\u2019s soccer team after player mocked him over his gesture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> superfan, Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, met up with Algeria\u2019s national soccer team on Wednesday after a player with the North African side appeared to mock his gesture following their round of 16 game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mboladinga made headlines and went viral on social media because of his conspicuous posture during the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s games at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco<\/a>. Mboladinga, who has a striking resemblance to the assassinated Congolese independence hero, Patrice \u00c9mery Lumumba, posed like his statue during the DRC\u2019s games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after the DRC\u2019s 1-0 defeat to Algeria<\/a> after extra time on Tuesday, Algerian player Mohamed Amoura stood before the DRC fans and mimicked Mboladinga\u2019s gesture before falling on the ground as if a statue had been toppled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amoura received backlash<\/a> over his actions, as people perceived that he was ridiculing Lumumba, who led the DRC to gain independence from Belgium in 1960. Amoura later took to social media to apologize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: The chilling details of Patrice Lumumba\u2019s assassination and how he was dissolved in acid<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe match against Congo was a big game, very intense, with a lot of tension and emotion on the pitch,\u201d Amoura, who also plays for the German soccer team, Wolfsburg, wrote, per ESPN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to clarify one thing: at that moment, I was not aware of what the person or the symbol present in the stands represented. I simply wanted to joke around, in a light-hearted spirit, without any bad intention or desire to provoke anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect Congo and their team. Honestly, I wish them all the best and I hope they qualify for the World Cup. If my attitude may have been misunderstood, I sincerely regret it, because that was absolutely not my intention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain focused on the pitch and on representing my country with pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following their match, the Algerian team<\/a> invited Mboladinga to meet them. He was gifted with an Algeria jersey with Lumumba printed behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: Belgium has now returned Lumumba\u2019s tooth 61 years after he was killed and dissolved in acid<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Democratic Republic of Congo superfan, Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, met up with Algeria\u2019s national soccer team on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-396121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}