Chancel Mbemba was standing on the penalty spot in front of the Gallowgate End. Jonjo Shelvey’s free kick from the right hadn’t been cleared properly, and the centre back delayed his return to the Newcastle half, sensing a chance.
Barely a second later, Ayoze Pérez’s shot was parried into his path by Barnsley goalkeeper Adam Davies, and it sat up in front of Mbemba. He side-footed it into the ground, and the net bulged. “I had prayed to God. In the past, when I played with other teams, I used to score goals. But for a long time since I came here, I hadn’t scored,” recalls the 23-year-old.
“So I prayed he would let me score a goal. He gave me this chance to do so, and this goal helped us to gain promotion to the Premier League. But above all, it was the result of hard work. I scored this goal for everyone, everyone who has always supported me, to say thank you.”
The celebrations began later that night and for Mbemba, who came to the fore in the end-of-season run-in, it meant a great deal. Out of favour for much of 2016/17, he came back into the fold at the campaign’s close, starting five of the final seven Championship games. “It was all about hard work. Without work, I am nothing at all. I am aware of that. This is my job. When you work hard, you reap rewards. There are good and bad times in life, but you need to always work hard – and when you do that, you will make good things for yourself.”
A title winners’ medal was just reward for the efforts of Mbemba, a quiet man who gives few interviews. His English is improving – “I am having classes at home with my wife. I am making a lot of effort, things are going OK” – but, especially in the testing times which have seen him drop out of the squad on occasions over the past year, he feels actions trump words.
“Obviously, when I am not in the team, it hurts,” he admits. “But this is the reality of football. When these things happen, you need to be very strong mentally and continue to work. The manager is the one who knows best, and who he wants to choose. He is the boss and we are behind him and support him.
“Being strong mentally is something you have from the start. I needed to be strong from the outset, when I was in Africa. You need to know that, in life, things will not always be easy, and you need to keep this in mind. Sometimes you can make mistakes, or go down the wrong road.
“But thanks to God, he gave me a strong mentality which not everyone has. But sometimes, things aren’t easy.”
There is a resilience about Mbemba, who speaks about the virtues of hard work on multiple occasions during his first sit-down interview of 2017/18. His faith is also patently important to him.
But when asked about the challenges of playing at left-back, as he has done this term, there is also a detectable self-confidence in the words of a player who turned up for his Newcastle debut in 2015 wearing a tuxedo.
“When you head off to fight, the General tells you what to do,” says the former Anderlecht man. “When he says, ‘Chancel go and play in such-and-such a position’, I go out and try to adapt as soon as possible, as I know they need me in that position. That is my strength. That is what I do.
“I have a lot of qualities to play in a lot of positions. I am well aware that I have played left back, and was there to replace an injury (to Paul Dummett), and he is now on the road back to fitness.
“But it is not me who chooses, it is the manager. When he looks at each player he can see the qualities they have individually, and he chooses who plays in which position. He told me, ‘Chancel, you have the ability, wherever I play you. You will be able to play’. I play to help my team and when I am needed, I give 100 per cent. That’s what matters for me.
“All I can do is to continue to work hard. I am here to work for the team, the staff and the fans. It is all about my hard work. And I want to be ready whenever the manager calls upon me.”
In the early weeks of the season, he appeared a steady but solid enough presence on the left-hand side of a new-look defence. It is trickier to coax Mbemba into offering an assessment of his own displays so far. “For me, I watch the videos afterwards, but I don’t feel it is my place to rate my performances,” he says. “It is up to others, the manager and coaches to look and tell me what I did well or not so well.
“But all I want are the criticisms, because I am still young and I want to learn and improve each day, and that is how I will do that.”
After another spell out of the team, Mbemba lined up for the 2-2 draw at West Bromwich Albion in November. Earlier that month, he had been part of the DR Congo side that narrowly missed out on qualification for next summer’s World Cup in Russia.
He played in central midfield, as he often does for his country, in their 3-1 win over Guinea in their final qualifier. But their fate had effectively been sealed with a 2-2 draw with eventual group winners Tunisia in September.
Mbemba’s side had led 2-0, with the Magpies man – wearing the captain’s armband – scoring his third international goal before going off injured. They were then pegged back and, despite two subsequent victories, it wasn’t enough. “Firstly, I want to say I am proud to be with Congo,” he insists. “But I am sad, as when we played against Tunisia I picked up an injury and we lost our chance of going to the World Cup. That draw ruined our chances.
“We are upset, we have prayed a lot. But we have a chance again in 2022 and we will not let it slip by. Since 1974 we haven’t been in a World Cup, and I wasn’t even alive. We will work hard to be on form to qualify for 2022. We all want to go and play in a World Cup and will do all we can. We have a lot of time to work hard and will make sure we do what we need.”
Domestically, Mbemba kept his place for United’s trip to Chelsea, reverting to a familiar centre half role. He remains a popular figure in his third season on Tyneside; when called upon, he has proved to be dependable, versatile and willing.
Before his first goal for the club against Barnsley on that memorable day in May, he spoke of what would satisfy him come the end of the Championship season. “When I came here we were a Premier League team, and I was proud of that,” he told this publication. “If we get back up, which is our goal, then I’ll be even more proud.”
This time around, he has a new target, and typically for a player with his appetite for graft, a clear idea of how to achieve it. “For me, we need everyone – we need the support and hard work of all the players to be able to stay in the Premier League and finish as high as possible,” he says.
“To do that will make us proud. But to do that we need every player, their support and their hard work.”
