Chancel Mbemba tormented England at the World Cup on Wednesday. A decade ago, the DR Congo defender was lost in the north-east of the country, convinced he was being kidnapped.
Mbemba set up DR Congo’s shock early goal against England in the Round of 32, flicking the ball on for Brian Cipenga to finish past Jordan Pickford inside the opening ten minutes in Atlanta.
England scraped through in the end, but he put on an admirable display.
That makes it the perfect time to look back on a crazy story from his time at Newcastle, on the day of his Premier League debut.
Chancel Mbemba’s bizarre Newcastle United kidnap scare
Mbemba had just completed an £8.5million move to Newcastle from Anderlecht and, with no English and no permanent home yet, was living in a hotel in Gateshead.
Excited for his first taste of the Premier League, he jumped into a taxi outside the hotel believing it was a club car sent to take him to St James’ Park. He was, for reasons never fully explained, dressed in a tuxedo.
The taxi was booked for a supermarket run, not the 52,000-seater stadium. With no shared language, Mbemba could not understand the driver, and the driver had no idea he was carrying a Premier League footballer due on the pitch.
Panicked that he would be fined for turning up late, the defender tried to call club officials before finally reaching a translator who calmed him down. A source told the Daily Mirror the whole episode was difficult at the time but funny once it was over.
The source said: “It all turned out fine in the end as he had an outstanding game and was very pleased with his debut.
“But he really did think he was being abducted at one stage and the whole situation was difficult because of the language barrier. The driver apparently thought he had the right fare.”
Mbemba went on to make more than 60 appearances for Newcastle before moving on to Porto and later Marseille, building the career that now has him captaining DR Congo at their first World Cup since 1974.
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