Joseph Elanga

Joseph Elanga Fils (born 2 May 1979) is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Starting off his career in Cameroon, he went on to play professionally in Greece, Sweden, and Denmark before retiring in 2012.

Joseph Elanga
Elanga with Malmö FF in January 2010
Personal information
Full name Joseph Elanga Fils
Date of birth (1979-05-02) 2 May 1979
Place of birth Yaoundé, Cameroon
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
1993–1997 C.N.P.S.
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–1998 Canon Yaoundé 0 (0)
1998–1999 PAOK 17 (0)
1999–2000 Apollon Kalamarias 29 (1)
2000–2005 Malmö FF 121 (5)
2006–2009 Brøndby 33 (1)
2008–2009 → Horsens (loan) 32 (1)
2010 Malmö FF 10 (0)
Total 242 (8)
National team
1998–2002 Cameroon 17 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Elanga won 17 caps for the Cameroon national team, representing them at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

Elange was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon. After leaving the country in 1998 Elanga started his European career in Greece playing for PAOK and Apollon Kalamarias.

Malmö FF

After a year in each club Elanga left Greece in 2000 to transfer to Swedish club Malmö FF. He stayed at the club for five years playing 130 league games and winning the Swedish championship in 2004.

Denmark

In 2005 Elanga left for Denmark and Brøndby IF. After a couple of tough seasons he went on loan at fellow Danish club AC Horsens. His contract with Brøndby ended in 2009 and Elanga became a free agent.

Return to Malmö

In early 2010, Elanga announced that he would be training with his old team Malmö FF for a week,[1] a few weeks later he signed a new contract with Malmö and returned to the club after four years.[2] For the 2010 season Elanga had very limited playtime as he was only the second choice for the left back position behind Ricardinho, however he did get the chance to play for a couple of games in the beginning of the season when Ricardinho was injured and a few other games. In the end he played enough games to win his second Allsvenskan title with the club.

Retirement

Elanga's contract was not renewed and he moved to his family in Borås to find a new club to play for. On 9 January 2012, he announced his decision to end his playing career to focus on studying for a UEFA Pro Licence and become a coach.[3]

International career

Elanga represented Cameroon national football team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but did not play as Cameroon was eliminated after the group stage.[4] He won a total of 17 caps for his country.[5]

Personal life

Joseph Elanga is the father of Sweden U17 international Anthony Elanga.,[6] who plays in the youth academy for Manchester United [7]

Honours

Club

Malmö FF

Footnotes
  1. Två vänsterfötter provtränar Archived 21 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Joseph Elanga klar för Malmö FF Archived 4 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Elanga lägger av: "Jag ska bli tränare"
  4. "Elanga mot afrikanska mästerskapen". Malmö FF (in Swedish). 29 December 2001. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  5. "Intervju med Joseph Elanga". Malmö FF (in Swedish). 1 September 2003. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  6. "MFF-profilens son uttagen i landslaget: "Jag är imponerad"". 24Malmö.se (in Swedish). 22 November 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  7. https://www.manutd.com/en/players-and-staff/detail/anthony-elanga
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