Clinton N'Jie

Clinton Mua N'Jie (born 15 August 1993) is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays for Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Premier League and the Cameroon national team. He is known for his pace and dribbling skills.

Clinton N'Jie
N'Jie with Dynamo Moscow in 2019
Personal information
Full name Clinton Mua N'Jie
Date of birth (1993-08-15) 15 August 1993
Place of birth Buea, Cameroon
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Playing position(s) Forward, winger
Club information
Current team
 Dynamo Moscow
Number 9
Youth career
2010–2012 Lyon
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2011–2014 Lyon B 60 (15)
2012–2015 Lyon 37 (7)
2015–2017 Tottenham Hotspur 8 (0)
2016–2017 → Marseille (loan) 22 (4)
2017–2019 Marseille 39 (10)
2019– Dynamo Moscow 15 (1)
National team‡
2014– Cameroon 32 (9)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 7 March 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17:10, 6 October 2019(UTC)

He started his career with Lyon, going up all the way from the youth program to the B squad and ultimately in the club's top tier squad in the French Ligue 1, before moving to Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League, and then back to Ligue 1 side Marseille before moving to his current club.

N'Jie made his senior international debut for Cameroon in 2014 and represented the nation at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, 2017 and 2019, winning the 2017 tournament.

Club career

Lyon

N'Jie arrived at Lyon during the summer of 2011. He joined the under-19 squad and quickly progressed to the reserve squad along with Anthony Martial and Nabil Fekir, playing in the French 4th division. He played his first professional match during the 2012–13 season against Stade de Reims in a 3–0 win.[2] N'Jie scored his first professional goal against Mladá Boleslav in the third qualifying round of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, helping his team to a 2–1 victory.[3] On 13 August, he scored his first Ligue 1 goal in a 4–0 victory against Lorient.[4] Earlier that day, he signed a three-year contract extension with Lyon through to 2019.[3][5] Having been shortlisted for the 2014 CAF Most Promising Talent of the Year,[6] N'Jie lost out to Porto and Algeria midfielder Yacine Brahimi.[7] He finished his first full season at Lyon with eight goals and seven assists in 33 appearances,[8] despite only starting half of his 30 league games,[9] as he was the third piece of the Lyon attacking line, with Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette. N'Jie also finished the season with a 73% shot-on-target ratio, second to only to Paris Saint-Germain's Zlatan Ibrahimović, who ended the campaign on 74%.[10]

Tottenham Hotspur

On 15 August 2015, English side Tottenham Hotspur announced that the club had reached an agreement for the signing of N'Jie from Lyon, subject to international clearance and a work permit.[11][12] N'Jie agreed to a five-year contract with a reported transfer fee of €12 million (£8.3 million). N'Jie made his Spurs debut on 17 September in a Europa League group stage match against Qarabağ, coming on as a substitute for Andros Townsend. On 10 December 2015, he tore his medial collateral ligament (MCL) after a challenge by Jérémy Toulalan during a Europa League group stage match against Monaco. He had to undergo knee surgery for the MCL tear and was expected to out of action for at least 1–2 months, and possibly longer.[13] Working with injured teammate Jan Vertonghen during his recovery,[14] N'Jie eventually made his return on 8 May 2016 in a Premier League match against Southampton, in what would be his final appearance of the season.[15]

N'Jie made 8 appearances (all of them as a substitute) for Tottenham in the Premier League, his longest a 79-minute affair when he replaced the injured Nacer Chadli against Liverpool.[16] In addition, N'Jie made 5 appearances, starting in 2 of them, in Tottenham's Europa League campaign, and did not score a goal in all competitions.

Marseille

On 31 August 2016, N'Jie returned to Ligue 1, joining Marseille on a season-long loan deal.[17] Marseille had a €7 million option to buy him at the end of the loan, and Georges-Kévin Nkoudou headed to White Hart Lane on a permanent move in the opposite direction.[18] On 11 September, he made his debut as a substitute for William Vainqueur in the 68th minute away to Nice, and he scored his first goal two weeks later to equalise in a 2–1 home win against Nantes.[19]

On 16 July 2017, N'Jie made his move to Marseille permanent, signing for an undisclosed fee.[20] On 6 August, in the season opener against Dijon, he came on at half time for injured captain Dimitri Payet and scored two goals in a 3–0 win.[21] On 17 September, he scored both the goals in the away win over Amiens.[22] On 3 May 2018, he played in the Europa League semi-finals away to FC Red Bull Salzburg as Marseille played out a 2–1 away loss but a 3–2 aggregate win to secure a place in the 2018 UEFA Europa League Final.[23]

Dynamo Moscow

On 25 July 2019, Njie signed a four-year contract with Russian Premier League club Dynamo Moscow.[24] He scored his first goal for Dynamo on 27 October 2019, a late winner in a 1–0 victory over PFC CSKA Moscow.[25]

International career

N'Jie scored 44 minutes into his Cameroon debut against the Democratic Republic of Congo on 6 September 2014,[5][9] and followed this up four days later by scoring twice in a 4–1 victory over Ivory Coast at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé, Cameroon.[5] He was named in the squad for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations[26] and played in one group stage match, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute in a 1–0 loss to Ivory Coast.[27] He won the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

Style of play

N'Jie is a pacy forward[10][28][29] who likes to play on the shoulder of the last defender,[10] just off the front man.[30] He can also play off the wing,[9][28] and as dribbling is a key attribute of his game,[30] he likes to take on players when given the chance.[10] He frequently draws comparisons to Cameroon's all-time leading scorer and compatriot Samuel Eto'o,[10][28][30][31] with this comparison being asserted by Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas.[29]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played 7 March 2020[32][33]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Europe Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Lyon 2012–13 Ligue 1 4000000040
2013–14 3000003[lower-alpha 1]060
2014–15 30710002[lower-alpha 1]1338
Total 377100051438
Tottenham Hotspur 2015–16 Premier League 8000105[lower-alpha 1]0140
Marseille (loan) 2016–17 Ligue 1 2241000—234
Marseille 2017–18 227311013[lower-alpha 1]1399
2018–19 17300103[lower-alpha 1]0213
Total 611441201618316
Dynamo Moscow 2019–20 Russian Premier League 15100——151
Career total 12122513026215525
  1. Appearance(s) in the UEFA Europa League

International
As of match played on 6 July 2019[34]
Cameroon
YearAppsGoals
201463
201583
201620
201761
201840
201962
Total329

International goals
Score and Result list Cameroon's goal tally first[33]
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result CompetitionRef
1.6 September 2014Stade TP Mazembe, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo DR Congo
1–0
2–0
2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
2.10 September 2014Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yaoundé, Cameroon Ivory Coast
1–0
4–1
3.
4–1
4.30 March 2015Rajamangala Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand Thailand
2–2
3–2
Friendly
5.6 June 2015Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Colombes, France Burkina Faso
2–2
3–2
6.
3–2
7.7 October 2017Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yaoundé, Cameroon Algeria
1–0
2–0
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
8.23 March 2019 Comoros
3–0
3–0
2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
9.6 July 2019Alexandria Stadium, Alexandria, Egypt Nigeria
2–1
2–3
2019 Africa Cup of Nations

Honours

Club

Lyon

Marseille

International

Cameroon

References
  1. "Clinton N'Jié". olweb.fr. Lyon. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  2. "Tottenham to hold talks with Lyon star Clinton N'Jie after agreeing £10m fee". Daily Mail. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  3. "N'Jie extends Lyon stay". sportal.com.au. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  4. "Olympique Lyonnais 4-0 Lorient (french)". Goal.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  5. "Clinton N'Jie extends Lyon contract and scores his first goal". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  6. "Aubameyang, Enyeama, Toure make top three". cafonline.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  7. "Brahimi is Most Promising Talent of the Year". cafonline.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  8. "Tottenham transfer news: Cameroon striker close to securing £10m switch to White Hart Lane". talkSPORT. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  9. "Clinton N'Jie: the Ligue 1 speedster set to sign for Spurs". FourFourTwo. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  10. "Clinton N'Jie: The Tottenham transfer target profiled by WyScout". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  11. "Njie seals move". tottenhamhotspur.com. Tottenham Hotspur Ltd. 15 August 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  12. "Tottenham sign Lyon striker on five-year deal". BBC Sport. 15 August 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  13. "Tottenham's Clinton N'Jie has knee surgery, out indefinitely". 20 December 2015.
  14. "CLINTON 'HUNGRY' TO RETURN". Tottenham Hotspur Ltd. 8 March 2016.
  15. "CLINTON'S FORWARD FOCUS". Tottenham Hotspur Ltd. 10 May 2016.
  16. Prenderville, Liam (20 October 2015). "Tottenham midfielder Nacer Chadli ruled out for six weeks with ankle ligament damage". Mirror.
  17. "Clinton N'Jie est Olympien" [Clinton N'Jie is Olympien] (in French). Olympique de Marseille. 31 August 2016. Archived from the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  18. "Georges-Kevin Nkoudou completes move to Tottenham from Marseille". ESPNFC. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  19. "Nice 3 - 2 Marseille". Euro Sports. 11 September 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  20. "Clinton Njie: Tottenham's Cameroon forward heading to Marseille". BBC Sport. 16 July 2017.
  21. "Marseille too strong for Dijon". www.ligue1.com. 6 August 2017.
  22. "Njie double gives Marseille relief". www.ligue1.com. 17 September 2017.
  23. "FC Red Bull Salzburg 2–1 Marseille". BBC Sport. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  24. "Клинтон Н`Жи – в «Динамо»!" [Clinton N'Jie is at Dynamo!] (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 25 July 2019.
  25. "CSKA v Dynamo game report". Russian Premier League. 27 October 2019.
  26. "LISTE DES JOUEURS CONVOQUES POUR LE STAGE DE PREPARATION DE LA CAN 2015" (in French). Cameroonian Football Federation. 24 December 2014. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  27. "Cameroon 0-1 Ivory Coast". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  28. "Spurs To Complete Signing Of "The New Samuel Eto'o" This Week". sabotagetimes.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  29. "Aulas : "N'jie est le futur Samuel Eto'o" (french)". Goal.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  30. "Who is Clinton N'Jie? A closer look at the Tottenham target". Sky Sports. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  31. "Arsenal keeping tabs on 'new Samuel Eto'o' Lyon striker Clinton N'Jie". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  32. Clinton N'Jié at Soccerbase
  33. Clinton N'Jie at Soccerway. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  34. Clinton N'Jie at National-Football-Teams.com
  35. https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/44052050
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