 N'Jie withCameroon at the2021 Africa Cup of Nations | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Clinton Mua N'Jie | |||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1993-08-15)15 August 1993 (age 32) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Buea, Cameroon | |||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Forward,winger | |||||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006–2011 | Brasseries du Cameroun | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | 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) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2019–2022 | Dynamo Moscow | 61 | (6) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2022–2024 | Sivasspor | 57 | (4) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2024–2025 | Rapid București | 10 | (1) | |||||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 2014– | Cameroon | 44 | (10) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 6 April 2025 ‡ National team caps and goals as of 21 November 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Clinton Mua N'Jie (born 15 August 1993) is a Cameroonian professionalfootballer who plays as aforward.
He started his career withLyon, going up all the way from the youth program to the B squad and ultimately in the club's top tier squad in the FrenchLigue 1, before moving toTottenham Hotspur of thePremier League, and then back to Ligue 1 sideMarseille before moving to his current club.
N'Jie made his senior international debut for Cameroon in 2014 and represented the nation at theAfrica Cup of Nations in2015,2017,2019 and2021, winning the 2017 tournament and finishing third in the 2021 tournament.
N'Jie arrived atLyon during the summer of 2011. He joined the under-19 squad and quickly progressed to the reserve squad along withAnthony Martial andNabil Fekir, playing in theFrench 4th division. He played his first professional match during the2012–13 season againstStade de Reims in a 3–0 win.[2] N'Jie scored his first professional goal againstMladá Boleslav in the third qualifying round of the2014–15 UEFA Europa League, helping his team to a 2–1 victory.[3] On 13 August, he scored his firstLigue 1 goal in a 4–0 victory againstLorient.[4] Earlier that day, he signed a three-year contract extension with Lyon through to 2019.[3][5]Having been shortlisted for the 2014CAF Most Promising Talent of the Year,[6] N'Jie lost out toPorto andAlgeria midfielderYacine Brahimi.[7] He finished hisfirst 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, withNabil Fekir andAlexandre Lacazette. N'Jie also finished the season with a 73% shot-on-target ratio, second to only toParis Saint-Germain'sZlatan Ibrahimović, who ended the campaign on 74%.[10]
On 15 August 2015, English sideTottenham 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 aEuropa League group stage match againstQarabağ, coming on as a substitute forAndros Townsend. On 10 December 2015, he tore hismedial collateral ligament (MCL) after a challenge byJérémy Toulalan during a Europa League group stage match againstMonaco. 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 teammateJan Vertonghen during his recovery,[14] N'Jie eventually made his return on 8 May 2016 in a Premier League match againstSouthampton, 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 injuredNacer Chadli againstLiverpool.[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.[citation needed]
On 31 August 2016, N'Jie returned to Ligue 1, joiningMarseille on a season-long loan deal.[17] Marseille had a €7 million option to buy him at the end of the loan, andGeorges-Kévin Nkoudou headed toWhite Hart Lane on a permanent move in the opposite direction.[18] On 11 September, he made his debut as a substitute forWilliam Vainqueur in the 68th minute away toNice, and he scored his first goal two weeks later to equalise in a 2–1 home win againstNantes.[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 againstDijon, he came on at half time for injured captainDimitri Payet and scored two goals in a 3–0 win.[21] On 17 September, he scored both the goals in the away win overAmiens.[22] On 3 May 2018, he played in theEuropa League semi-finals away toFC Red Bull Salzburg as Marseille played out a 2–1 away loss but a 3–2 aggregate win to secure a place in the2018 UEFA Europa League Final.[23]
On 25 July 2019, N'Jie signed a four-year contract withRussian Premier League clubDynamo Moscow.[24] He scored his first goal for Dynamo on 27 October 2019, a late winner in a 1–0 victory overPFC CSKA Moscow.[25] N'Jie left Dynamo by mutual consent on 5 July 2022.[26]
On 29 July 2022, N'Jie signed with Sivasspor on a two-year contract.[27]
On 11 September 2024, N'Jie joined RomanianLiga I clubRapid București on a two-year deal.[28]
N'Jie scored 44 minutes into hisCameroon debut against theDemocratic Republic of Congo on 6 September 2014,[5][9] and followed this up four days later by scoring twice in a 4–1 victory overIvory Coast at theAhmadou Ahidjo Stadium inYaoundé, Cameroon.[5] He was named in the squad for the2015 Africa Cup of Nations[29] and played in one group stage match, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute in a 1–0 loss to Ivory Coast.[30]He won the2017 Africa Cup of Nations. On 3 February 2022, during the2021 Africa Cup of Nations, N'Jie missed the last penalty against Egypt. As a consequence, Cameroon was disqualified and Egypt secured a spot in the final[31] against Senegal.
N'Jie is a pacy forward[10][32][33] who likes to play on the shoulder of the last defender,[10] just off the front man.[34] He can also play off the wing,[9][32] and as dribbling is a key attribute of his game,[34] he likes to take on players when given the chance.[10] He frequently draws comparisons to Cameroon'sall-time leading scorer and compatriotSamuel Eto'o,[10][32][34][35] with this comparison being asserted by Lyon chairmanJean-Michel Aulas.[33]
| Club | Season | League | National cup[a] | League cup[b] | Europe | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Lyon B | 2011–12 | CFA | 14 | 5 | — | — | — | 14 | 5 | |||
| 2012–13 | 26 | 2 | — | — | — | 26 | 2 | |||||
| 2013–14 | 19 | 8 | — | — | — | 19 | 8 | |||||
| 2014–15 | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Total | 60 | 15 | — | — | — | 60 | 15 | |||||
| Lyon | 2012–13 | Ligue 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2013–14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3[c] | 0 | 6 | 0 | ||
| 2014–15 | 30 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2[c] | 1 | 33 | 8 | ||
| Total | 37 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 43 | 8 | ||
| Tottenham Hotspur | 2015–16 | Premier League | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5[c] | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| Marseille (loan) | 2016–17 | Ligue 1 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 23 | 4 | |
| Marseille | 2017–18 | Ligue 1 | 22 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13[c] | 1 | 39 | 9 |
| 2018–19 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3[c] | 0 | 21 | 3 | ||
| Total | 61 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 83 | 16 | ||
| Dynamo Moscow | 2019–20 | Russian Premier League | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | — | 19 | 1 | ||
| 2020–21 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 0 | — | 1[c] | 0 | 25 | 4 | |||
| 2021–22 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 0 | — | — | 22 | 1 | ||||
| Total | 61 | 6 | 4 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | 66 | 6 | |||
| Sivasspor | 2022–23 | Süper Lig | 29 | 2 | 3 | 1 | — | 9[d] | 0 | 41 | 3 | |
| 2023–24 | 28 | 2 | 3 | 0 | — | — | 31 | 2 | ||||
| Total | 57 | 4 | 6 | 1 | — | 9 | 0 | 72 | 5 | |||
| Rapid București | 2024–25 | Liga I | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 12 | 2 | ||
| Career total | 294 | 47 | 17 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 36 | 2 | 350 | 52 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameroon | 2014 | 6 | 3 |
| 2015 | 8 | 3 | |
| 2016 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2017 | 6 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2019 | 6 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2022 | 6 | 0 | |
| 2023 | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 44 | 10 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 September 2014 | Stade TP Mazembe,Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo |  DR Congo | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| 2 | 10 September 2014 | Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo,Yaoundé, Cameroon |  Ivory Coast | 1–0 | 4–1 | 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| 3 | 4–1 | |||||
| 4 | 30 March 2015 | Rajamangala Stadium,Bangkok, Thailand |  Thailand | 2–2 | 3–2 | Friendly |
| 5 | 6 June 2015 | Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir,Colombes, France |  Burkina Faso | 2–2 | 3–2 | Friendly |
| 6 | 3–2 | |||||
| 7 | 7 October 2017 | Stade 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 2019 | Alexandria Stadium,Alexandria, Egypt |  Nigeria | 2–1 | 2–3 | 2019 Africa Cup of Nations |
| 10 | 12 November 2020 | Stade de la Réunification,Douala, Cameroon |  Mozambique | 4–1 | 4–1 | 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
Lyon
Marseille
Dynamo Moscow
Sivasspor
Cameroon
Cameroon squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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