Gaël Kakuta
Squad number 11 · AEL
Their 2026 World Cup
Gaël Kakuta travelled to the 2026 World Cup with DR Congo, wearing number 11, without ever getting on the pitch. His side played 4 matches (1 win, 1 draw and 2 defeats) and bowed out in the round of 32, beaten by England 2-1.
Attack went to Y. Wissa (4 matches, 360′) and C. Bakambu (3 matches, 193′).
Another 4 players in the DR Congo squad ended up the same way, without a single minute. The full run is on the DR Congo team page.
Biography
Gaël Roméo Kakuta Mambenga (born 21 June 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Greek Super League club AEL. Born in France, he represents the DR Congo national team. A youth product of RC Lens, Kakuta moved to Chelsea in 2007 in a controversial transfer. Rarely used at Chelsea, he was loaned to six teams in five countries before leaving for Sevilla upon the expiration of his contract in 2015. He was a French youth international and represented the nation at every age group from under-16 to under-21 levels, before switching allegiance to the DR Congo national team in 2017.
Early career Kakuta was born in Lille, Nord. He started playing football at the age of seven, after seeing his uncle play for the reserve team of Lille. He began his career with local club US Lille-Moulins. In his first match with the club, they lost 17–1, however, the defeat was not enough to put him off. In 1999, he joined Lens as a youth player, and spent five years there.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) · text adapted from the article.
See all the tournament stats on the World Cup data hub.
Photo: Supporterhéninois · Wikimedia Commons (CC0)