Mohamed Amoura Apologises After Mocking DR Congo Superfan ‘Lumumba’ at AFCON
Algeria ahead Mohamed Amoura has issued an apology following the wave of criticism that trailed his celebration at some level of Algeria’s narrow gain over the Democratic Republic of Congo at AFCON 2025. What began as a gradual, anxious soccer 2nd immediate spilled into a worthy broader conversation about symbolism, history and appreciate.
Algeria edged DR Congo 1–0 after overtime in Rabat, with Adil Boulbina scoring the decisive just in the 119th minute to send the 2019 champions through to the quarter-finals, the put they’re going to now face Nigeria. Because the remaining whistle went, Amoura changed into against the stands and mimicked a well-known pose sooner than shedding to the turf — a gesture many viewers straight linked to DR Congo’s notorious superfan, Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, popularly called “Lumumba”.
Mboladinga has change into one of the indispensable talked-about figures at AFCON 2025 in Morocco, known for standing motionless all the device through DR Congo fits with one hand raised. The pose is a tribute to Patrice Lumumba, the country’s first prime minister and a key Pan-African figure who was once assassinated in 1961 following Congo’s independence from Belgium. For many Congolese followers, the image carries deep political and historic meaning.
Amoura’s actions were immediate criticised on-line, with many deciphering them as mockery no longer lawful of a fan, however of what Lumumba represents to Congo and Africa’s wider independence fight. Because the backlash grew, the Wolfsburg striker took to social media to repeat himself and apologise.
“The match against Congo was once a sizable sport, very intense, with lots of stress and emotion on the pitch,” Amoura wrote. “I are searching to account for one thing: at that 2nd, I was once no longer privy to what the person or the brand in the stands represented. I simply wished to banter, in a upright-natured spirit, and not using a unsightly intentions or have to provoke anyone.
“I appreciate Congo and its crew. Truthfully, I wish them the most straight forward and hope they qualify for the World Cup.
“If my angle may well perhaps well also were misunderstood, I sincerely regret it, in consequence of that was once fully no longer my map.
“I dwell centered on the pitch and on representing my country with pleasure.”
Beyond the apology, stories counsel that the Algerian Football Federation has also stepped in to easy tensions. The federation is declared to possess prolonged an legitimate invitation to Mboladinga with a VVIP delegation reportedly dispatched to Casablanca to formally acquire him.
