Exclusive | Former France youth international Chris Mavinga on his career twilight in the MLS | OneFootball

It has been just over 15 years since the 2010 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, which saw eight teams compete for glory in the 57th edition of the annual competition. From Nathaniel Clyne to David Alaba, from Koke to Danilo Pereira, several future stars gave an impressive account of themselves during the 12-day-long tournament, but it was hosts France who prevailed with the ultimate prize in Caen after pulling off comeback victories against Croatia and Spain in the semis and final.

From those 18 champions, only three would end up representing Les Bleus at the senior level: Antoine Griezmann, Clément Grenier and Alexandre Lacazette. However, several others would make an impact in international football after switching over from Les Bleus, like Loïc Nego, who has emerged as a key figure in attack for Hungary, bagging an assist in their most recent fixture against Portugal. There’s also Gilles Sunu, who played for Togo, Abdoulaye Diallo, who suited up for Senegal, and Cédric Bakambu, Gaël Kakuta, and Chris Mavinga, who represented the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Managerial change at Liverpool hinders Mavinga’s opportunities

Born in Meaux, France, to an Angolan mother and a DR Congolese father, Mavinga grew up plying his trade in the streets of the Parisian metropolitan region and playing for parochial sides like Combs-la-Ville, Sénart-Moissy, and Viry-Châtillon. And after impressing against Paris Saint-Germain’s U16s in a league match, he made the move to PSG in 2006, rejecting interest from Liverpool. Mavinga would ascend the youth ranks and even start training with the senior team, but with a professional contract appearing unlikely, he decided to leave his hometown and join Liverpool in 2009.

Having eschewed a move to Arsenal in favour of a transfer to Anfield, Mavinga started playing for the club’s reserves in the Premier Reserve League before eventually training with the first team during the second half of the 2009/10 season under Rafa Benítez. And after winning the U-19 Euros on home soil alongside the likes of Griezmann, Lacazette and Francis Coquelin, all signs pointed to him building on his development in 2010/11; instead, the arrival of Roy Hodgson as manager would see Mavinga relegated to the reserves. Mavinga decided to join Genk on loan, where he made his professional debut and won the league title as a backup left back.

“Before I moved to Toronto, I always played at left back,” stated Mavinga in an exclusive Get French Football News interview. “I played centre back in the academy, but when I went to the first team in Belgium, I played left back up until being repositioned as a centre back. So I had two moments in my career, my first year at Toronto and second year at Rennes, which were my peaks.”

Mavinga then returned to France in 2011 and joined Rennes, making 22 appearances in all competitions and staking his reputation as a regular in defence. He continued his upward momentum in 2012/13, making 31 appearances for the Breton side and helping them reach the Coupe de la Ligue Final, but his season was marred by an incident in October 2012. After winning the first leg 1-0, France were preparing to face off against Norway in the second leg just a few days later; if they avoided defeat in Norway, they’d confirm their spot in the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

An ill-advised soirée puts paid to France chances

Instead, Norway would end up prevailing 5-3 to book their ticket to next summer’s tournament. L’Équipe would later reveal that, in between the two qualifiers, several France players left their hotel in Le Havre and travelled 200km to Paris, where they spent a night at a discothèque on the Champs-Élysées, before heading back to training. M’Baye Niang, Wissam Ben Yedder, Griezmann and Mavinga were banned from representing France until December 31, 2013, whilst Yan M’Vila was banned until June 30, 2014.

Whilst Mavinga and Niang would end up switching over to DR Congo and Senegal, and whilst M’Vila’s France career ended after 22 caps, Ben Yedder and Griezmann would end up playing for Les Bleus at the senior level. M’Vila and Mavinga would end up leaving Rennes for Rubin Kazan in the summer of 2013, with Mavinga making 15 appearances before returning to France, spending two straight seasons on loan with struggling Ligue 1 outfits Reims and Troyes and playing 11 and 23 times there, respectively.

After returning to Russia in 2016, Mavinga found himself devoid of playing opportunities, prompting him to depart midway through the 2016/17 campaign and join MLS side Toronto FC. Having spent the first years of his professional career as a left back, Mavinga wanted to be a centre back, where he originally played at the youth level. And unlike the other European teams that were interested in signing him, Toronto were willing to allow him to play in the middle of defence.

The Congolese defender quickly emerged as a vital cog in the back for Toronto, who became the only team in MLS history to win a domestic treble after claiming the MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship in 2017. Similar to many others like Alphonso Davies, Jeyhan Bhindi and Brian White, Mavinga was able to use Canadian football as a platform to launch himself into stardom and win the silverware that had eluded him up until then. He excelled at the back for the Reds, playing 153 times before moving to California and spending the 2023 season with LA Galaxy, where he played 21 times, before being cut just a few days before the start of the 2024 season.

“We never want to stop as players. When I was in Galaxy, they waived me a few days before the season, and I didn’t have a shot of moving to Europe or playing in a difficult country, because I needed to stay in the U.S., because of my son, who had to undergo five different surgeries for the Vein of Galen malformation. When I was away from the Galaxy, I stayed in the USA to make sure my son recovered from his tough situation. That’s why I stopped a little bit, because I used to just do everything. My last kid was born in 2021, and after the fifth surgery, the surgeon told my wife and me that we need to wait a little bit before we do another surgery. Because my son was not in good health, the journey was heavy for me. We wanted to go to a different space and reconnect, because we were spending so much time at the hospital…staying in Toronto and trying to perform on the pitch didn’t mesh.”

A premature end

“I wanted something else, and I almost signed for Nashville. Everything was set up. I spoke with the team manager, but then LA’s coach Greg Vanney called me and asked if I was still free, and I had told him I was going to sign for Nashville. My wife thought it would be better for our situation, so I called Nashville and told them I was going to LA. But had it not been for my family’s predicament, I wouldn’t have left Toronto. It was the best place, and I had a lot of success there. My year in LA was difficult because of my family and my coach; Bob was very hard on me. It’s difficult to live like this when you know your son is not in good condition, and people sometimes don’t understand that when you go on the field, you play badly, but you don’t know the things you do in your house.”

Whilst Mavinga has been forced to call it quits as a professional footballer after 70 Ligue 1 appearances and 140 MLS appearances, he hasn’t strayed away from the Beautiful Game. Today, Mavinga spends his time bouncing between Atlanta and Paris, pursuing aviation badges and raising his two kids, including his son, who received a clean bill of health in February. And he’s also pursuing an education in scouting, having received a Level 2 in Talent Identification in Football certificate and an Introduction & Level 1 Identification in Football certificate from the Professional Football Scouts Association.

GFFN | Zach Lowy