Exclusive: Ex-Liverpool Defender Mavinga Opens Up to Anfield Index | OneFootball

Exclusive: Former Liverpool Defender Reflects on ‘Impressive’ Career

At 34 years of age, Chris Mavinga has enjoyed quite an impressive football career. Born in Meaux, France, Mavinga was raised in the Parisian metropolitan region to an Angolan mother and a DR Congolese father, where he quickly became enamored with the Beautiful Game and used just about his every waking hour to play football either on the streets with his friends or with a local club side. After plying his trade in Combs-la-Ville, Sénart-Moissy and Viry-Châtillon, Mavinga attracted the attention of Paris Saint-Germain’s scouts after he impressed in a U-16 league match against PSG. Despite also having interest from Liverpool, Mavinga decided to make the move to PSG in June 2006.

“I started playing football when I was 5 years old with an amateur team…It was by dream to become a professional player, but it was very challenging to achieve that in Paris,” stated Mavinga in an exclusive Anfield Index interview. “I started playing with my friends and just seeing how high a level I could reach, and when I was 14, I joined PSG’s academy. My main attribute was speed – I was a very fast defender.”

Mavinga rose up the academy ranks and even started training with PSG’s senior team, before growing frustrated with the lack of guidance from the club’s youth structure, the unapproachable attitude of a few senior team players, and the disappointing news that he would not be receiving a first-team contract and a prominent role. It’s why, in June 2009, Mavinga decided to make the move to Liverpool, rejecting interest from Arsenal as well as a contract offer from PSG. Mavinga was placed on the club’s reserve team and played in the Premier Reserve League, but he soon started training with the senior team during the latter stages of the 2009/10 season and impressed manager Rafa Benítez, who told him that he could be the next Eric Ábidal. And after winning the 2010 U-19 Euros on home soil France, it seemed that Mavinga was headed for a breakthrough 2010/11 season with the Reds.

“It was one of my best moments, for sure,” stated Mavinga of the U-19 Euros. “If you saw me when I was young, I wasn’t the best player in my position, so had to I reset everything for it to start clicking. I wasn’t always the best player, I wasn’t the player who, when you watch the game, you immediately say, ‘Oh, this guy is very good.’ For me, it was a good achievement, because I started to play very good football between 17 and 19 and tell myself, ‘I need to play and be the best, I don’t want to have any regrets in the future. To be able to play with France’s U18s and U19s, it was a great achievement. It was a great time being able to play with good players and beat a very good Spain team in the final…it was a very special moment.”

Instead, however, the arrival of Roy Hodgson as manager would see Mavinga relegated to training full-time with the reserves. With playing time unbecoming, he decided to make the move to Genk on loan midway through the 2010/11 campaign, where he made his senior debut and won the league title. He then returned to France, joining Rennes on a permanent deal, where he emerged as a reliable figure both at left back and center back. Similar to other defenders like Harry Maguire, Lalas Abubakar, Gonçalo Inácio and Dean Huijsen, Mavinga excelled at driving forward and playing the ball into advanced areas, whilst he also thrived at reading opposing attacks and stepping in with a key intervention.

Mavinga then moved to Russian outfit Rubin Kazan in 2013, lasting just a season before being loaned out to relegation-battling Ligue 1 sides Reims and Troyes. In 2017, Mavinga decided to pack up his belongings and make the move across the Atlantic, joining Toronto FC, where he helped them become the first and only MLS side to win a domestic treble. He left for LA Galaxy in 2023, where he lasted just one year before deciding to hang up his boots.

Today, Mavinga spends his time raising his two kids, bouncing around from Paris to Atlanta, and viewing football matches as he prepares to launch a new career as a scout. He constantly has his eyes glued to the TV / computer and is monitoring teams across Europe and America.

“I want to be a scout for any team in the world, especially in Europe, but also North America and Africa. My big goal is to be a chief scout, I don’t want to be a GM, sporting director or president; that’s too much responsibility, and I can’t shoulder that. But I always like to watch football and find the right players who have the best mentality. You have to know everything about the players, not just how they are on the field but off it. If you want to build a team, you need to find the right people…that’s the most important thing. Players with the right mentality who are going to work hard every day…those are the players that are the most difficult to find.”