Brice Samba

Brice Samba
Samba playing for Lens in 2023
Personal information
Full name Brice Lauriche Samba[1]
Date of birth (1994-04-25) 25 April 1994 (age 30)
Place of birth Linzolo, Republic of the Congo
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)[2]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
 Lens
Number 30
Youth career
2001–2002 Pacy Vallée-d'Eure
2002–2006 Madeleine Evreux
2006–2011 Le Havre
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2011–2013 Le Havre B 27 (0)
2011–2013 Le Havre 0 (0)
2013–2017 Marseille B 9 (0)
2013–2017 Marseille 1 (0)
2015–2016 → Nancy B (loan) 2 (0)
2015–2016 → Nancy (loan) 2 (0)
2017–2018 Caen B 3 (0)
2017–2019 Caen 43 (0)
2019–2022 Nottingham Forest 125 (0)
2022– Lens 81 (0)
International career‡
2023– France 3 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 9 November 2024
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23 March 2024

Brice Lauriche Samba (born 25 April 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Ligue 1 club Lens and the France national team.

Club career

Le Havre

Samba joined Le Havre in 2006, working his way through their youth teams before appearing in the first-team in 2011.[3]

Marseille

Samba in action with Marseille in the 2013 Valais Cup

On 4 January 2013, Samba joined Marseille from Le Havre, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract. He made his professional debut for Marseille on 5 January 2014 in a Coupe de France game against Reims keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 home win.[4] On 9 July 2015, Samba joined Nancy on a season-long loan.[5]

Caen

Samba joined Caen on a four-year deal from Marseille on 30 June 2017.[6][7]

Nottingham Forest

On 7 August 2019, Samba joined EFL Championship side Nottingham Forest on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee.[8][9][10] He was initially brought in as a backup for on loan goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, but earned his place as Forest's number one after Muric made a number of costly mistakes.[11]

Samba made his debut for Forest on 13 August 2019 in a 1–0 EFL Cup victory over Fleetwood Town.[12] His league debut came on 24 August 2019 in a 2–1 win against Fulham.[citation needed] His impressive performances led him being named the Championship Fans' Player of the Month for November 2019.[13] On 8 September 2020, Samba was included in the PFA Championship Team of the Year for the 2019–20 season.[14]

In the 2022 Championship play-off semi-final, Samba saved three penalties to send Forest through to the final against Huddersfield Town.[15] He subsequently started in the 2022 EFL Championship play-off final before being substituted for Ethan Horvath in the 90th minute with a groin injury as Forest held on to a 1–0 lead to confirm their return to the Premier League for first time in 23 years.[16]

Lens

On 5 July 2022, it was announced that Samba had signed a five-year contract with Ligue 1 club Lens for an undisclosed fee.[17][18] In the first half of the 2022–23 Ligue 1 season, he had 9 clean sheets out of 19 games.[19] He ended the season with 15 clean sheets out of 38 league matches, the highest in the season and was awarded the Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year whilst being named in the UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year.[20][21] He conceded the least goals (29 goals) in the league helping Lens to place second with 84 points, one point behind league winners Paris Saint-Germain and secure a champions league spot for the first time in 20 years since 2002–03 season and the third time in the club's history.[22][23][24]

International career

Born in the Republic of the Congo, Samba holds both Congolese and French nationalities.[25]

In March 2023, he received his first call-up to the France senior national team for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying matches against the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.[26][27]

On 16 June 2023, he made his debut playing the whole game in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying match against Gibraltar.[28]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 9 November 2024[29]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup[a] League cup[b] Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Le Havre B 2010–11 CFA 1 0 — — — — 1 0
2011–12 CFA 17 0 — — — — 17 0
2012–13 CFA 9 0 — — — — 9 0
Total 27 0 — — — — 27 0
Le Havre 2012–13 Ligue 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 — — 1 0
Marseille B 2012–13 CFA 2 1 0 — — — — 1 0
2013–14 CFA 2 3 0 — — — — 3 0
2014–15 CFA 2 4 0 — — — — 4 0
2016–17 CFA 1 0 — — — — 1 0
Total 9 0 — — — — 9 0
Marseille 2012–13 Ligue 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — — 0 0
2013–14 Ligue 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 — — 2 0
2014–15 Ligue 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 — — 2 0
2015–16 Ligue 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — — 0 0
2016–17 Ligue 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — — 0 0
Total 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0
Nancy B (loan) 2015–16 CFA 2 2 0 — — — — 2 0
Nancy (loan) 2015–16 Ligue 2 2 0 1 0 2 0 — — 5 0
Caen B 2017–18 Championnat National 3 3 0 — — — — 3 0
Caen 2017–18 Ligue 1 4 0 4 0 2 0 — — 10 0
2018–19 Ligue 1 38 0 0 0 0 0 — — 38 0
2019–20 Ligue 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 — — 1 0
Total 43 0 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 49 0
Nottingham Forest 2019–20 Championship 40 0 0 0 2 0 — — 42 0
2020–21 Championship 45 0 0 0 1 0 — — 46 0
2021–22 Championship 40 0 2 0 1 0 — 3[c] 0 46 0
Total 125 0 2 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 134 0
Lens 2022–23 Ligue 1 37 0 0 0 — — — 37 0
2023–24 Ligue 1 33 0 1 0 — 8[d] 0 — 42 0
2024–25 Ligue 1 11 0 0 0 — 2[e] 0 — 13 0
Total 81 0 1 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 92 0
Career total 292 0 11 0 9 0 10 0 3 0 325 0
  1. ^ Includes Coupe de France, FA Cup
  2. ^ Includes Coupe de la Ligue, EFL Cup
  3. ^ Appearances in Championship play-offs
  4. ^ Six appearances in UEFA Champions League, two appearances in UEFA Europa League
  5. ^ Appearances in UEFA Conference League

International

As of match played 23 March 2024[30]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
France 2023 2 0
2024 1 0
Total 3 0

Honours

Nottingham Forest

Individual

References

  1. ^ "Club list of registered players: Nottingham Forest" (PDF). English Football League. p. 28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Brice Samba". RC Lens. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  3. ^ "Ligue 1 : Brice Samba (Caen) raconte les anecdotes et moments de sa carrière, "Quand tu es à Marseille, ta vie change"". France Football.
  4. ^ "Olympique Marseille vs. Reims - 5 January 2014 - Soccerway". Int.soccerway.com. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  5. ^ Phocéen, Le (9 July 2015). "Officiel : Brice Samba prêté à Nancy". Le Phocéen.
  6. ^ "Brice Samba, un nouveau gardien au SMC". Stade Malherbe Caen. 30 June 2017.
  7. ^ "Official | SM Caen pick up goalkeeper Brice Samba | Get French Football News". getfootballnewsfrance.com. 3 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Brice Samba rejoint Nottingham Forest". Stade Malherbe Caen. 7 August 2019.
  9. ^ "Samba signs". nottinghamforest.co.uk.
  10. ^ "Brice Samba: Nottingham Forest sign goalkeeper from French side Caen". BBC Sport. 7 August 2019.
  11. ^ Taylor, Paul. "Samba is showing fans that Forest were right to add yet another keeper to their books". The Athletic. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  12. ^ "Forest beat Fleetwood to reach round two". BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Samba clinches Player of the Month award". Nottingham Forest. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  14. ^ a b Professional Footballers' Association [@PFA] (8 September 2020). "A massive congratulations to these players, for earning a place in the 2020 PFA Championship Team of the Year. #TOTY #PFAawards https://t.co/1DEGUXATbG" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 8 September 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2022 – via Twitter.
  15. ^ "Nottingham Forest v Sheffield United". BBC Sport. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  16. ^ a b "Forest return to Premier League after 23-year wait". BBC Sport. 29 May 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  17. ^ "Samba departs for Lens". 5 July 2022.
  18. ^ rclens.fr. "Brice Samba, de l'explosivité dans les buts | RC Lens" (in French). Rclens.fr. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  19. ^ "L'équipe type de la première moitié de saison en Ligue 1 avec Messi, Neymar et Cabella". L'Équipe (in French). Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  20. ^ a b "Messi, Rongier, Danso... L'équipe type de la saison de Ligue 1". L'Équipe (in French). Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  21. ^ a b Zemour, Samuel (28 May 2023). "Trophées UNFP 2023 : Brice Samba élu meilleur gardien de la saison". Foot Mercato : Info Transferts Football - Actu Foot Transfert (in French). Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  22. ^ "RC Lens Secure UEFA Champions League Spot with Victory over Auxerre". beIN SPORTS USA. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  23. ^ Wills, S. (2 June 2023). "RC Lens look to join exclusive club". Ligue1 COM. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  24. ^ Scott, A. (4 June 2023). "Remarkable season takes Lens to promised land". Ligue1 COM. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  25. ^ "Brice SAMBA -". www.unfp.org. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  26. ^ "Thuram and Samba in France squad". Ligue 1. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  27. ^ "La liste des vingt-trois Bleus". FFF (in French). 16 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  28. ^ "Gibraltar - France, le résumé du match" [Gibraltar - France, match summary] (in French). L'Équipe. 16 June 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  29. ^ Brice Samba at Soccerway
  30. ^ "Brice Samba". EU-Football.info. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
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