# Lomana LuaLua
**Lomana Trésor LuaLua** (born 1980 in Kinshasa, DR Congo) is a Congolese former footballer who played as a forward and winger, most notably for Newcastle United and [Portsmouth](https://www.edgepedia.org/portsmouth) in the Premier League and for Olympiacos in Greece.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) • [2](https://www.playerhistory.com/en/player/94-lomana-lualua) He won 31 caps and scored 7 goals for the DR Congo national team.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1980, Kinshasa, DR Congo[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) |
| Position | Left winger; also center forward, right winger, attacking midfielder, and left midfielder[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) |
| Premier League record | 146 appearances, 24 goals, 12 assists for Newcastle United and Portsmouth[3](https://www.premierleague.com/en/players/3234/tresor-lomana-lua-lua/stats) |
| Domestic league career | 292 matches, 54 goals, 25 assists, 17,145 minutes across 7 clubs[4](https://fbref.com/en/stathead/player_comparison.cgi?comp_type=by_type&dom_lg=1&player_id1=27bd6d81&player_id2=d70ce98e&player_id3=dea698d9&player_id4=1f44ac21&player_id5=bc7dc64d&player_id6=dc7f8a28&request=1&show_form=1&sum=0) |
| DR Congo | 31 FIFA matches, 7 goals[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) |
| Champions League | 1 goal in 15 appearances[5](https://www.statmuse.com/fc/player/lomana-lualua-3805) |
| Active years | Colchester United 1998 to Sanliurfaspor 2016, with later amateur appearances in 2019/20[2](https://www.playerhistory.com/en/player/94-lomana-lualua) • [1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) |
## Early career at Colchester United
LuaLua began in England with Colchester United, then a third-tier club, joining in 1998. His breakthrough season was 1999/2000, when he made 41 league appearances and scored 12 goals; he added 7 appearances and 2 goals in the first months of 2000/01 before moving on.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html)
## Newcastle United
Newcastle United signed him from [Colchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/colchester) in 2000, and the move initially looked like a coup for a talented young attacker.[6](https://www.nufc.com/html/lualua_colchester.html) His first season in the Premier League, 2000/01, brought 21 league appearances without a goal, mostly as a substitute.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) • [7](https://www.statbunker.com/players/GetHistoryStats?comps_id=-1&comps_type=EPL&player_id=2899)
His opportunity came through Newcastle's 2001/02 Intertoto Cup campaign, in which the team scored 15 times in 6 games and LuaLua scored twice: an acrobatic bicycle kick in a 4-0 win in Belgium against Lokeren, and a goal from a tight angle against 1860 Munich in front of a competition-record crowd of almost 37,000 at [St James' Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/st-james-park).[6](https://www.nufc.com/html/lualua_colchester.html) Manager Bobby Robson, who watched the reserve side regularly, also tried him as a winger after signing striker [Craig Bellamy](https://www.edgepedia.org/craig-bellamy), a role that suited his dribbling. LuaLua became known as a "super sub" rather than a regular starter.[6](https://www.nufc.com/html/lualua_colchester.html)
Across four seasons at Newcastle (2000/01 to 2003/04) he made 14 Premier League starts and 60 substitute appearances, scoring 5 goals, with 3 of those goals in 2001/02.[7](https://www.statbunker.com/players/GetHistoryStats?comps_id=-1&comps_type=EPL&player_id=2899)
## Portsmouth
LuaLua spent the last four months of the 2003/04 season on loan at Portsmouth from Newcastle, where the 23-year-old DR Congo international was, in a contemporary report, "a big hit with the fans". Portsmouth completed his permanent signing in July 2004 after he passed a medical.[8](https://uzo.sakura.ne.jp/burma/nlm/nlm_data/nlm_2004/nlm_07_2004/nlm_16_07_2004.pdf)
His most productive Premier League seasons came at Portsmouth: 6 goals in 2004/05 and 7 in 2005/06, when he made 24 starts and played 2,108 minutes.[7](https://www.statbunker.com/players/GetHistoryStats?comps_id=-1&comps_type=EPL&player_id=2899) In 2006/07, his final Portsmouth season, he scored 2 goals in 22 appearances (14 as a substitute) with 1 of 1 penalties scored, 48 completed dribbles at 52 percent, and no cards.[3](https://www.premierleague.com/en/players/3234/tresor-lomana-lua-lua/stats) He wore the number 32 shirt at the club.[5](https://www.statmuse.com/fc/player/lomana-lualua-3805)
His Premier League totals across both clubs were 76 starts, 112 substitute appearances, 7,566 minutes, 24 goals, 12 assists, 8 yellow cards, and 1 red card.[7](https://www.statbunker.com/players/GetHistoryStats?comps_id=-1&comps_type=EPL&player_id=2899)
## Later club career
After leaving Portsmouth in 2007, LuaLua moved through a series of clubs in Greece, Qatar, [Cyprus](https://www.edgepedia.org/cyprus), and Turkey: Olympiacos Piraeus (2007–2010, overlapping with a loan spell at Al-Arabi in Qatar in 2008–2010), Omonia Nicosia (2010–2011), [Blackpool](https://www.edgepedia.org/blackpool) (2011–2012), Kardemir Karabükspor (2012–2014), [Çaykur Rizespor](https://www.edgepedia.org/caykur-rizespor) (2014–2015), Akhisar Belediye (2015–2016), and Şanlıurfaspor (2016).[2](https://www.playerhistory.com/en/player/94-lomana-lualua) His most productive later season was 2012/13 at Karabükspor, with 11 goals in 30 league matches in the Turkish top division.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html)
His career in the top five European leagues and comparable domestic competitions ended with 54 goals and 25 assists in 292 matches, at a rate of 0.28 goals and 0.41 goals plus assists per 90 minutes.[4](https://fbref.com/en/stathead/player_comparison.cgi?comp_type=by_type&dom_lg=1&player_id1=27bd6d81&player_id2=d70ce98e&player_id3=dea698d9&player_id4=1f44ac21&player_id5=bc7dc64d&player_id6=dc7f8a28&request=1&show_form=1&sum=0) He also scored 1 goal in 15 Champions League appearances, mostly with Olympiacos.[5](https://www.statmuse.com/fc/player/lomana-lualua-3805) His playing career extended long after his mainstream league days: he appeared for clubs in [Northern Cyprus](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-cyprus) in 2017/18 and 2018/19 and made one appearance for Peterborough Sports in 2019/20.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html)
## International career
LuaLua represented DR Congo (the Léopards) from 2002 to 2013, earning 31 FIFA matches and scoring 7 goals.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) • [9](https://33legends.com/fr/legendes/cod-lomana-lualua) His international appearances included 2013 [Africa Cup of Nations](https://www.edgepedia.org/africa-cup-of-nations) group matches against Ghana, Niger, and Mali in January 2013, and World Cup 2010 qualifiers in 2008, in which he scored against Malawi and Togo.[1](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html) He served as captain of the national side during his career.[10](https://vsports.media/portrait-tresor-lomana-lualua-lexperience-du-haut-niveau-au-service-de-la-jeunesse-congolaise/) A French-language profile of DR Congo football ranks him 15th among 33 all-time legends of the national team.[9](https://33legends.com/fr/legendes/cod-lomana-lualua)
## After playing
In 2020, at age 39, LuaLua was appointed general manager of FC Renaissance du Congo, announced by the club's communications direction.[11](https://e-journal.info/w/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/E-JK0047.pdf) He later emerged as a candidate for the presidency of the Ligue nationale de football des jeunes (LINAFJ), the Congolese national youth football league, presenting himself as a former international determined to rebuild Congolese football from its base.[10](https://vsports.media/portrait-tresor-lomana-lualua-lexperience-du-haut-niveau-au-service-de-la-jeunesse-congolaise/)
## References
1. [Lomana Lua-Lua, National Football Teams](https://www.national-football-teams.com/player/1980/-.html)
2. [Lomana LuaLua, PlayerHistory](https://www.playerhistory.com/en/player/94-lomana-lualua)
3. [Tresor Lomana Lua Lua Stats, Premier League](https://www.premierleague.com/en/players/3234/tresor-lomana-lua-lua/stats)
4. [Player Comparison: Lomana LuaLua career, FBref](https://fbref.com/en/stathead/player_comparison.cgi?comp_type=by_type&dom_lg=1&player_id1=27bd6d81&player_id2=d70ce98e&player_id3=dea698d9&player_id4=1f44ac21&player_id5=bc7dc64d&player_id6=dc7f8a28&request=1&show_form=1&sum=0)
5. [Lomana Lualua, StatMuse](https://www.statmuse.com/fc/player/lomana-lualua-3805)
6. [Lomana Tresor LuaLua article, NUFC.com](https://www.nufc.com/html/lualua_colchester.html)
7. [Lomana LuaLua Premier League Record by competition, Statbunker](https://www.statbunker.com/players/GetHistoryStats?comps_id=-1&comps_type=EPL&player_id=2899)
8. [New Nation news report, 16 July 2004 (Portsmouth sign LuaLua)](https://uzo.sakura.ne.jp/burma/nlm/nlm_data/nlm_2004/nlm_07_2004/nlm_16_07_2004.pdf)
9. [Lomana LuaLua : légende de la RD Congo, 33legends](https://33legends.com/fr/legendes/cod-lomana-lualua)
10. [Portrait : Trésor Lomana LuaLua, vsports.media](https://vsports.media/portrait-tresor-lomana-lualua-lexperience-du-haut-niveau-au-service-de-la-jeunesse-congolaise/)
11. [E-Journal Kinshasa n°0046 — Prolongations](https://e-journal.info/w/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/E-JK0047.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Association football › Football people and teams › People › Men's footballers of Africa › Central African footballers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license