Former Standard defender Eliaquim Mangala has found a new club. The 32-year-old Frenchman, who has been without a club for a year, signed a contract with Estoril Praia, which plays in the Portuguese First Division, on Monday.
Mangala, who also holds Belgian nationality, is a young product of UR Namur and Standard. At the latter club, he joined the first team in 2008. In 2009, he helped Liège win the national title and the Super Cup as well as the Cup in 2011. In the same year, Mangala joined Porto.
In 2014, Manchester City picked him up for €45 million, but he never managed to establish himself in the Premier League. In the 2016-2017 season, he was loaned to Valencia, then after a season to Everton, where he rarely played. After arriving as a free agent in 2019 at Valencia, he found himself without a club in the summer of 2021. In January 2022, he wore the shirt of Saint-Etienne in France for half a season before once again being without a contract and without a club.
Mangala was an eight-time international. In 2016, he became the European runner-up with France, but he was not part of the team that won the world title in Russia in 2018.
