The Kitchen Champion Division has been a breeding ground for domestic and foreign talents for decades and this season again many football players with potential are walking around at the second level. Football zone, as the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week. This time attention is paid to Christopher Mamengi, who played together with various top talents in the youth teams of the Dutch and who is determined to keep his promise at Jong FC Utrecht after a serious knee injury.
By Jordi Tomasowa
“Christopher Mamengi is a player who has shown to be distinctive in his age group. He is talented, plays in national youth teams and has the potential to develop into an added value for FC Utrecht.” These words of praise came 5.5 years ago from Erik ten Hag, then technical manager and head coach at FC Utrecht. “I have read those statements by Ten Hag,” says Mamengi, when he is presented with them. “These are of course very nice compliments. Ten Hag was also the trainer of the first team. When he says such nice words about you, you know you’re on a roll.”
Mamengi has been playing in the youth academy of FC Utrecht since 2014.
The defensive talent started in the youth of CJVV in Amersfoort and then moved to Roda’46 from Leusden. In 2014 he switched to the youth academy of FC Utrecht, where he grew into a youth international. In 2018, Mamengi can join the the Dutch Under 17 team at the European Championship in England. “That was something very beautiful, says the now 21-year-old defender enthusiastically. “You are one of the best footballers in your age group at that time. 23 boys are selected, so that you can sit with them and play matches… It was a wonderful experience to be away for eight, nine days and to train and play with the greatest talents. I could also learn from them, because I played together with guys who played at top clubs.”
Mamengi played at the European Under 17 Championship together with the Timber brothers, Ryan Gravenberch and Brian Brobbey, among others. “They were already good players at the time. You could already see that they could achieve what they finally achieved. Of course I look at it with pride. I also get motivation from it. I shared a dressing room with those guys. If they can do it, why shouldn’t I be able to do it too? It is possible if you work hard enough for it and show it when you have to be there. I have that in my head.” The Dutch Under 17 eventually reached the final and Mamengi played in five of the six matches.
After this European Championship, things went quickly for the defender born in Amersfoort. “I was allowed to train with the first team and was stuck with the selection of Jong FC Utrecht, when I was seventeen. I occasionally sat on the bench at Eredivisie matches and made my minutes in the U21 team. I could already smell the first team carefully. You sympathize with those guys all week. Although I did not fill in, it was certainly a nice experience to experience that already.” Mamengi can also remember his debut in professional football on behalf of Young FC Utrecht. In October 2018, he was given a base place by former trainer Robin Pronk in the 1-6 lost home match against FC Twente. “Unfortunately we lost, but it was a good moment. I played my first game in professional football in the Galgenwaard. I was especially happy with my debut. I faced Tom Boere, a player with a lot of experience. It is nice that I could immediately measure myself with him.”
With Oranje Under 17, Mamengi played together with the greatest talents in the Netherlands.
While things went crescendo with Mamengi in the first years at FC Utrecht, in 2021 he had to deal with the first serious setbacks. For example, he missed almost the entire previous season due to a serious knee injury. “I participated in the entire preparation for the A-selection. Then I had to play a match with Jong FC Utrecht at the beginning of August, away against Almere City. I would play for 45 minutes and sit on the bench with the first team the following Sunday.” Around the fortieth minute, however, things went wrong for Mamengi. “I wanted to open the ball with my right leg to the other side, but the ball was blocked. I was already moving to kick that ball. My knee got hot and hurt a lot. I lay on the floor and didn’t know what hit me. However, it went away pretty quickly and I thought: it’s almost rest and then I’ll see how serious it is.”
“A few minutes later I wanted to anticipate a ball by going low through my knees and then my knee went down,” continues Mamengi. “Then I knew that I could not finish the game in any case. It hurt in the locker room, but not too bad. I was told it wouldn’t be too bad and I had that feeling myself. The next day I came to physios of the first team. They told me that there was a good chance that I had torn my anterior cruciate ligament. The following Monday I had an MRI scan and got the confirmation.”
Mamengi calls the knee injury ‘a major setback’. “I had just come back from a stress fracture in my ankle, so the 2020/21 season was already over for me at the end of January. I got fit in the summer of 2021 and joined the A-selection again. I was like: this is my chance and I have to grab it. It was a pity, of course, that I tore off my anterior cruciate ligament.” Mamengi says he was able to quickly turn the switch. “I had to wait five weeks for the operation. At that time I had put myself over it. The evening after the operation I thought for a moment: what if I hadn’t kicked that ball, etcetera. If at some point you get to that phase where you can lift weights, squat and cycle a bit, you start looking forward again, at least I had that.” After eleven months of rehabilitation, Mamengi made his comeback this summer in an exhibition game with Go Ahead Eagles. “That was a very special and beautiful moment, I really had goosebumps.”
Under Darije Kalezic, Mamengi can count on a permanent starting place this season. The results are only disappointing so far. With nine points from fifteen matches, Jong FC Utrecht enters the World Cup break as the last of the Kitchen Champion Division. “We play good matches, but the results are not always there. If you lose very often, it does something to you. We play to develop ourselves, but also to win matches. We are looking for solutions and now it is important to let the results fall our way. We play nice football, we just don’t finish the chances we create, while we give away goals too easily.”
Last Monday Jong FC Utrecht recorded a surprising 3-0 win over MVV with Mamengi in the starting line-up.
With 71 matches to his name for Jong FC Utrecht, Mamengi is the most experienced player in the reserves team. The defender is not one to run away from his responsibilities. “I try to be present both at training and in the matches we play. We must help each other. This season we really have a young selection. Then I try to transfer what I experienced in the years before, both in the first team and at Jong FC Utrecht, to the boys.” Mamengi describes himself as a defender with a good play-in pass and someone who is strong in duels. In the past, he enjoyed watching Samuel Umtiti, who currently plays for Lecce. “He was always my idol. Umtiti has left his mark on European football. We are about the same height, he can be tough in the duels and also play football well. I tried to learn a lot from him when he played at Barcelona. Unfortunately, he also suffered from injuries.”
With the experience gained in the Kitchen Champion Division, Mamengi is ready for the next step. Still, the defender remains realistic. “If you think logically: I haven’t played for a year and it’s safe here at FC Utrecht, I know the people at the club. I’m fit now, that’s the most important thing for me. I came back from a long injury this season, so it’s important that I get rhythm, keep playing and keep increasing the content. If I want to make a step, I have to be in good shape and have game minutes in my legs.”
In the remainder of this season, Mamengi wants to convert the good game of Jong FC Utrecht into results more often. “There have been enough games where we played good football and performed our tasks, but the results were not always good. My personal goal is to keep fit. I also want to play good matches so that I can showcase myself. Both for FC Utrecht and possibly for another club, because I am of course in my last year of contract. With good performances I can help the team to keep a clean sheet more often, like last Monday against MVV.”
Passport
Name: Christopher Mamengi
Club: Young FC Utrecht
Age: 21
Position: Defender
Length: 182cm
Number of matches: 71
Strengths: physical, duels, passing
Football zone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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