Jérémie Bela

Lens

Bela progressed through Lens' junior teams, made his reserve-team debut – three minutes in the Championnat de France Amateur (CFA) – in November 2010, and was a regular in the CFA side in the 2011–12 season, with eight goals from 26 appearances. Ahead of the new campaign, he was part of an increasingly youthful reserve squad, many of whom were still eligible for the under-19s. Bela was involved with the first team in 2012–13 pre-season, and caught the eye of his captain, Jérôme Le Moigne: in an interview in August, Le Moigne picked him out as the Lens player most likely to enjoy a good career in the future, and said he reminded him of former team-mate Lossémy Karaboué. He received his first call-up to the matchday squad for, and then made his debut as a late substitute in, a Ligue 2 match at home to Niort on 5 October 2012 that Lens won 1–0. He made his first start a month later against Armentières in the Coupe de France and scored his debut first-team goal in the 6–0 win. Bela made his first league start on 11 January 2013 in a goalless draw at home to Avignon, and played with increasing regularity in the second half of the season. In mid-February, coach Éric Sikora remarked on how Bela had grasped the connection between training properly and being able to achieve one's aims: after struggling physically in the CFA, he could now string together a series of games at senior level. The player later confirmed that Sikora had spoken to him about maturity, that he…

While Bela was at the national training centre at Clairefontaine, he was called up to the French under-16 team for two matches against Wales U16 in September 2008. He played in both matches and scored in the first, a 4–2 win. As well as his native France, Bela qualifies by descent to play for Angola or the DR Congo. In March 2017, he was long-listed by Florent Ibenge, manager of the DR Congo national team, for a friendly against Kenya, but was not in the final squad. He was included in Angola coach Srdjan Vasiljevic's provisional squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, but did not accept the invitation. Although he considered himself Angolan and was "proud and grateful" to be selected, he felt his priorities had to lie with Albacete's promotion play-off campaign. He was again called up by Angola in September 2020, and played on 13 October as a substitute in an unofficial friendly match against Mozambique. Having finally received confirmation of his Angolan citizenship, he made his official debut on 12 November 2021, in the starting eleven for a 2022 World Cup qualifier against Egypt that ended as a 2–2 draw. He was named in Angola's squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (held in early 2024), and made three substitute appearances: one in the group stages, one in the round of 16, and – despite leaving the camp to be present at the birth of his son – one in the quarter-final, in which Angola lost 1–0 to Nigeria.

As of match played 14 March 2025

Bela was born in Melun, in the Seine-et-Marne department of France. His mother is Angolan and his father is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He acquired French nationality in July 2002 as a consequence of his mother's naturalisation. He played football at AS Herblay from age six to eight and, after a two-year break, joined Ville d'Évry where he spent four years. In the 2007–08 season, he played for Viry-Châtillon in the Championnat fédéral des 14 ans. In 2006, Bela was accepted onto the three-year programme at the Clairefontaine training centre, during which he was capped by France at under-16 level. In late 2008, he told the French Football Federation website that he expected to join Ligue 2 club Lens when he left Clairefontaine, having been scouted by Marc Westerloppe.