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	82	(0)
International career‡
2023–	France	3	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23 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 23 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	12	0	0	0	—		2 [e]	0	—		14	0
	Total		82	0	1	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	93	0
Career total			293	0	11	0	9	0	10	0	3	0	326	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

• EFL Championship play-offs: 2022 ^[16]

Individual

• PFA Championship Fans Player of the Month: November 2019 ^[13]
• PFA Team of the Year: 2019–20 EFL Championship ^[14]
• Ligue 1 Goalkeeper of the Year: 2022–23 ^[21]
• UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year: 2022–23 ^[20]

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. "Samba clinches Player of the Month award". Nottingham Forest. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
14. 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. "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. "Messi, Rongier, Danso... L'équipe type de la saison de Ligue 1". L'Équipe (in French). Retrieved 29 May 2023.
21. 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.

External links

• Brice Samba at the French Football Federation (in French)
• Brice Samba – UEFA competition record ( archive )