Martin Hongla Yma II (born 16 March 1998) is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays for Italian club Hellas Verona as a central defender or a defensive midfielder.
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Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Martin Hongla Yma II[1] | |||||||||||||||
Date of birth | (1998-03-16) 16 March 1998 (age 24) | |||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Yaoundé, Cameroon | |||||||||||||||
Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | |||||||||||||||
Position(s) | Centre back, defensive midfielder | |||||||||||||||
Club information | ||||||||||||||||
Current team | Hellas Verona | |||||||||||||||
Number | 18 | |||||||||||||||
Youth career | ||||||||||||||||
Nkufo Academy | ||||||||||||||||
Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||
2016–2019 | Granada B | 35 | (1) | |||||||||||||
2017–2019 | Granada | 10 | (0) | |||||||||||||
2018 | → Barcelona B (loan) | 6 | (0) | |||||||||||||
2019 | → Karpaty Lviv (loan) | 13 | (2) | |||||||||||||
2019–2022 | Royal Antwerp | 43 | (3) | |||||||||||||
2021–2022 | → Hellas Verona (loan) | 18 | (1) | |||||||||||||
2022– | Hellas Verona | 0 | (0) | |||||||||||||
National team‡ | ||||||||||||||||
Cameroon U17 | ||||||||||||||||
Cameroon U20 | ||||||||||||||||
Cameroon U23 | ||||||||||||||||
2020– | Cameroon | 8 | (0) | |||||||||||||
Honours
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*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 21:07, 21 May 2022 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 8 October 2021 |
Born in Yaoundé, Hongla joined Granada CF in 2016, from Blaise Nkufo's Nkufo Sports Academy.[2] He was initially assigned to the reserves in Segunda División B.
Hongla made his senior debut on 21 August 2016, starting in a 1–1 home draw against Atlético Mancha Real.[3] He made his first team – and La Liga – debut on 28 January 2017, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 defeat at Villarreal CF.[4]
Ahead of the 2017–18 season, Hongla was definitely promoted to the main squad, now in Segunda División.[5] On 16 January 2018, he was loaned to fellow league team FC Barcelona B, for six months.[6]
On 3 July 2019, after a six-month loan to FC Karpaty Lviv, Hongla joined Royal Antwerp FC in the Belgian First Division A.[7]
On 9 July 2021, he joined Italian Serie A club Hellas Verona on loan with a conditional purchase obligation.[8]
Hongla played at the 2015 African U-17 Championship, 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification and the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations.[9]
He made his debut for Cameroon national team on 16 November 2020 in a Cup of Nations qualifier game against Mozambique, as a starter.[10]
Antwerp
Hellas Verona F.C. – current squad | |
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Cameroon squad – 2021 Africa Cup of Nations third place | ||
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