PAUL-JOSE M’POKU
“I just found a peace and a joy that I’d never had before”
-Photo Credit- Monusco Photos
Speaking on:
His experience of playing for DR Congo. . .
"Yes it’s been amazing you know, in the beginning I made the choice to play for Congo over Belgium and obviously I do not regret my choice. We have a generation with a lot of great players and a lot of talent that are playing in top leagues, for top clubs. We have the potential to do something but it’s all up to us and I am really thankful to be able to play for a big country like Congo. With the players that we have now, hopefully we are going to reach our goals, that we set together."
Playing internationally with top players like Yannick Bolasie . . .
“Yes I’ve known Yannick for a log time and played against him when I was in Plymouth, because we were both Congolese we spoke a bit. After that we didn’t really speak but in the national team we’ve been together and obviously Yannick is a great player. He is a great guy and he has shown his ability in the Premier League, so it is always a pleasure to play with him. He puts in some good balls and you see him do some crazy skills.”
Why faith is so important to him . . .
“So I grew up with my family taking me to church, so I grew up in a family that would speak about God, pray, but I never really had a relationship with him. I knew God, as a religious man, it was tradition because everyone said we had to pray before we went to sleep. But at the age of fifteen, I went to England and I had a cousin who was always with me, he was like a big brother. Suddenly he died and we don’t know what happened, but that really shocked me. I started to ask myself some questions about life after death and I was really, really down.
I was alone in England but then my best friend, John Bostock, who plays in Toulouse now, he became a Christian at that time and I saw him praying one time before eating. So I said, are you a Christian? He said yes and invited me to his church, and as soon as I went to the church, I don’t know what happened but after that day I was completely transformed. I just felt a peace and a joy that I had never had before and from then on, I decided to follow Jesus.
Why he needs God, even though he has a successful football career . . .
“The Bible says what is the point of gaining the world if you lose your soul, because money, women, cars, houses, all of these things will fade away one day. All of these things will go away, when you die you will not take all of these things with you. Everything will stay here. The one thing that will come with us, is our soul, our spirit. Where will our soul go when we die? That is the question, you will be asked ‘who did you come with?’ And if you do not say Jesus, it will be difficult for you to go to heaven.”
*Message our ‘Football Africa’ show via WhatsApp
SHOULD DR CONGO HOST THE 2019 AFCON?